The Eagles are likely to go into Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars with only one running back on the active roster. Will Shipley is the last one standing after Saquon Barkley was knocked out of Sunday’s loss after just four snaps and Tank Bigsby headed toward injured reserve with a core muscle injury that will require surgery.
That leaves Shipley, who has 15 carries through four games, in a far bigger role than the Eagles expected when the week began. He has just one career game with double-digit carries, so the burden now falls on a player who has been asked to do much more, much sooner, in London.
The reason Dameon Pierce is suddenly part of the conversation is simple: he is the most experienced running back in the building not named Barkley. Pierce was a fourth-round pick by the Houston Texans in 2022, and his rookie season showed why he once looked like a clear NFL runner. He rushed for 939 yards and four touchdowns on 220 carries, added 30 receptions for 165 yards and another score, and entered the league as a productive, physical option.
That production did not last. Pierce’s average dropped from 4.3 yards per carry as a rookie to 2.9 in his second season, when he ceded playing time to Devin Singletary. By 2024, he was a full-time backup dealing with multiple injuries, and last year he was the third-string back in Houston before being released in November. He spent time on Kansas City’s practice squad before joining the Eagles in the offseason, and he had a solid start to camp before a hamstring injury made a roster push impossible.
Pierce is not the only practice squad back the Eagles can turn to. Blue, a 5-foot-9, 198-pound runner who ran a 4.38 40-yard dash at the 2025 combine, was a fifth-round pick by the Cowboys this year and played sparingly as a rookie with 38 carries for 129 yards and one touchdown in five appearances before being released after training camp. Steele, who spent his first two NFL seasons with Kansas City and played in all 17 games in 2024, brings a different profile after a preseason that produced 59 rushing yards, 14 catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns. He was undrafted out of UCLA by way of Ball State and spent the 2025 season on Kansas City’s practice squad.
The Eagles now have to decide whether Shipley can handle a much heavier load or whether they need reinforcements from the practice squad for a game that has already stripped their backfield thin. With Barkley week-to-week and Bigsby headed for surgery, the next move may come before kickoff.
