Eagles coach Chip Kelly might be downplaying what we might see from new running back Darren Sproles, but Sproles himself is excited about what he might do tonight.
“I really am,” Sproles said, via Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “because the stuff we’ve been doing in practice, I think it’s kind of dangerous.”
While the Eagles aren’t going to show all the multiple ways Sproles can be used in the preseason, his track record speaks to his versatility.
“You’ve seen him be a returner, you’ve seen him be a running back, you’ve seen him be a receiver,” Kelly said. “He’s not going to be an offensive lineman, but he’ll play all those positions for us. I don’t think anybody is going to look at our preseason tape and say they’re hiding him and not using him to do this. Darren, like everybody else, needs reps in our offense.”
But they’re not going to show it all tonight against the Bears.
The Eagles have fiddled with formations in practice that include Sproles and LeSean McCoy in the backfield together, creating numerous possibilities for the run and pass.
“It’s going to be tough [for defenses] because you don’t know who has the ball, and there are so many options,” McCoy said. “And the hard part is not just having me and Sproles at the same time, but we’re going at such a fast pace. You can see the formation from scouting and watching film and line up a defense for them, but we’re going so fast, it’s hard to do it.”
Which means anything we see tonight is only going to be glimpse of what Sproles can do.
