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Running back might be the lowest priority problem for the Philadelphia Eagles right now. They have an emerging star in Miles Sanders that they refuse to feed, plus the team just added veteran bruiser Jordan Howard. But don’t tell that to one of their former Super Bowl heroes who believes the Eagles are still paying the price for letting him walk.
LeGarrette Blount only spent one season in Philly but he was arguably the missing link to the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy. The man known as “The Train” rushed for 766 yards and two touchdowns during his lone year in midnight green.
He added 130 rushing yards and three scores in three playoff games in 2017 while going off for 90 yards in Super Bowl LII. Blount was like an ATM in short-yardage situations, something that has been hard for the Eagles to replace in the three years since he left via free agency.
“To this day, I don’t think the Eagles have been able to replace me,” Blount told Pat McAfee, “and to this day, I don’t think the Patriots have been able to replace me.”
The three-time champion won back-to-back Super Bowl rings in 2016 and 2017. He won his first title in 2014 as a member of the New England Patriots. He played four seasons there, racking up 2,917 rushing yards and leading the NFL in rushing touchdowns (18) in 2016. Blount, who called the Eagles’ win his favorite Super Bowl, doesn’t think running backs get enough respect in general.
“I feel like you should get your pay, you should get your check,” Blount said. “I feel that the team should put that respect behind you and put that trust and belief in you like, ‘Hey we got your back.’ I think a lot of teams don’t do that. I think if you got a nice running back, they think that in the next couple of years there might be another nice running back like you or another nice running back like you.”
Blount remains unofficially retired after flirting with several teams last year, including the Las Vegas Raiders. The 33-year-old has accumulated 6,306 yards on the ground and 56 touchdowns for his career.
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Eagles Not Running the Football Enough
Sanders has the potential to be a dominating running back in the NFL. The second-year player out of Penn State ranks fourth in the NFL in yards-per-carry (5.6) yet 28th in rushing attempts (108). In Week 12, Sanders touched the rock five times in the first half and then saw just one more carry for the game. He finished with 15 yards on six totes.
Head coach Doug Pederson blamed it on the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive front. They were stuffing the box and forcing the Eagles to throw the ball against the league’s worst secondary.
I just think they got after us a little bit in the run game and got on some edges,” Pederson told reporters. “We missed their safety a couple of times. And we had to make some adjustments. But we knew probably going into this game that we were at least going to have to put the ball in the air to give ourselves a chance. It’s a good rush defense and it’s a good front, and they did a nice job.”
Blount Played with ‘Chip on Shoulder’
Back to Blount. He described that 2017 Super Bowl run in Philly as bittersweet, but a bit “more sweet than bitter.” He was still mad at the Patriots for letting him go so the fact he got to beat them for his third Lombardi Trophy, well, that was the icing on the cake. He was hoping to gash them for 100 yards and almost did after gaining 90.
“I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder my entire career,” Blount said in November, via NBC Sports Philadelphia, “but I went over to Philly and I played against [the Patriots], I had a good game, I scored a touchdown, and I’m telling [Patriots] dudes, ‘Hey man, let me get 100 yards!’ So that was by far – well not by far, but it was definitely my favorite.”
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