July 27, 2016
Training camp hasn't even begun yet for Philadelphia Eagles veterans, and according to the Eagles' team Twitter account, oft-injured RB Ryan Mathews is already hurt.
#Eagles sign WR David Watford. RB Ryan Mathews placed on Active/Non-Football Injury List. He suffered an ankle injury training last week.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) July 27, 2016
I like how the Eagles tried to bury the lede there.
When Ryan Mathews got playing time last season, he was very good. He carried the ball 106 times for 539 yards (5.1 YPC) and 6 TDs, which made him the most productive runner on the team. Throughout his career, Mathews has been a good player, as long as he could stay healthy, which is almost never.
Mathews has only played all 16 games once in his career. When he wasn't missing games, he was often playing with some kind of injury. From 2010-2015, Mathews appeared on the injury report a staggering 53 times.
Mathews' injury leaves the Eagles very thin in the backfield. Darren Sproles has the most experience, but he is more "offensive weapon" than traditional running back.
Beyond Sproles, Wendell Smallwood was a fifth-round selection of the Eagles in the 2016 NFL Draft, and a player Doug Pederson seems to really like. In OTAs and minicamp, Smallwood showed an ability to be a weapon as a receiver out of the backfield, which feels like a prerequisite in Pederson's scheme.
The area where Smallwood needs the most work is in pass protection, a deficiency of his that we showed in greater detail back in May. Pederson echoed that sentiment today.
"Excellent route runner, good hands, patient runner, and I love the fact that he's kind of a one-cut, no-nonsense type guy," said Pederson, speaking about Smallwood. "He's a downhill guy but fast enough to separate and create some long runs. So I'm excited, again, once we start getting into pads, protection, how well can he protect? A lot of backs in college that come to this level, that's something that they've got to learn extremely fast."
Duce Staley will have the task of coaching Smallwood up in pass protection before the Eagles can trust him to play in regular season games.
Kenjon Barner, Byron Marshall and Cedric O'Neal are all also in the mix in the Eagles backfield. To be determined if the Eagles try to add another back after teams around the league begin making cuts to their rosters.
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