‘He can do everything’: D’Andre Swift’s performance this season proves his value — and that running backs do matter

When the Eagles’ offense is sputtering midway through a game, D’Andre Swift sometimes will offer a simple, but effective reassurance.

The running back has developed a tendency to ignite the offense out of cold spells with big runs the last few games, something he typically manifests in the huddle between plays, according to Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata.

“‘We’re going to get this [expletive] right now,’” Mailata said, reenacting Swift’s typical message. “We’re good.”

In his first year with the team, Swift has delivered on those promises. He wasn’t the flashiest option available to replace Miles Sanders last spring, but has become one of the Eagles’ best offseason additions while leading their running back committee with elite production and timely runs.

Value can be a taboo word when discussing running backs these days. We’re not far removed from the position’s top earners holding a Zoom meeting last July to discuss their limited, arguably suppressed, market and relatively modest franchise tag earnings.

Playing on the final year of his rookie contract, Swift wasn’t among the aggrieved. At least not yet. The 24-year-old from Mt. Airy is due $2.1 million this season, ranking 35th among his peers and outperforming that number considerably. His value in the Eagles’ rushing offense is inarguable — he’s gained 770 rushing yards, which ranks fourth in the NFL, and broken off nine rushes of 15 yards or more, which is tied for seventh.

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The Eagles’ offensive line deservedly gets the majority of the credit when assessing the Eagles’ running game. Jalen Hurts certainly plays a significant role as well, but Swift’s been additive, according to those who know best.

“D’Andre adds a lot to it,” Eagles center Jason Kelce said. “It’s rare to have a running back that can do the whole gamut of plays and you’re comfortable with them doing it. Usually, you have a scat back you want to run this set of plays. If you have a big, powerful guy, you have certain plays you want to do with them. Swift is good enough at them all.”

The Eagles sent two seventh-round picks and a 2024 fourth-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Swift on the third day of the NFL draft earlier this year. If Swift signs elsewhere next year, the Eagles likely will be in line for a compensatory fourth-round pick, essentially canceling out the fourth-rounder they sent Detroit for the 24-year-old.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman had splashier choices to replace Sanders in the lead-up to the Swift trade. A potential trade-up to secure Texas star running back Bijan Robinson in the draft created buzz with some fans, but the Eagles’ long-held belief that quality running backs can be found without using a premium pick dates back multiple decades to when former general manager Joe Banner ran the front office.

“The failure of large money going to running backs is more of a supply-and-demand issue than it is a positional value issue,” Banner told The Inquirer on Friday. “We were in the category where we’d never use a really high pick, you can see Howie would never use a high pick, he came from the same root philosophy. And yet we always thought running backs were really important; you just didn’t need to use up a lot of assets to get them.”

Swift primarily was utilized as a receiving threat in his first three years with the Lions, but he never quite became the featured back that he flashed potential of becoming as a 2017 second-round pick out of Georgia.

The Eagles have used that versatility to their advantage this season, deploying the former St. Joe’s Prep standout from various alignments including split out wide or in the slot.

“D’Andre is a really talented back,” Kelce said. “Not only from his explosion and his quickness and his talent, but he’s smart, he understands the game, he has great vision, outstanding elusiveness. And the other thing I think he brings a lot of value to, and I think this a big thing from the running back position, he’s not just a ‘sit in the backfield and run out of the dot’ running back.

“He can do everything. He can be in ’gun, he can be out on the perimeter running a route against a linebacker. All of those things that he does bring tremendous value to an offense, especially an offense like ours where we can be spread out and do a lot of different things.”

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Against the Kansas City Chiefs, Swift broke off a 35-yard run on a jet sweep after starting out wide as a receiver. Midway through the run, he planted his foot in the ground and changed direction to go against the grain of the defense.

Some of Swift’s runs offer reminders of his dominant high school career, when his creativity and vision made him one of the best players in the country while at St. Joseph’s Prep.

“He can break an ankle or two when they flex him out,” Mailata said. “He’s dangerous, even when he’s just getting the checkdown. People have to respect that. Linebackers trying to come downhill and make a tackle, you better be on balance, that’s all I’m saying.”

“I loved Miles,” Mailata added. “But Swifty is a great addition. He’s just so decisive.”

Kelce and Mailata pointed to Swift’s vision in the red zone as a way he sometimes outperforms what the offensive front creates for him. Against the Bills last Sunday, Swift had a 16-yard cutback run in overtime that preceded Hurts’ walk-off touchdown run.

“He saw he couldn’t get the edge, and he just cut that [expletive] back,” Mailata said. “That’s all Swifty.”

The $13 million disparity between Swift and 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey this year serves as a stark contrast in team-building philosophy in the lead-up to the NFC championship rematch Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. The two juggernauts feature their running backs heavily and creatively but had significantly different investment levels.

The 49ers traded a second-, third-, and fourth-round pick in 2023 as well as a 2024 fifth-rounder to the Carolina Panthers before last season’s trade deadline for McCaffrey, who is the league’s highest-paid running back in terms of average annual value.

The investment has been worthwhile for San Francisco. McCaffrey leads the league with 939 rushing yards and has 16 total touchdowns this season, also lining up from various spots in a fluid offensive system run by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.

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Sunday’s game, Banner said, shows that running backs do in fact matter, but so does the amount you spend on them.

“They’re both treating their running backs like they’re really important, it’s just the Eagles have been able to achieve a high level of success with a much lower cost,” Banner said. “Is Swift good enough to be a valuable part of a team that’s capable of winning a Super Bowl? I think that’s an unambiguous, clear-cut yes. So how much more value is there in spending $2 million for Swift versus $15 million for McCaffrey and having to give up the draft picks?

“I would argue the difference there is not great enough to warrant the cost and picks that San Francisco used.”