Getty Image / Mitchell Leff
The Philadelphia Eagles’ 2022 season was a huge success.
The team put together the NFL’s best regular season record as a number of their players had career-best years.
Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith set new career highs as they formed one of football’s most formidable passing attacks.
The run game also made big improvements thanks to the performance of Miles Sanders.
Unfortunately, his performance wasn’t rewarded down the stretch as he saw just 7 carries in the Super Bowl.
While speaking to the media at Carolina Panthers OTAs this week, Sanders revealed that he is not happy with his lack of usage in the biggest game of the year.
Miles Sanders relishing anticipated role as Carolina Panthers' 3-down back (from @AP) https://t.co/0YwA1FAQjP
— Steve Reed (@SteveReedAP) June 9, 2023
“Last game of the season? For all of the marbles? Everybody can answer that question,” Sanders said, via Steve Reed of the Associated Press. “If they put themselves in my shoes, would they be happy? I don’t want to make headlines, [but] if it does, I don’t care.”
The way Sanders’ usage dwindled throughout the playoffs was surprising given how successful the Eagles’ run game was during the regular season.
Sanders had the best year of his NFL career in 2022. Over the course of the regular season, Miles Sanders ran for 1269 yards and 11 touchdowns while maintaining a strong average of 4.9 yards per carry. The Eagles gave him plenty of touches during the year as he averaged a little over 15 carries per game.
That usage continued during the team’s first playoff game as Sanders carried the ball 17 times for 90 yards in a blowout win against the Giants.
Then the Philadelphia Eagles started deciding to go in a different direction. He had just 11 carries the next week as the Eagles won convincingly against the 49ers.
That was followed by his 7 carries in the Super Bowl.
Sanders shouldn’t have to worry about the Panthers limiting his usage as they just signed him to a contract worth over $6 million per year to serve as their bell cow back.
With the team developing CJ Stroud at QB, Sanders should get plenty of opportunities to carry the ball and shouldn’t have to worry about ceding too many touches to Chuba Hubbard and Raheem Blackshear.
It may be a while before we see this Panthers team in a Super Bowl, but if they get there in the next few years then Sanders should be heavily involved in the gameplan.