PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles have agreed running back Rashaad Penny to a one-year deal, a league source told ESPN, confirming multiple reports.
Miles Sanders has been the lead back in Philadelphia for the past four seasons, hauling in 3,708 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns at that stretch. Sanders is a free agent and is considered one of the best players available at his position this offseason.
Sanders signaled his time with the Eagles could be coming to an end, tweeting Tuesday afternoon, “To the City of Philadelphia: Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Prolific rotation defenseman Boston Scott, meanwhile, agreed to a one-year deal to return to the Eagles, a source confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
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Penny’s signing doesn’t mean the Eagles are necessarily done tackling the running back position, a source said.
Penny’s career has been marred by injuries, including a broken leg last October that required surgery and forced him to miss the remainder of the 2022 season for the Seattle Seahawks.
Including the playoffs, Penny, who turned 27 in February, has missed 43 of a possible 87 career games in his five NFL seasons through injuries.
When healthy, Penny has displayed his first-round talent – including one of the most prolific rushing stretches in franchise history to close out the 2021 season.
With starter Chris Carson on injured reserve, Penny led the NFL with 671 rushing yards in the last five games — 208 more yards than anyone. According to research from ESPN Stats & Information, he joined Shaun Alexander as the only player in Seahawks history with 130 rushing yards in three consecutive games. Penny surpassed that mark in four of the last five games, including a career-best 190 yards in the season finale. During that span, he had six rushing touchdowns, one more than in his first 32 regular-season games.
Testing free hand, Penny returned to Seattle in 2022 on a one-year deal worth $5.75 million. He began the season as a starter against rookie second-round pick Kenneth Walker III, rushing for 346 yards and two touchdowns on 57 carries in the first five games before going down in Week 5, fracturing his fibula and shin on his left side injured leg.
His long list of injuries also includes a cruciate ligament rupture in December 2019 – just as he was starting to break out – that sidelined him for much of the 2020 season. He missed five games after injuring his calf in the 2021 opener and another game last November with a hamstring tear.
The Seahawks drafted Penny 27th overall from San Diego State in 2018, though several members of the organization preferred Nick Chubb. He spent most of his first four seasons assisting Carson.
Overall, he has 1,918 yards on 337 attempts — an average of 5.7 yards per carry — in 42 games over five seasons. He has 14 total touchdowns.
ESPN’s Brady Henderson contributed to this report.
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