PHILADELPHIA — Two weeks ago, few could make sense of Eagles general manager Howie Roseman’s decision to send two Day 3 draft picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars for running back Tank Bigsby just before the season began.
Through seven weeks, Bigsby had been a liability on special teams and a nonfactor on offense. The Eagles hoped he would bolster their kickoff unit, but his repeated drops on returns instead hurt the team’s field position.
Bigsby can’t return kicks, but the Eagles salvaged the trade in Sunday’s win over the New York Giants by finally letting him do what he does best — run the ball. He rushed for 104 yards on just nine carries.
Eventually, the Bigsby trade could be viewed as one of Roseman’s best moves of the 2025 offseason.
Bigsby could form one of the NFL’s most dynamic one-two punches with Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 150 yards and one touchdown against New York’s defense.
“You wait until you get your opportunity, you know what I’m saying?” Bigsby said about his patience after only getting one carry in the first seven weeks. “Just when you get your opportunity, you go out and be who you are, just keep being a great team player. Coach needed me on teams. Coach needed me at running back. If coach needed me at tight end, I would probably go out there and play tight end, whatever it is. So just being the best team player I can be.”
Bigsby said all the right things, but he might no longer need to return kicks — or wonder when his next carry will come.
The Eagles’ offense is at its best when the run game is rolling, and with a strong No. 2 RB, that strength could become even more dangerous.
“Man, it’s just going to free up Saquon,” Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata said of Bigsby’s potential impact this season. “Not just for the offense, but for Sa, too. There’s a lot of pressure on Sa to reproduce what we did last year (2,000-yard season) — but to be honest, that’s unrealistic. As much as we still want to do that — it’s still our goal — it’s just unreal with the defenses we’re seeing. But to know we have Tank, who can relieve Sa when he has those big gains, especially on long drives, and not have that fall-off in production — that was awesome.”
Barkley missed the entire fourth quarter with a groin injury, but he told reporters afterward that it isn’t considered serious.
Bigsby took over in the final 15 minutes, rushing for 86 yards to close out the Giants, including a 29-yard gain on 2nd-and-26 to New York’s 31-yard line.
He followed that with runs of eight and three yards, pushing the Eagles to the 17. Tight end Dallas Goedert capped the drive with a 17-yard touchdown catch with 11:23 remaining.
Bigsby’s average of 11.6 yards per carry led the Eagles, while Barkley wasn’t far behind at 10.7. On his 29-yard run, Bigsby broke a tackle from Giants linebacker Darius Muasau and outran the nearby defenders. He picked up 17 yards on his final carry, running through three tacklers and dragging Giants safety Tyler Nubin to the ground.
“I’m not surprised,” Mailata said about Bigsby’s performance. “I was just waiting for him to have a breakout game and it just happened to be today. That boy is hungry. Talk about hungry dogs. We always talk about hungry dogs run faster. Tank is a hungry dog.”
Bigsby played on offense for the first time in last Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings, but the glimpses Mailata saw in practice had him excited about the running back’s potential.
Mailata was even more stoked after watching him run through Giants defenders.
“I don’t see him lift, but I probably will keep an eye out now,” Mailata said. “I want to see how he lifts (to see) if he’s a maniac like he is on the field.”
Bigsby had five carries of 10 yards or more, some of them in very tight space.
“(He was) unbelievable,” Eagles center Brett Toth said. “There’s a play specifically today to where there was bad communication on our part up front and wasn’t as clean. Same things unfold (for someone else), some guys will just kind of take the loss. He got the ball, picked a hole and hit it. And so it’s up front, it’s not blocked for what he hit and he made a 12-yard gain off of it. And as O-lineman, you look at that and say ‘That’s a guy you’ll fight for.’ Took his own shot, made his own block, and it’s awesome to see him get his shine as well.”
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Friday that Bigsby “worked his butt off” at practices, so he wanted to see him get more carries. Now, Bigsby is ahead of Will Shipley and AJ Dillon on the depth chart.
“I think what you see with Tank, obviously, there’s a reason we traded for him,” Sirianni said. “A really explosive runner and you see that. We see that all the time in practice. As he’s caught up to our system and everything that we do and learning it, he’s gotten more opportunities and it’s been fun to see him run with the football.”
Bigsby said he’s “pretty comfortable” in Philadelphia’s offensive scheme, but learning the playbook is still an “ongoing process.” The Eagles could put more on his plate soon.
“I didn’t know (what my role would be),” Bigsby said about his expectations earlier this season. “When I got the call that I got traded, I said, ‘It’s time to go to work.’”
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