Biggest question from Bucs game: why put Gainwell in 4th and short instead of Penny?

[opa-opa]

2 times they put Gainwell in on 4th and short.

Both times he failed.

Sorry, but I thought that's why we got Rashard Penny? What are we paying him for exactly?

[opa-opa]

I tried to think of a possible answer myself, my guess is if they put in Penny it would be too "obvious" they are going to run instead of pass.

But still, this Oline should be good enough to get you 1 or 2 yards no matter what.

[FranklinFldEBUpper]

If you've watched the Eagles play football games over the past couple of years, you'd have noticed that Gainwell is actually a pretty darn good short yardage back because he has good vision, gets to the hole very quickly, runs with good lean, and finishes his runs strong.

[LacesOut]

Your last question is valid, OP. 
 

We are all still waiting to see why he was signed. 

[brkmsn]

1 hour ago, LacesOut said:

Your last question is valid, OP. 
 

We are all still waiting to see why he was signed. 

Keep in mind he was signed before we had the opportunity to trade for Swift. 

[xxeaglesfanxx]

Not really sure why they are keeping Penny around if he’s not going to be used. I’m happy with Swift that’s for sure though. Gainwell has potential but he’s not a huge back bc and shouldn’t be used in short yardage situations.

[NOTW]

I don't mind RBBC and going with the hot hand or rotating to keep guys fresh...but in certain situations you just go with the best guy.

And Swift so far has been dynamic. 

The concern all offseason was Swift & Penny injury history and the expectation was to rotate to keep them fresh. But right now you have to feed Swift majority of carries.

Penny may just not be showing what they want in practice? 

[DoWorx]

maybe keeping him fresh as insurance as Swift does have a history of injury?

[EazyEaglez]

So far this year I have a lot of doubts about Gainwell being the short yardage guy. I still recall the safety in the preseason, and he is not breaking a lot of first contact tackles. Why not give Penny some of those opportunities? At least try it out and if it doesn’t work then go back to Gainwell. At this point Gainwell feels a little force fed for every situation, but I get it too, because he’s the guy the trust the most. If I’m being honest I feel like Penny looks like a shot back, but I think he could handle short yardage situations. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I think the simple answer is… They really like Gainwell and they trust him. And they don’t trust Penny and they think that he’s cooked.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

I don't know why we haven't used Penny much, but if I had to guess it's that Swift has come in and absolutely killed it, Gainwell has done OK as a change of pace and Penny looked a bit meh and chalked off a TD by missing a blitz pick up in his limited snaps to date, but it's 3 games into a 17 game minimum season, so as it stands I'd say there's an equal chance that he'll be given more chances to win a bigger role, we seek to trade him for a conditional late rounder to someone like the Browns or grant him a release to see if he can catch a gig elsewhere and give Bryant Koback a look.

[Portyansky]

So bc the other team made a good play Gainwell sucks? What if they used Swift? Or Penny? The other team gets paid too you know. You can't play these "why didn't they" or "they should have" games after the fact. 

[The Norseman]

Penny must be really unimpressive in practice because Gainwell has not looked very good to me in games.  Will be interesting to see if they give Penny a shot just to see if he can do any better. 

[Mortimer]

Just like Cartman and his phonics monkey, they could be saving Penny as a secret weapon.

[birdman#12]

I think they should get all 4 RBs some touches......there are enough situations during a game that scott and penny should get called.

 

[The Norseman]

12 hours ago, birdman#12 said:

I think they should get all 4 RBs some touches......there are enough situations during a game that scott and penny should get called.

 

They save Scott for Giants games

[mattwill]

On 9/28/2023 at 4:59 AM, The Norseman said:

Penny must be really unimpressive in practice because Gainwell has not looked very good to me in games.  Will be interesting to see if they give Penny a shot just to see if he can do any better. 

Gainwell is fine.  In the Patriots game the O-Line was a hot mess and BB had put together an excellent scheme and Johnson was in his first play calling game.  Gainwell was not the problem that day.  Against the Bucs his carries were almost all in the second half when the Bucs D knew that the Eagles would be killing the clock with runs, so they adjusted their defense accordingly.  Again Gainwell was not the problem. 

Regarding Penny, for me it isn't just the lure of his past 6.3 ypc and 6.1 ypc seasons, but also the 10 yard carry against the Ravens and the 16 yard carry against the Browns in the preseason games.  I'm simply not ready to bury him without giving him a live opportunity.  Given his injury history using him in the clock eating part of the Bucs game was high risk and low reward.  Perfect place to use Gainwell.

[Penn7980]

Penny has not been used much to this point.  Maybe the coaches see more of him in practice and not comfortable in using him.  If he is healthy, it makes sense to give him some touches early in the season to find out the best way of using him.  Swift is the hot hand right now and they want to ride that wave for what is worth.  Be careful of not over-work that and causing injury.  Scott is coming back from minor injury, but he does not demand a lot of carries and can contribute in different ways.

[EazyEaglez]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:15 PM, brkmsn said:

Keep in mind he was signed before we had the opportunity to trade for Swift. 

And they resigned Bradford before they traded up to get Carson. This means absolutely nothing.

[brkmsn]

1 hour ago, EazyEaglez said:

And they resigned Bradford before they traded up to get Carson. This means absolutely nothing.

You lost me. What does that have to do with what I said? 

My reply was a response to the (paraphrased) question, "why was Penny signed?" My answer was because (paraphrased) we didn't have Swift at that time. IMO, the acquisition of Swift and his impact the last two weeks has changed the outlook of the RB room  moving forward. I'm not worried about Penny. He looked fine in his limited preseason. He looked just like the guy he was in Seattle. I just think Swift is playing too well to take out. The only problems with Swift and Penny is that they have been a little shaky as (pass) blockers and they probably are a little behind Gainwell and Scott in their understanding of our offense as pass catchers. We seemingly saw Swift run the wrong route Monday which led to an INT. Swift has a lot of potential as a receiver so once he gets comfortable and is on the same page with Hurts, it will be even harder to take him out of the game for very long. 

[EazyEaglez]

10 hours ago, brkmsn said:

You lost me. What does that have to do with what I said? 

My reply was a response to the (paraphrased) question, "why was Penny signed?" My answer was because (paraphrased) we didn't have Swift at that time. IMO, the acquisition of Swift and his impact the last two weeks has changed the outlook of the RB room  moving forward. I'm not worried about Penny. He looked fine in his limited preseason. He looked just like the guy he was in Seattle. I just think Swift is playing too well to take out. The only problems with Swift and Penny is that they have been a little shaky as (pass) blockers and they probably are a little behind Gainwell and Scott in their understanding of our offense as pass catchers. We seemingly saw Swift run the wrong route Monday which led to an INT. Swift has a lot of potential as a receiver so once he gets comfortable and is on the same page with Hurts, it will be even harder to take him out of the game for very long. 

Not surprised you don’t follow actually and why not concerned about it, (you gush on mediocrity) but the Eagles are concerned about Penny. In Penny’s most extensive action in the preseason he had nine carries for thirty four yards. That’s roughly a 3.7 YPC average. That is much lower than his career 5.7 average and in his only time carrying the ball in the regular season he’s only at 3 yards a carry. Most importantly he only got three carries in that game where Gainwell was too injured to play, Scott was concussed, and they ran it with Swift 28 times! Even Stevie Wonder can see that Penny looks shot especially in the eyes of the Eagles. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

11 hours ago, brkmsn said:

. I'm not worried about Penny

I’m not worried about Penny. I’m worried about the coaches and the usage of the RBs. They seem to heavily favour Gainwell

[brkmsn]

6 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

Not surprised you don’t follow actually and why not concerned about it, (you gush on mediocrity) but the Eagles are concerned about Penny. In Penny’s most extensive action in the preseason he had nine carries for thirty four yards. That’s roughly a 3.7 YPC average. That is much lower than his career 5.7 average and in his only time carrying the ball in the regular season he’s only at 3 yards a carry. Most importantly he only got three carries in that game where Gainwell was too injured to play, Scott was concussed, and they ran it with Swift 28 times! Even Stevie Wonder can see that Penny looks shot especially in the eyes of the Eagles. 

Not worried about preseason stats since none of our starters played on the line and the offense was vanilla. 

Oh no! Penny only averaged 3 ypc on his few touches in the first game he played this season. Remember when Swift had 3 ypc in his first game he played this year? The sky is falling! Overreacting to a small sample is ignorant. I don't have to "gush" about anybody to have you make the claim that I do. It's your only response to arguments you can't refute. Penny is literally the 4th RB on our roster and the most likely to be inactive on game day if all are healthy. You are using 4 regular season touches to conclude that he's "shot." I don't even have to write an opinion about him for you to claim "I'm gushing." I'm simply mocking your knee-jerk conclusion.

[brkmsn]

6 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I’m not worried about Penny. I’m worried about the coaches and the usage of the RBs. They seem to heavily favour Gainwell

They are extremely comfortable with Gainwell, because he knows the offense, is solid in pass protection, and understands what he's supposed to do as a receiver. Everybody can see that Swift has the ability to be a special back and as he gets more comfortable with the other responsibilities they may commit to him as the lead back in the future. Right now, I think he'll for sure be the featured back, but Gainwell and Scott are capable of contributing as well.  Penny will be an option when any of those 3 are injured before a game, but is unlikely to be active otherwise.

[EazyEaglez]

9 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Not worried about preseason stats since none of our starters played on the line and the offense was vanilla. 

Oh no! Penny only averaged 3 ypc on his few touches in the first game he played this season. Remember when Swift had 3 ypc in his first game he played this year? The sky is falling! Overreacting to a small sample is ignorant. I don't have to "gush" about anybody to have you make the claim that I do. It's your only response to arguments you can't refute. Penny is literally the 4th RB on our roster and the most likely to be inactive on game day if all are healthy. You are using 4 regular season touches to conclude that he's "shot." I don't even have to write an opinion about him for you to claim "I'm gushing." I'm simply mocking your knee-jerk conclusion.

Three carries in the regular season when they had only two backs both who happen to be known as injury prone. Yeah they really love that guy. So is 3 yards a carry the same as 5.7 to you?