Rashaad Penny, D'Andre Swift bring new look, and versatility, to Eagles' backfield

Ground Zero in the continuing devaluing of NFL running backs sure does look to be in Philadelphia. That's where the Eagles had one of the most dangerous rushing attacks in the league last season before they let their top running back walk away in free agency and barely spent anything to replace him.

Just don't try telling the Eagles that they don't value the position or their new running backs, Rashaad Penny and D'Andre Swift. They seem to have big plans for them this season. And not just as runners. They want to use them as receivers, too.

"To see this many route trees for a running back is honestly kind of cool," Penny said earlier in camp. "I never got to experience something like this, for us to be in empty (backfields) a lot, to showcase our ability to catch the ball, being like a receiver. 

"A running back can do a lot. Everyone knows our value on the team."

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That value could start to skyrocket if the Eagles really do add that dimension to their offense this season, because it certainly wasn't a big part of their third-ranked offense last year. Former Eagles running back Miles Sanders was impressive rushing for 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2022, but he only caught 20 passes for just 78 yards.

In fact, Eagles running backs were only the target on 61 of the 536 passes their quarterbacks threw last year — a paltry 11.4 percent.

Some of that is because of the obvious: The Eagles' passing game has enough weapons with receivers A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert. They didn't need any more help. But catching passes also wasn't high on Sanders' list of skills, and as Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said, "It's foolish for us to do something that our guys can't do."

Based on the first two weeks of training camp, it seems like they're much more comfortable with what Swift and Penny can do in the passing game. And that could be a huge addition for an offense that's already one of the best in the league.

"You have these different boxes that you want to be able to check of plays that you know or schemes that you know are important to attack a defense," Sirianni said. "Those can be supplemented in a lot of different ways as far as the way your backs get touches. But you're harder to defend when you have a lot of guys in different positions that can do it, so you can be in these different personnel groups and still running similar plays for your quarterback."

They believe they found that diversity by sending a fourth-round pick to Detroit in a trade for the 5-foot-9, 215-pound Swift and signing the 5-foot-11, 230-pound Penny to a one-year, $1.35 million contract. Swift actually came with a strong resume as a receiver, with 156 catches for 1,198 yards in his three seasons in Detroit, which was one of the big reasons why the Eagles pursued him when the Lions started shopping him around.

"I think that's the best way to explain him — that he is a playmaker," Sirianni said. "You see it in practice that he can create mismatches that when you get him the football, he can catch the football and make plays with it.

"I think what we've really seen is you're going to be able to move him around multiple spots because of his ability not only with his athletic ability, his quickness in and out of breaks and his speed, but also the way he catches the football. It looks like a wide receiver catching the football out there."

Penny thinks he can be that too, though he was hardly ever used that way by the Seahawks. Still, it didn't take long for the Eagles to see that was a skill he definitely had.

"It's something that he wasn't asked to do a whole lot in Seattle, so you don't see a whole lot of tape on it," said Eagles running backs coach Jemal Singleton. "But you can get a pretty quick feel of how a guys hands are when you're working through drills. He's got hands enough to catch the ball out of the backfield."

What that makes them both is weapons, which is what NFL teams are looking for in running backs nowadays. The Eagles in particular don't feel they need the old-school, traditional running back that simply rushes 25 times per game, especially with a quarterback like Hurts who ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. It's possible they won't have a running back get anywhere near 1,000 yards this season, even though Swift insisted "It definitely can be. The amount of opportunities is endless for every guy in the room."

In an offense that even Sirianni admitted will still be dominated by Hurts and his three main targets, it remains to be seen how many opportunities there really will be for the backs through the air. It's also not quite clear yet exactly how — and how often — each of them will be used. Sirianni said "We're still learning some of the new guys and what they've done," and when the preseason games start — beginning Saturday night in Baltimore — they'll start to learn even more.

What they know so far is they like what they say. Swift is a powerful runner who can do a lot of different things out of the backfield. The Eagles saw that first-hand when he totaled 175 yards (144 rushing) against them in the season opener last year. And Penny has looked strong and healthy, coming off the broken leg he suffered last October. He's also lost about seven pounds — dropping his weight to 230 on his way to what he hopes will be his college weight of 225 — which has him feeling better than he has in years.

"(I'm) just moving better," Penny said. "Just cutting off a couple of pounds from last year I just feel lighter. My ankles feel great and my knees feel amazing."

The Eagles hope that translates to some durability, and makes him resemble the dominant player he once seemed to be — like when he ran for 671 yards and six touchdowns over the final five games of 2021.

"We want to see him succeed and we felt like his weight might be a part of that," Singleton said. "He's feeling better. He tells me that all the time ‘I feel better coach. I'm not used to feeling better.' Hopefully, it ends up being results on the field."

If it does, the possibilities do seem endless for the Eagles' backs, and could create a nice problem for Sirianni and Brian Johnson, his new offensive coordinator. Swift and Penny could be used interchangeably in a variety of ways — either out of the backfield or lined up wide. They could ride the hot hand, play them situationally or use them as a committee. And the Eagles could still mix in other backs like Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott, too.

"It can look any way," Sirianni said. "You're just looking for different things that they can do. You want to be like, ‘All right, who can do this job well, and who can do this job well, and who can do this job well?' Sometimes it's the same person throughout, and sometimes it's by committee.

"But, again, it can look any way we need it to look."

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.