Eagles sign running back, waive/injured wide receiver

The Philadelphia Eagles officially announced two roster moves on Thursday morning.

• The team signed RB DeAndre Torrey.
• The team waived/injured WR Keric Wheatfall.

Let’s sort through this news on a player-by-player basis.

DEANDRE TORREY

The Eagles are currently thin at running back. They only had five on the 90-player roster: Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gainwell, Boston Scott, Jason Huntley, and Kennedy Brooks. And only three of those backs are healthy with Gainwell dealing with a hip injury and Scott missing time with a concussion. With Sanders likely to only take a carry or two (at most), in the Eagles’ Friday night preseason game against the New York Jets, the Birds needed another back to take snaps.

Enter Torrey, an undrafted rookie free agent out of North Texas. Standing at 5’7”, he’s now the second shortest player on the Eagles’ roster, only ahead of the aforementioned Scott. Not unlike Scott (203 pounds), Torrey has some thickness to him (199 pounds).

Torrey was a pretty productive player in college with 609 attempts for 3,228 yards (5.3 average) and 36 (!) touchdowns. He also logged 22.7 yards per kick return on 51 tries.

The Jets invited Torrey to their rookie minicamp following the 2022 NFL Draft but did not sign him to their roster. Now it’s his chance to exact revenge on them!

But most likely he’s just an extra body for the Eagles to have around until Gainwell and/or Scott return.

Scouting report via Tony Pauline:

Positives: Undersized ball carrier who gets the most from his ability. Tough, plays while injured, and shows outstanding running vision. Patiently waits for blocks to develop, quickly cuts back against the grain without losing momentum, and makes defenders miss. Immediately finds the running lanes and quickly turns upfield.

Negatives: Not effective turning the perimeter. Doesn’t break many tackles. Cannot beat defenders into the open field or run to daylight.

Analysis: Torrey was a tough, hard-nosed ball carrier for North Texas and comes with outstanding football instincts, yet he lacks any great physical characteristics to his game.

KERIC WHEATFALL

The Eagles invited Wheatfall, a Fresno State alumnus, to their rookie minicamp on a tryout basis. He impressed them enough to earn a roster spot.

Wheatfall began training camp with an injury and then struggled when he returned to the field. He was recently re-added to the injury report.

Wheatfall was always a long shot to stick around in Philly.

In other news, the Eagles worked out free agent running back Jerry “Don’t call me Jordan” Howard on Wednesday. Howard played four years at Georgia Tech before finishing his collegiate career at Towson. Howard is a bigger body for his position at 6’0”, 230 pounds. There have been calls for the Eagles to add a more physical back but they don’t appear to be in a rush to do so. Howard seemingly got beat out by Torrey for the short-term role the Eagles were looking for.