I wonder what the new coaching staff in Philadelphia will do with Miles Sanders on third downs? He’s got breakaway ability, but he’s dropped way too many passes.
When you look at dropped passes and running backs, the Eagles have the running backs at both ends of the spectrum.
There were 40 running backs last year who had at least 25 catchable passes thrown their way. Of that group, Boston Scott was one of only two who didn’t drop any passes. Sanders, meanwhile, dropped 7 of the 35 that he should have caught, the league’s worst ratio.
It’s a new year. Maybe there’s something with Sanders (pictured) that can be fixed. They’re installing that Nick Siranni SmartThink 2.0 system (“Less Thinking = Talent Takeover”). But if they’re catching like they did last year, Scott should be playing on third downs, and Sanders should not.
| DROPPED PASSES, RUNNING BACKS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Rec | Drop | Pct |
| Boston Scott, PHI | 25 | 25 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Rex Burkhead, NWE | 25 | 25 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Nyheim Hines, IND | 64 | 63 | 1 | 1.6% |
| Chase Edmonds, ARI | 54 | 53 | 1 | 1.9% |
| J.D. McKissic, WAS | 82 | 80 | 2 | 2.4% |
| Jonathan Taylor, IND | 37 | 36 | 1 | 2.7% |
| Mike Davis, CAR | 61 | 59 | 2 | 3.3% |
| Austin Ekeler, LAC | 56 | 54 | 2 | 3.6% |
| James Robinson, JAX | 51 | 49 | 2 | 3.9% |
| Myles Gaskin, MIA | 43 | 41 | 2 | 4.7% |
| David Montgomery, CHI | 57 | 54 | 3 | 5.3% |
| Antonio Gibson, WAS | 38 | 36 | 2 | 5.3% |
| Jerick McKinnon, SFO | 35 | 33 | 2 | 5.7% |
| David Johnson, HOU | 35 | 33 | 2 | 5.7% |
| Josh Jacobs, LVR | 35 | 33 | 2 | 5.7% |
| James White, NWE | 52 | 49 | 3 | 5.8% |
| Jamaal Williams, GNB | 33 | 31 | 2 | 6.1% |
| Dalvin Cook, MIN | 47 | 44 | 3 | 6.4% |
| Kalen Ballage, NYJ-LAC | 31 | 29 | 2 | 6.5% |
| Duke Johnson, HOU | 30 | 28 | 2 | 6.7% |
| Devin Singletary, BUF | 41 | 38 | 3 | 7.3% |
| Kenyan Drake, ARI | 27 | 25 | 2 | 7.4% |
| Chris Carson, SEA | 40 | 37 | 3 | 7.5% |
| Clyde Edwards-Helaire, KAN | 39 | 36 | 3 | 7.7% |
| Aaron Jones, GNB | 51 | 47 | 4 | 7.8% |
| Giovani Bernard, CIN | 51 | 47 | 4 | 7.8% |
| Latavius Murray, NOR | 25 | 23 | 2 | 8.0% |
| Melvin Gordon, DEN | 35 | 32 | 3 | 8.6% |
| Kareem Hunt, CLE | 42 | 38 | 4 | 9.5% |
| Alvin Kamara, NOR | 92 | 83 | 9 | 9.8% |
| D'Andre Swift, DET | 51 | 46 | 5 | 9.8% |
| James Conner, PIT | 39 | 35 | 4 | 10.3% |
| Brian Hill, ATL | 28 | 25 | 3 | 10.7% |
| Malcolm Brown, LAR | 26 | 23 | 3 | 11.5% |
| Tony Pollard, DAL | 32 | 28 | 4 | 12.5% |
| Ezekiel Elliott, DAL | 60 | 52 | 8 | 13.3% |
| Todd Gurley, ATL | 29 | 25 | 4 | 13.8% |
| Ronald Jones, TAM | 33 | 28 | 5 | 15.2% |
| Leonard Fournette, TAM | 43 | 36 | 7 | 16.3% |
| Miles Sanders, PHI | 35 | 28 | 7 | 20.0% |
In the chart above, drops are totals as tabulated by Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan