Penn State football: Miles Sanders earns more first-team reps with Eagles

Former Penn State football running back Miles Sanders has been impressive so far at Philadelphia Eagles’ training camp.

Last week, Penn State football’s own Miles Sanders began to participate in his first NFL training camp. The Philadelphia Eagles second-round pick missed all of the spring action, due to a hamstring injury. Therefore, he was amongst the teams’ biggest question marks going into the most critical part of the offseason. Nobody knew what to expect from Sanders — but so far it sounds like he’s hitting his stride with the limited amount of work he’s attained so far.

Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson made it clear that he wanted to ease Sanders back into the swing of things. Although he was present for the teams’ rookie minicamp, Sanders hasn’t gotten some legitimate action on the field since his final game with Penn State. A couple of days went by, and Sanders looked good based off of what he put on display.

Now, Sanders’ coach is ready to ramp up some of the action. Being in a backfield, which utilizes a committee approach, isn’t all that new to Sanders. Playing behind another established star is essentially what Sanders did for his first two years with the Lions.

Although he’s not behind somebody like Saquon Barkley this time around, Jordan Howard is still an established veteran. And Howard has the right to earn a good chunk of the first-team reps in training camp with the Eagles.

However, the Eagles won’t neglect Sanders. Sure, he’s gotten a lot of backup reps, but they are slowly easing him into a role, which gives him time to play with the starters. And on Tuesday, Sanders ended up reaching the endzone for the first time at training camp during an 11-on-11 live scrimmage, which impressed the local media at the Eagles’ practice facility.

Sanders’ stock is slowly rising

"“On Tuesday, Sanders displayed versatility in team drills. With tackling permitted in practice, Sanders made a few impressive runs through contact. During 11-on-11 drills, the running back scored a short-yardage touchdown through a wall of bodies.”“As a receiver, Sanders looked natural catching the ball. At one point, Sanders was matched up on the outside against defensive end Vinny Curry. Sanders ran a wheel route and got wide open with Curry trailing in coverage. Quarterback Carson Wentz launched a pass right in the bucket to Sanders, who took off running for a big gain.”"

According to NJ Advanced Media’s Mike Kaye, Miles Sanders displayed multiple abilities on Tuesday during a full scrimmage. Last season, the Eagles struggled much in two specific departments when it came to running the ball. One area was short-yardage situations. The other was pass-catching from out of the backfield.

When Philly drafted Sanders, they figured they were getting a do-it-all back from the Lions who could immediately offer upgrades in those departments. So far, Sanders seems on par with the team. Although it is just training camp and he’s still got a lot to learn — it’s becoming quite clear that the former Nittany Lion will have a significant role for the 2019 Philadelphia Eagles.