FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Seems like every summer we talk about how this is the year the Eagles are finally going to start throwing to the backs. And every year they don’t. The Eagles have never had a running back with 300 receiving yards in a season under Nick Sirianni. Their last 300-yard rece iving back was Miles Sanders with 509 yards back in 2019, and along with the Rams they’re one of just two NFL teams without a 300-yard receiving back since 2021. But they’ve spent a lot of time working on the passing game with the backs this summer, and on Day 1 of joint practices with the Patriots outside Gillette Stadium, the Eagles spent a good chunk of the day working on the running game with Saquon Barkley and getting Barkley and the other backs involved in the passing game. “The more productive we are in the run game, stuff feeds off of that,” Lane Johnson said after practice. “We’ll see the big plays, we’ll see (Saquon) flex out at wide receiver, we’ll see him in the screen game. So we saw just a little bit of it today.” Barkley has quietly enjoyed a strong training camp as the Eagles transition to an outside zone running scheme that should help him get back to his Offensive Player of the Year form of 2024. So while most eyes at practice were on A.J. Brown making plays against the Eagles’ defense, Barkley was just as effective against the Patriots, turning in numerous big plays as a runner and a receiver. “You just saw the wide zone take shape,” Johnson said. “We did a lot of play action. I don’t know, y’all were over here watching the few team periods we had here. I feel like we had some good gashes. So for us it changes the style of the defense up front to where it kind of limits their pass rush. They’re in a lot more reading first.” Barkley has caught as many as 91 passes in a season back in 2018, still the most receptions ever by a rookie running back. He had four other 40-catch seasons with the Giants and averaged 56 catches in his five healthy seasons in New York. He doesn’t have the soft natural hands of a Brian Westbrook or Kenny Gainwell, but when he is able to secure the ball in the open field he’s a dynamic weapon. A weapon we saw over and over on Wednesday and we may see more of in the regular season. “I think he’s going to show up and make plays in every facet of the offense,” Jalen Hurts said of Barkley. “Ultimately, we’re just trying to figure out our identity and what exactly we want that to look like. But obviously it starts with the outside zone and the run game.” Hurts also turned in an impressive snap that turned into a big play to another running back, Will Shipley, against a Patriots blitz. Hurts appeared to let the blitz get dangerously close to him before lofting the ball toward Shipley at the last possible second. Shipley caught the ball about 15 yards down the field and raced another 30 yards for one of the offense’s bigger plays on Day 1 of joint practice. “Not a happy accident. It’s definitely a part of the play,” Hurts said. “You know, when you coach it up, you don’t coach it up in the unideal looks. And I think we got a lot of unideal looks today. “So just us being able to respond to when we’re hot and hit that as the end is peeling off is a really big play that we’d be excited about in the room, but obviously still something to learn from right there because we want to avoid having a free guy coming in pressure.” One thing we know about Sean Mannion is that everything is going to look different in 2026. And based on how much the offense works on the passing game to the backs, it looks like it just might happen this year. Or maybe it won’t. But when you throw the ball to Barkley, that’s a high-percentage, low-risk play that could pay big dividends. Barkley has 15 career 30-yard catches since 2018, tied with Alvin Kamara for most among all NFL running backs. “They’re all capable pass catchers and route runners,” Mannion said about the Eagles’ backs. “I think a lot of it sometimes comes down to the protection element and do we need a sixth man in protection, a seventh man in protection, so on and so forth. Then some of it is defensively, is there a matchup we want to attack? “But they’d certainly bring that skillset to the table. It’s something that every day we’re trying to push these guys and have everyone have as much flexibility with what they can do so that when we get in the season we know how [to] put these guys in the best position possible.” ...read more read less