The Eagles traded virtually nothing for Jordan Howard last night around 8:22 p.m., when the Sixers were in the middle of trashing the Nets and the Phillies were fresh off a 10-4 season opening win that featured a Rhys Hoskins grand slam.
It’s not often the Birds fly under the radar, but that was the case with the Howard trade, which took a back seat on a busy sports day.
Let’s dig deeper on the 24-year-old ball carrier.
We know he’s a no-nonsense 1st and 2nd down back, a downhill guy who has the third most rushing yards in the NFL since 2016 (behind Todd Gurley and Zeke Elliott). He’s not a pass catcher and he’s not a third down back, and while the Eagles love to throw the ball, they had a lot of success in 2017 when they committed to the run game and used both Jay Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount the way they were intended to be used.
Some more things to know about Howard:
4.43 yards per carry and 12 touchdowns in December at 77.6 yards per game. He certainly does not run out of steam as the season progresses. He’s run the ball more in December than any other month.
More after the jump:
That’s surprising to me, that 5.2 yards per attempt from the shotgun. You see he was featured much more from under center sets, but that’s a really nice shotgun YPA number and will work nicely in Doug’s offense.
I think of Howard as more of a between-the-tackles and short yardage kind of runner, but when you look through his charts, there are some certainly some instances of off-tackle running where he was able to pick up yards outside of the hash marks. This was his week one carry chart via NFL Next Gen Stats:
There’s a lot to like, on paper and on film.
I was sitting here when the trade went down, thinking to myself, “hmm.. does Chicago know something that we don’t?” But they’ve got a second-year coach in Matt Nagy who probably just feels good with what that team has in Tarik Cohen and Mike Davis, which made Howard expendable.
The real issue is making sure Doug Pederson commits to the run game this year. I can imagine sports radio when Howard runs 10 times for 33 yards while Carson Wentz throws the ball 47 times in a loss. Woof. Doug has a million weapons to use in what is now a balanced offensive unit, so it’s on him and Mike Groh to get this thing rolling.
Happy Friday.