Imagine breaking your arm and tearing your ACL on the same play, then walking off the field under your own power.

That might be it for Darren Sproles’ career, and if it is, what a way to go out.

The Birds’ most shifty weapon is done for this year at least, but the silver lining is that his running back peers found success on Sunday in a variety of ways.

Mind you, this was one week after LeGarrette Blount and Wendell Smallwood barely touched the rock while the Eagles chucked it 75% of the time in a seven-point road loss. This time around, Doug Pederson committed to the run game, even after Sproles went down. Blount, Smallwood, and undrafted rookie Corey Clement handled the ball 30 times.

One thing Sproles is built for is that sweep play, using his small size and quick feet to dart through holes and quickly cut upfield. Blount can’t do that, but Smallwood might be able to, judging by a couple of looks we saw Sunday.

This was one of them:

A pair of nice blocks there by Brandon Brooks, who shoves one guy backward then finds someone else to clobber. It’s a three yard gain on 2nd and 1.

When Blount is used out of the shotgun in that east/west fashion, he rarely gets going.

Case in point:

One of the positive things about Sunday was that the Birds didn’t do a whole lot of that. They mostly committed to running Blount downhill with Carson Wentz under center.

I’ve showed you that off-tackle run behind the bunch formation, which was used in Week 1 and Week 3 with success.

Another simple way to do it is to just add blockers at the line and let Blount run it straightforward in a single set. You don’t need a lead blocker; just put a bunch of bodies up front and let ’em push the pile.

On the first touchdown drive, the Eagles brought in all three tight ends and dared the Giants to win a physical battle at the line of scrimmage. This was eight blockers versus 10 defenders, with a receiver and a cornerback off screen:

Blount took it down to the one-inch line.

There’s no fullback on the roster, right? Who cares? You don’t need to run I-formation with a lead blocker when you’re finding success in single set looks.

Blount is fifth in the NFL in the TLOS category (time behind line of scrimmage). He spents an average of 2.52 seconds behind the line and hits the hole quickly. Smallwood’s number is 2.93 and Sproles comes in at 3.1. That’s because those guys are a little smaller, a little more patient, and they’re used in east/west scenarios more often than Blount.

Tarik Cohen, for reference, spends 3.7 seconds behind the line of scrimmage, but averages 6.5 yards per carry. Nobody pushes the gap faster than James White, who leads the NFL with a 2.28 TLOS number.

But if the Eagles are going to mix up their looks and commit to running from the shotgun, then Smallwood is the guy to do it.

In addition to those Sproles-style sweeps, the Eagles have successfully run some draw plays, showing different blocking schemes with Smallwood taking it up the gut.

Here’s an example:

Zach Ertz is an extra blocker lined up alongside Jason Peters. The hitch before the hand-off allows Brooks to pull, and he makes a really nice pickup while Peters comes off his first assignment to find another body at the next level. Smallwood bursts through the gap for about 13 yards.

Smallwood ran out of a lot of shotgun and pistol looks in college, so this is his territory.

West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen was fond of this design, which is a pistol variation with a makeshift fullback (I think he was a converted tight end) functioning as a lead blocker or decoy:

That’s a modern college take on the old offset Power I-formation.  The fullback would either lead for Smallwood or split off to the opposite side, providing pseudo-wishbone and read-option types of looks. You can do a lot of different things from this set.

The Eagles won’t be running it, but it’s a good of example of what Wendell Smallwood has experience with.

As for Corey Clement, he ran much more out of pro-style under-center formations at Wisconsin. This wasn’t the space and pace Big 12, it was about running downhill behind a bunch of beefy Big 10 linemen.

He’s probably somewhere between Blount and Smallwood at this point, with the size to run downhill but the speed to kick it outside as well, which we saw on his touchdown run the other day. This was an under-center stretch play featuring one quick cut and a good burst of speed:

It all looks good on paper.

Blount is your downhill power runner.

Smallwood can deputize for Sproles in the east/west shotgun game.

And Clement’s skill set falls somewhere in between.

They can do some great things on the ground, assuming Doug Pederson commits to the run.