Is it time to panic about the Eagles’ running back situation?

Running backs. The Philadelphia Eagles don’t have much going for them at the position right now. What’s the plan? Should we be worried? An entire week(!) since legal tampering began and the Eagles have yet to make a move to bolster the group.

On The Kist & Solak Show #86, we talked about how the Eagles could attack the position and gave our overall feelings on their philosophy to this point. Here’s a brief, loose transcript with some of my thoughts on the matter:

“There are some fans that are hitting the panic button after Le’Veon Bell signed with the New York Jets. The real panic set in after Tevin Coleman signed with the San Francisco 49ers on a 2-year, $8.5M deal.

The way I see it with Coleman is there are three possible reasons the Eagles, who were definitively “in” on Coleman, didn’t sign him.

One. They under bid. Let’s say it was 2 years, $7.5M and didn’t want to meet or exceed the 49ers offer.

Two. They made an equal offer and Coleman decided to go play for his old coach Kyle Shanahan.

Three. There’s something unknown to us, like a medical flag, that prevented the Eagles being comfortable making a firm offer or caused them to underbid.

Which one is more likely and does it even matter? We’ve got people freaking out about how the Eagles didn’t make a strong enough push but we don’t know what happened. Why is it safe to assume the worst when this isn’t exactly a reoccurring issue for Howie Roseman in the way of making Philadelphia an attractive landing spot for free agents?

Or is the problem that the Eagles under value the position? Here’s my thing with that: how do you define “under value”? Because that’s how you, specifically, value it? This is one of the easiest positions to stock up on and get production from in the league. Not one of actually, the easiest position to get production from. They’re the worst paid position in the league if we’re not talking about special teams.

So if that’s the case does the league as a whole under value running backs or has the viewing public not caught up with the fact that the low salaries being doled out to the position exists for a reason and isn’t just some passing fad?

I get what the Eagles running back room looks like right now and I know what it looked like last year, but that was after two injuries to Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles. They also got a lot less from Corey Clement than I think anybody was expecting. So is it a systemic problem or were there other factors in play that they just couldn’t overcome?

Remember, it’s March 18th. We have six months. The Eagles have a weird amount of cap room. If you don’t think the Eagles will make a move either in the draft or in free agency or in a trade, then you’re just dismissing the fact that when they saw the chance to upgrade the position, they traded for Jay Ajayi.

So I find this whole panic over the running back position to just be a slave of the moment type situation that I’m honestly not too worried about.” - Me, Michael Kist

We then discussed potential running back targets in the 2019 NFL Draft and bemoaned the lack of quality second round talent at the position. Is Memphis’ Darrell Henderson the guy? We’ll find out in a little over a month.

Other topics included fits in the first round for the Eagles and thoughts on the official visits they’ve brought in for a closer look. You can listen to it on the media player below or click here if the player doesn’t load. New to podcasts? Check out our guide on how to listen to BGN! We thank you for the now 800+ five-star ratings! FLY EAGLES FLY!