The Philadelphia Eagles may have done it again. In the first round, some feel they got one of the best players in the draft, former Georgia DT Jalen Carter, and later in the round, they got talented LB Nolan Smith, another Georgia product.
On Day 3 of the draft, they added some talent to the running back room when they acquired Philadelphia native, and once again, former Georgia RB D’Andre Swift from the Detroit Lions for a 2025 fourth-round pick and a flip of seventh-round selections.
Last season, Swift, 24, ran for 542 yards and five touchdowns, and the third-year running back, had 48 catches for 389 yards and three touchdowns, so he’s a versatile player.
Eagles Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman is excited by the acquisition of Swift.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to get [newly-acquired Eagles RB D’Andre] Swift, bring him back to Philly,” Roseman said. “He’s a guy that we’ve known for a long time. Even when he was in high school, we were watching him. We knew what kind of player he was, watched him through college. Really excited for that opportunity here.”
Roseman discussed how things came together between the Eagles and the Lions in the Swift trade.
“When they took [RB Jahmyr] Gibbs 12th, we thought maybe it was an opportunity,” he said. “They signed [RB David] Montgomery in free agency, and they took Gibbs, and we knew he was in the last year of his deal, and we went into this draft feeling really good about our running back room. We really liked the guys that we have on the roster. We think it was a talented group.
“It wasn’t in our mind a position that we were actively looking to upgrade, but at the same time, we’re always looking for opportunities to improve the team. When this came about, we just felt really good about the player, we felt really good about the person, and it adds another tremendous player and person to our locker room. We feel like we really know who he is as a person, have a lot of connections with him…
“It really started week one when we played them(Lions). You saw the explosiveness when we played them. He had a heck of a game. Every time he touched the ball, you knew there was a chance he could take it the distance.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni added on Swift: “First, want to say the same thing that Howie just said right there. We really are happy with our running back room. This was just another great piece to add. But you can definitely see his ability to make people miss in space, and you saw that against our defense last year. He had some unbelievable runs against us last year, where you look at each other like, man, that guy is hard to tackle. So, he has the ability to make you miss and also accelerate through the hole, which will serve us well in some of the draws that we run and some of the RPOs that we run.
“I don’t know exactly how we’ll use him perfectly with each individual run, you have to get your hands on him to see that, but also, in the passing game, I think he’s a dynamic playmaker that’s done some things that we’ve done with guys in the past, with some of the different routes that he runs. But he has a great ability to read defenses out of the backfield, to make guys — to separate from tight coverage out of the backfield, and has really good hands.
“Obviously, again, can’t say enough about the running back room that we have. We’re really excited about the pieces that we had going into the draft, and we’re even more excited about it with the addition of D’Andre.”
The Eagles running back room consists of Swift, Rashaad Penny, Kenneth Gainwell, and Boston Scott, which is solid, especially if they stay healthy. Again, another great day for the Eagles.
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