Philadelphia Eagles running back D’Andre Swift is just 12 yards away from his first 1,000-yard rushing season. But is that something worth celebrating or criticizing?
The Eagles are back in the win column after a three-game losing streak that has made many call them Super Bowl pretenders. However, this most recent win reinforced something that Fantasy Football managers have known all season: if the Eagles feed Swift, they win.
Against the New York Giants, Swift rushed 20 times for 92 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and a touchdown. The past two seasons have proven that the Eagles win whenever the team's top running back gets more than 75 rushing yards.
Since 2022, Philadelphia has gone 13-0 when its top running back has at least 75 rushing yards; the concerning thing is that Swift has only done that five times this season.
Last year, the Eagles' backfield was led by Pro Bowler Miles Sanders, who averaged 74.6 rushing yards per game. This season, Swift has averaged 65.9 yards per game, partly because he averages fewer touches per game than Sanders despite also averaging over 4.5 yards per carry like he did a season ago.
Swift is arguably a more talented running back than Sanders. Unfortunately, the 5-9 back has dealt with durability issues throughout his career, which may have caused Philly to take it easy with Swift during his first regular season with the franchise.
With two games remaining on the Eagles schedule, Swift has already played in more games this season than he did in any season with the Detroit Lions and started six more games than his previous career high of eight.
It’s good that Swift is healthy as the team nears the playoffs, but for Philly to make a Super Bowl run, they’ll need to get more production out of him on a consistent basis.
The Eagles are better when Swift plays like he did earlier this season in Weeks 2-3 when he averaged 22 carries per game and 152.5 rushing yards rather than the 11.7 carries he averaged during the team’s losing streak.
Seeing Swift get 20 carries against the Giants is an encouraging sign for his future rushing workload, considering that based on his current yards per carry, he’ll need to average 17 in order to consistently hit the magical 75 yards per game that this Philadelphia offense thrives on.
Tush pushing is cool, but if the Eagles want to win a Super Bowl this season, the team needs to feed its top running back and get closer to the 147.6 rushing yards per game it averaged in 2022 rather than the 131.1 yards it has averaged this season.
Keep it simple: feed Swift down the stretch because as nice as crossing 1,000 yards rushing will be for him this regular season, the bigger accomplishment is that he’s healthy enough to be fed more in the playoffs and help Philly avenge its Super Bowl loss from last season.
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