Saquon Barkley's Eagles replacement at RB knows the assignment | Exclusive

PHILADELPHIA − Will Shipley has never had 100 yards rushing in a season, let alone a game.

Yet here is the Eagles‘ third-year running back, thrust into the No. 1 slot after both Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby left the game against the Rams on Oct. 4 with injuries. Neither is expected back in time for the Eagles’ next game on Oct. 11 against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

Barkley suffered a hamstring injury early in the first quarter during the Eagles’ 24-20 loss to the Rams. He is considered “week to week,” according to a report from the NFL Network. That means he’s expected to miss at least one game, but not expected to go on injured reserve in which he would have to miss at least four games.

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Bigsby, meanwhile, left the game in the fourth quarter after rushing for 55 yards on 14 carries. The NFL Network reported that he has a core muscle injury that will require surgery, and that he’ll be placed on IR.

That leaves Shipley, the Eagles’ fourth-round pick in 2024, carrying the load for the first time in his career. He and Bigsby split the carries when Barkley left the game against the Rams as well as the Sept. 20 game against the Tennessee Titans. Barkley suffered a “stinger” in that game on the Eagles’ first offensive play. He missed the rest of the first half, came back for the third quarter, then left again in the fourth.

“You never want it to happen that way,” Shipley told The Delaware News Journal/Delawareonline.com. about getting more opportunities. “Injuries are tough on anybody. So I’m just praying for all those guys that they all have speedy recoveries, and that the Lord is with them.”

“And as a teammate, you just feel for them because I think everybody in this locker room has been through injuries, right? We understand what it feels like from a personal standpoint.”

Shipley had 6 carries for 23 yards against the Rams. When he got playing time against the Titans on Sept. 20, he had 7 carries for 24 yards. For the season, Shipley has 51 yards on 15 carries, an average of 3.4 yards per carry. Shipley also has 4 receptions for 24 yards against the Rams.

Shipley has never had more than 82 yards rushing in a season, which he accomplished his rookie season in 2024 in very limited playing time. In the playoffs that season, Shipley had a 57-yard run in the NFC Championship game against the Washington Commanders. He added a 2-yard TD run to finish that drive.

But the Eagles rely on Shipley much more than running and catching the ball. Often, he’ll be on the field in pass protection, picking up blitzers. That was something the Rams did often when the Eagles were in third down situations.

“Will’s done a great job,” Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion said. “I think you look at all those preseason games, and he’s a natural runner. He’s great in pass protection. He’s been someone who has had a valuable role for us from the outset. And obviously, with Saquon going down early in that game, Tank carried a heavy load (until his injury).

“Will came in and performed well when he was called upon.”

Shipley is the only running back on the Eagles’ 53-man roster. They have three other running backs on the practice squad, all with previous NFL experience, in Dameon Pierce, Jaydon Blue and Carson Steele. It’s expected that the Eagles will either promote or give the game-day practice-squad elevations to one or two of them.

But the injuries to Barkley and Bigsby will likely have another impact on the Eagles. It’s likely that Shipley won’t have as big a role on special teams because of his need at running back.

Shipley is a core special teams player as well, both returning kickoffs and blocking on both kick and punt returns. Shipley has returned 6 kicks this season for 134 yards, an average of 22.3 yards per return.

All you had to do was watch Shipley’s block on Britain Covey’s 41-yard punt return against the Rams to get a sense of Shipley’s importance on special teams. Kelee Ringo made the first block as Covey caught the punt near the sideline at around the Eagles’ 40. Then at midfield, Shipley took out the Rams’ Grant Stuard, pushing him out of bounds and enabling Covey to cut back to the inside.

Britain Covey sets up an Eagles TD with the 41-yard return in Philly pic.twitter.com/zZuHNnAShj

— Porter Larsen (@LarsenPort1) October 4, 2026

Covey returned the punt to the Rams’ 17. The Eagles ended up getting a touchdown on that series to take a 13-3 lead.

“It’s ‘The Covey Experience’ is what we call it,” Shipley said about Covey. “He’s truly unbelievable, to have a weapon like that back there. So he gets the energy going. He makes you want to leave it all on the field and do your job so that we can all experience ‘The Covey Experience.'”

Added special teams coordinator Michael Clay: “If he happens to be the lead bell cow (at running back), that would be selfish of me to ask him to do whatever he has to do on special teams. But that’s why football’s the ultimate team game. That’s why we’re going to rely on other guys that may have to kind of carry that load that he had as a four-core guy.

“He’s just kind of taken that leadership role (on special teams) over the last 2 ½, 3 years … If something’s not right, he will let somebody know that it’s not right … So if he says something, he’s the captain of the unit, and we go with that.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl. Sign up for the “Eye On The Eagles” newsletter, emailed to your inbox every Friday morning. Read his coverage of the Eagles‘ championship season in “Flying High,” a hardcover coffee-table book from Delaware Online/The News Journal. Details at Fly.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Saquon Barkley’s Eagles replacement at RB knows the assignment | Exclusive

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