Talk about a contract year.

Miles Sanders, who scored 0 touchdowns last season as part of the Eagles’ four-headed monster, is quietly on pace to have his best NFL season yet. Through four games, he’s got 356 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, which extrapolates to 1,513 yards and just under 13 scores over a 17-game season. Obviously we’re a long way out, and the sample size is relatively small, but he’s currently enjoying a fantastic early-season stretch.

Going through the data at Sport Radar, Sanders is currently ranking in the top five and top eight in most rushing categories:

  • 11 carries of 10+ yards (tied for 4th)
  • 3 carries of 20+ yards (tied for 3rd)
  • 89 rush yards per game (3rd)
  • 356 total rushing yards (3rd)
  • 72 rushing attempts (6th)
  • 3 rushing touchdowns (tied for 4th)
  • 199 rush yards before contact (6th, a good RB + offensive line stat here)
  • 157 rush yards after contact (7th)
  • 10 red zone rushing attempts (tied for 11th)
  • 18 rushing first downs (tied for 3rd)

So on and so forth. The only thing that’s noticeably down from last year is that 5.5 yards per attempt number, which honestly felt unsustainable. This year he’s sitting at 4.9 YPA, which is still fantastic, but it’s actually a drop off from 2021 and 2020, when the number was above five.


The macro-level question has always been something like this:

“Is Miles Sanders a lead back?” 

We’ve asked it before and come to the conclusion that he was a Tier 2 NFL ball carrier, hovering just outside the top 10. Nobody in prior years was putting him on the same level as Derrick Henry, Nick Chubb, or Jonathan Taylor, but when you go through the numbers this year and look at his usage, he quite easily fits into that bracket. It really helps that the Birds are going more to him as a RB1 and giving him more touches, because in prior years he was putting up big YPC numbers despite seeing the ball rather infrequently for a “lead back.”

Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen touched on this Tuesday when asked if he thinks Sanders is doing anything differently in 2022:

“No, I think he’s continuing to do what he does. He had a heck of a game (against Jacksonville). I think he averaged five yards a pop, and then the biggest thing was – the most thing I was pleased with with him and the rest of the offense was the ball security. The ball security in that game was at a premium. I know we had the one interception, but besides that did not have any fumbles in that situation, in that game with that weather. That’s a testament to the guys understanding how ball security is that important. We talk about it more than anyplace I’ve ever talked about it here. It is all day, every day. It’s all about the ball.”

Sanders hasn’t fumbled the ball once this season. He coughed it up seven times total over his first three NFL years, but no issues in 2022 through four games.

And you have to keep in mind that Jalen Hurts being a goal line threat is going to affect Sanders’ Red Zone numbers. Sanders has a strong RZ rushing attempt number, but Hurts is actually tied for first in the league with Joe Mixon at 16 attempts, so it’s something to consider when thinking about total touchdowns and chances to find the end zone. Sanders is doing all of this in 2022 while playing with a dual-threat QB in a read-heavy offense.