Miles Sanders, Shareef Miller put on for Penn State football during second week

Penn State football was represented well in the NFL on Thursday with superb performances by Miles Sanders and Shareef Miller.

The Penn State football program was represented well back in the spring when they had a handful of players get selected in the 2019 NFL Draft. Now that it’s summertime, former Nittany Lions are now converted into whatever their respective NFL mascot is nowadays.

For a handful of Penn State alumnus, they turned into Philadelphia Eagles this offseason. Two of which, made their way to Philly by way of the draft. In the second round, former Lions running back Miles Sanders got the call from Philly. And the following day, defensive end Shareef Miller received his as well by the time the fourth round came up.

Last week, the two took the field in Philly for the first time in their young careers, and well, it didn’t go as well as initially expected. With all of the hype surrounding Miles Sanders in training camp, many expected more than what they ended up getting. With only three carries, Sanders didn’t get to flash some of that magic he put on display during his final season with the Lions.

And while Miller did notch his first sack last week, he didn’t necessarily receive rave reviews as the Eagles defensive line struggled as a whole during the first week of the preseason. This week, the rookies had a much different outcome, though. This time around, Philly is even more excited.

Putting on for Penn State

On the first play of the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Eagles drew up a run play. Fortunately, Sanders ended up getting the start this week. And with that one carry, the former Nittany Lions rusher collected more yards than he did with all three runs last week.

With two more carries this week, Sanders finished up his night early with five carries for a total of 31 yards. He led the entire Eagles backfield in yards-per-carry with 6.2 total. He hasn’t had the opportunity to flash his entire skillset truly, but what he put on display this past Thursday looks very promising behind an offensive line full of backups.

Like Sanders, Miller had a much better night during the second week of the preseason. He ended up notching another sack this week, totaling for two thus far. He also finished the night with four total tackles. Miller is in an uphill battle for snaps at the defensive end position for the Eagles, but right now he’s making a solid case for himself to garner some snaps in the regular season.