In Roob's Eagles Observations: Making the case for Tank Bigsby

By Reuben Frank • Published November 27, 2025

Making the case for Tank Bigsby, mulling Howie Roseman’s linebacker dilemma and pondering expectations for Nolan Smith.

It’s a rare Thursday edition of Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations in advance of a rare Black Friday edition of Eagles football.

1. Let’s start out by saying I don’t think Tank Bigsby is the answer to all the Eagles’ issues. That would be foolish. I don’t want to bench Saquon Barkley. I don’t want to trade Saquon Barkley. I don’t want to cut Saquon Barkley. But I do think Bigsby can help inject some life into a hapless running game, and I don’t understand why he hasn‘t been been given a bigger role. Now, there’s not a huge sample size with Bigsby. He’s got just 18 carries since coming over from the Jaguars in September – all 18 in the last five weeks - and that’s about 10 percent of Saquon Barkley’s 185 carries. But let’s do a little comparison and see what Bigsby has done with minimal playing time:

100-Yard Games: Barkley 1, Bigsby 1
Runs of 17 yards or more: Barkley 5, Bigsby 4
Negative runs: Barkley 29, Bigsby 1
Rushing average: Barkley 3.7, Bigsby 9.1

And get this: In these last five games, Barkley has 90 carries and Bigsby has 18. But Bigsby has more rushes of at least 10 yards during that span than Barkley. Barkley has five 10-yard runs during that span, or one every 18 attempts. Bigsby has seven, or one every 2 ½ attempts. That’s nuts. Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo owe it to the team to put the most effective guys out there, and right now for whatever reason Bigsby has some juice that Barkley just doesn’t have. I don’t know why. I don’t know if Saquon isn’t totally healthy or if the pounding he took with 482 touches last year had more of an effect on him than he’s letting on. I know we’ve largely blamed play calling and the offensive line on Barkley’s struggles, and they’re definitely part of the issue. But Bigsby is out there behind the same o-line and running the same plays and when he has the ball the holes are there and he’s picking up big yards. Sirianni was asked Monday why, with the offense ineffective after those first three drives Sunday and Barkley running through quicksand again, Bigsby didn’t get more carries. Bigsby had one carry and gained eight yards – the longest run by an Eagles running back in the game. On one carry. Nick’s answer made no sense: "Obviously, we always want to get Saquon the ball as much as we possibly can because we know what type of playmaker he is.” Last year, yeah. This year, not so much. Barkley has averaged 3.3 yards per carry or worse in seven games this year, including the last three. It’s not like Bigsby is some undrafted practice squad journeyman. He’s a proven back. He rushed for nearly 800 yards with a 4.6 average and seven touchdowns last year for an awful Jaguars team. That pivotal 3rd-and-2 Sunday in Dallas? Tie game, two minutes left, Eagles on their own 37? If you have any confidence at all in Barkley he gets the ball there. Instead, Patullo called a pass play, Jalen Hurts took an 11-yard sack, the Eagles had to punt and the Cowboys needed five plays to get into range for a game-winning field goal. I can’t sit here and guarantee that Bigsby converts a 3rd-and-2 if he gets the ball, but I like his chances. Basically, the Eagles had to run the offense differently in that critical situation because of Barkley’s ineffectiveness. You can’t operate a football team like that. You have to play whoever gives you the best chance to win. Regardless of reputation or contract or whatever happened last year. If something isn’t working, why not try something else? What do you have to lose?

2. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Jalen Hurts is the first quarterback in NFL history to throw over 500 passes in a 23-game span while throwing two or fewer interceptions. In his last 23 games , Hurts has thrown 567 passes with two INTs going back to Week 4 last year.

3. OK, what should the Eagles do with Nakobe? They just paid Zack Baun $51 million over three years, they just drafted Jihaad Campbell in the first round and one thing Howie Roseman never does is devote too many assets to one position because that generally means he’s forced to devote not enough assets to another position. You can only play two linebackers at a time, and you have three linebackers. And I know Campbell has played some edge snaps, but that was only because the Eagles were so thin at edge for a few weeks there. And that’s not his best position. He’s a linebacker. Who would have thought that the team that brought you Matt McCoy, Jamar Chaney, Nate Gerry, Moise Fokou, Quinton Caver, Mark Simoneau, Akeem Jordan, Nate Wayne, Casey Matthews, Barry Gardner, Kiko Alonso, Ernie Sims and Davion Taylor now has too many good linebackers. Maybe on the one hand it doesn’t make sense to re-sign Dean, whose four-year rookie contract is up after this season. And considering Roseman’s history, he won’t. But, the way Dean is playing? Man, I just don’t know how you let him go. Since he came back a month ago, he’s gradually taken more and more of Campbell’s snaps, and Campbell has been playing well. But Dean is just better right now. He’s been the Eagles’ best defensive player since he returned from his nine-month knee rehab, and his energy, leadership and playmaking will be very tough to replace. It’s hard to imagine the Eagles letting him go. But … that’s probably where this is headed. It’s why Josh Sweat is now an Arizona Cardinal, why Milton Williams is now a New England Patriot, why Isaiah Rodgers is now a Minnesota Viking. If I were GM? I’d re-sign him. I’d find a way. I just can’t lose the player. And he’s still only 24. But I haven’t built three Super Bowl rosters, and it’s not my call. The reality is that if you want to be smart under the cap and remain competitive year after year you can’t keep everybody. It’ll just be really tough to see him go.

4. Whenever the Eagles face the Bears, I think back to the 1988 conference semifinal playoff game, the Fog Bowl at Soldier Field. There’s a common misconception that if the fog hadn’t rolled in just before halftime, the Eagles would have won that game. But their offense was a mess even before it got foggy and they had an insane number of chances to score throughout the game. The Eagles had 13 drives and got into Bears territory on 11 of them, including eight inside the 20, never scored a touchdown and lost 20-12. Here’s what the drive chart looked like. It’s insane:

Eagles 31-yard-line: Punt
Bears 25-yard-line: Missed field goal
Bears 9-yard-line: Field goal
Bears 4-yard-line: Failed 4th down
Bears 11-yard-line: Field goal
Bears 39-yard-line: Punt
Bears 5-yard-line: Field goal
Bears 24-yard-line: Interception
Bears 11-yard-line: Interception
Midfield: Punt
Bears 17-yard-line: Field goal
Bears 17-yard-line: Punt
Bears 16-yard-line: Interception

They moved the ball just fine – 430 yards of offense, a franchise-postseason-record (still) 378 net passing yards, 22 first downs, 6.4 yards per play. But it was the Eagles’ own inefficiency and mistakes deep inside Bears territory that cost them the game. They were in a figurative fog as much as a literal one.

5A. I’d like to see more from Nolan Smith. He’s got just one sack, six pressures and four QB knockdowns in six games this year after finishing last year so strong, with 10 ½ sacks and 22 pressures in his last 16 games. His season was interrupted by a five-game layoff with a pec injury, and he’s only played 81 snaps in three games since coming back after playing 142 the first three games. So they’re bringing him along slowly, and the addition of Jaelan Phillips is also a factor in playing time for all the edges. But Friday will be Smith’s fourth game back, and the Eagles need more pressure, sacks and QB hits from their 2023 1st-round pick. I don’t think Smith is playing badly. But we saw the second half of last year and especially in the postseason just how dominating he can be, and the Eagles need that player down the stretch.

5B. The Eagles’ 22 sacks are their 4th-fewest through 11 games since sacks became an official stat in 1982. They had 17 in 1993 and 18 in 2012 and 2021.

6. After blowing a 17-3 4th-quarter lead against the Broncos and a 21-0 2nd-quarter lead against the Cowboys, this is only the fifth time in franchise history the Eagles have blown two leads of 14 or more points in the same season. Here’s a look at the first four instances:

1941: In Week 5, the Eagles blew a 14-0 2nd-quarter lead to Washington at Shibe Park, losing 21-17, and in Week 13 they blew a 14-0 lead against the Bears and lost – get this – 49-14, also at Shibe Park.
1995: In Week 3, the Eagles led the Chargers 14-0 at the Vet before losing 27-21, and one week later at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum they led the Raiders 17-0 after the first quarter and lost 48-17 in what turned out to be Randall Cunningham’s final start as an Eagle.
1999: In the season opener, which was Andy Reid’s first game as an NFL head coach, they led the Cards 21-0 at the Vet before losing 25-24, and then in Week 8 they led the Giants 17-3 in the fourth quarter before losing 23-17 in overtime when Michael Strahan had a 44-yard pick-6 off Doug Pederson in overtime.
2018: In Week 4 at Nissan Stadium, the Eagles – now coached by Pederson - led the Titans 17-3 in the third quarter before losing 26-23 in overtime, and three weeks later they led the Panthers at the Linc 17-0 in the fourth quarter before losing 21-17 on Greg Olsen’s TD pass from Cam Newton with 1 ½ inutes left.

7. When Nick Sirianni replaced himself as offensive coordinator with Shane Steichen seven games into the 2021 season, the Eagles were 17th in offense. When the Eagles replaced defensive coordinator Sean Desai with Matt Patricia 13 games into the 2023 season, the Eagles ranked 22nd in defense. Right now? The offense is 24th. So the offense is ranked worse now than the two times under Sirianni the play caller was changed. So when Sirianni on Monday said: "As coaches, we're always looking for answers and we're never into assigning blame,” that confused me because he’s assigned blame twice before, once with terrific results and one with disastrous results. Maybe assigning blame wouldn’t be the worst idea.

8. The Eagles’ 47 points over the last three weeks – 10 in Green Bay, 16 vs. the Lions and 21 in Dallas – are their fewest in a three-game span in six years, since they scored just 41 against the Seahawks (17-9 loss), Patriots (17-10 loss) and Bears (22-14 win) in 2019. The 87 combined points in the last three Eagles games (10-7, 16-9, 24-21) make this the Eagles’ lowest-scoring three-game span since 2008, when they beat the Giants 20-14 and Browns 30-10, then lost in Washington 10-3.

9. Last year’s Packers opener in São Paulo was the Eagles’ first Friday game in 64 years, since a win over the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl in 1960. The last Friday game in Philadelphia? You have to go back 72 years to Oct. 2, 1953, when the Eagles and Washington played to a 21-21 tie at Connie Mack Stadium. The Eagles trailed 21-14 in the fourth quarter when quarterback scored from one yard out to tie the game in the pre-overtime days. That capped a 91-yard drive. The Eagles had a chance to win, but Bobby Walston missed a 27-yard field goal attempt with 40 seconds left. The Eagles also played home Friday games in 1935 (17-7 loss to the Steelers at Temple Stadium) and 1937 (13-7 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Municipal Stadium, later named JFK).

10A. D’Andre Swift is having a nice year in his second season with the Bears, with 873 scrimmage yards in 10 games, a 4.6 rushing average and five touchdowns. With the Bears coming to town Friday, I was wondering who the last former Eagles running back is to rush for 100 yards against the Eagles. Turns out it hasn’t happened in 61 years. On Oct. 25, 1964, Clarence Peaks – who was the Eagles’ 1st-round pick in 1957 and spent seven seasons here - ran 11 times for 101 yards in the Steelers’ 34-10 loss to the Eagles at Pitt Stadium. Peaks only had one other 100-yard game in his nine-year career, running for 102 yards in a 31-28 Eagles win over the Browns at Municipal Stadium in 1960.

10B. For those of you who think I’m jinxing the Eagles with that stat, here’s another jinx: The Eagles haven’t allowed a 100-yard rusher this year, and the last time they didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher in an entire season was 1991. The last 100-yard rusher against the Eagles was Kyren Williams in the playoff game last January. The last in the regular season was Rico Dowdle of the Cowboys last December. The closest any back has come this year is Cam Skattebo, who had 98 in the first Eagles-Giants game. The most yards the Eagles allowed in 1991 was 95 to Washington’s Earnest Byner in Washington’s 23-0 win at RFK.

10C. That was the game Pat Ryan – who hadn’t played in two years - finished after Jim McMahon got hurt. Ryan went 4-for-14 for 24 yards and three interceptions and is the last Eagles QB with a 0.0 passer rating.

10D. Also, jinxes aren’t real.

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