At a time when Colts running back Jonathan Taylor is making headlines for his situation with the team that drafted him, the running back taken six spots higher than Taylor is getting up to speed with a new franchise.
D’Andre Swift’s new coach in Philadelphia, Nick Sirianni, is impressed with what he has seen from the former Lions running back.
“He has a unique ability,” Sirianni told reporters on Sunday, regarding Swift. “He has unique ability, which is part of the reason why we wanted him to be on this football team. So we really like some of the things that he can do out of the backfield as a runner and also as a receiver. He is showing that he has that ability of what we thought that he had when he was in Detroit and then coming out of Georgia also.”
That prompted a question as to the relative lack of throws to running backs last year. Will that change in 2023?
“Your offense is based off of your skill, first of all, and the players that you have,” Sirianni said. “It’s foolish for us to do something that our guys can’t do.
“With that being said, you have these different boxes that you want to be able to check of plays that you know or schemes that you know are important to attack a defense. Those can be supplemented in a lot of different ways as far as the way your backs get touches, the way your tight ends get touches. You can put a receiver in the tight end spot as a number three, or whatever, number two and do some different things.
“So, you can supplement these things different ways, but the harder you are to defend — you’re harder to defend when you have a lot of guys in different positions that can do it so you can be in these different personnel groups and still running similar plays for your quarterback.”
Thus, with Swift on the team and given his ability to make catches out of the backfield, look for the Eagles to take advantage of that skill set. And Swift could diversify the Philly offense, which in turn will make it harder for defenses to shut it down.