Chris Polk may have made the right decision, after all.
The undrafted running back from Washington joined an Eagles team that has one of the NFL’s few workhorse tailbacks, with LeSean McCoy getting 325 total touches in 2011. That could be changing in 2012.
After the draft ended, coach Andy Reid explained that he may have given McCoy too many opportunities.
“With Dion [Lewis], I would have liked to have gotten him a little more time last year as we went on,” Reid said. “I didn’t end up doing that and I probably overplayed McCoy a little bit, even though he doesn’t want to hear that. As he continues to get older and have the number of reps under his belt that he does, you’ll want to back off the number of reps that he does.”
The remarks come at a time when McCoy and the Eagles are believed to be dancing around a long-term contract. McCoy’s camp undoubtedly is pointing to his production last season, when he set a franchise record with 17 rushing touchdowns. If he has fewer reps, he’ll have lower numbers -- thereby justifying a smaller slice of salary-cap pie.
It may be too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Perhaps the goal at this point is simply to justify the coming investment in McCoy by ensuring that he’ll be around long enough to earn the money he’ll eventually get.