Eagles

Nick Sirianni Says Kenneth Gainwell is RB2 “Because of his Body of Work”

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 2nd, 2023 · 10:51 AM EDT

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Nick Sirianni was asked again on Wednesday about the Kenneth Gainwell topic:

Q.I understand you were asked about RB Kenny Gainwell in the red zone. Could you explain the decision to have him as your number two versus RB Boston Scott and RB Rashaad Penny?(Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he’s the number two — I think I was asked about this, too, and I said there’s things you don’t see that were obviously in practice. He’s our number two because we believe it right now. He’s the second best running back on our team.

That’s based off games. That’s based off past games. That’s based off practice. That’s based off the whole body of work, not just — and obviously I understand where that question is coming from, but I didn’t get this question last week when he ran over two guys in the Miami game and got into the end zone because we were all singing his praises. And also, the same thing in the playoffs last year when he gave us some very valuable carries.

But I understand that’s your guys’ job. But if I were to just say, ‘okay, Kenny fumbled the ball in the red zone, that’s it, he’s going to number three,’ then that wouldn’t be consistent of what we do with anything.

And if Jalen throws an interception, he doesn’t come out. And if Brian or myself call a call that results in a turnover, I don’t turn the play-call duties over to Kevin (Patullo).

This happens over and over. There are mistakes that happen. If A.J. drops the ball, we don’t say to him — I don’t know if he’s dropped one in a couple weeks — but we don’t say to him, ‘we ain’t throwing it to him anymore.’ That’s the same philosophy here. Kenny is our number two back because of his body of work.

With all due respect to Nick Sirianni, what “body of work” is he talking about? Gainwell is in his third NFL season. His first two seasons he logged 531 rushing yards on 121 carries. He has nine rushing touchdowns. He’s also caught 56 passes for 422 yards and a score. Those are per-rush and per-catch averages of 4.0 and 7.5. Decent rates, but not Earth-shattering.

This year, his numbers are down across the board. 153 rushing yards on 51 attempts is a 3.0 average. 73 yards on 14 catches is 7.3 on average. He’s found the end zone once, on the Miami run that Sirianni keeps bringing up.

Numbers wise, he hasn’t been definitively better than Boston Scott, nor has he done anything to take carries from D’Andre Swift. Throw in the whole Rashaad Penny mystery saga and it makes things even more of a head scratcher. As a reminder, Swift touched the ball once in New England and Gainwell got 14 carries. They may not have even stumbled upon Swift being RB1 if Gainwell hadn’t missed Week 2 with the rib injury.

Dunno. In Sirianni we trust, but the Gainwell thing is very weird.

“I just don’t think they [Eagles] know what a good running back looks like.” – @jjansen34 pic.twitter.com/4EZJlZ06t0

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) November 2, 2023