The Philadelphia Eagles are doing it yet again. According to two sources, last year’s defending Super Bowl champions are sending a pair of draft picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for running back Tank Bigsby.
“Sources: The #Eagles are at it again, trading for #Jaguars RB Tank Bigsby. The champs continue to build,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport posted on X.
Adam Schefter of ESPN confirmed the two selections for next year.
“Trade: Jaguars are sending RB Tank Bigsby to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for 2026 fifth- and sixth-round picks, per sources,” posted Shefter.
In the Jaguars season-opening win over the Carolina Panthers 26-10 on Sunday, Bigsby carried five times for 12 yards. He’s had moments of productivity and even fought his way into a timeshare with lead back Travis Etienne last year, carrying 168 times for 766 yards and seven touchdowns.
Jaguars were hoping Tank Bigsby could compete for starting job
Etienne was a first-round pick of the Jaguars back in 2022 out of Clemson. He hasn’t been bad, but he hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations he had coming out of college either. That sounds an awful lot like another former Clemson player on the Jags’ offense.
Joseph Acosta of Bleacher Report wrote months ago that he expected Bigsby to compete for the starting job with incumbent Etienne. He even thought Bigsby could win the job outright.
“I think the same thing can happen for Tank Bigsby and RB Travis Etienne in Jacksonville, but I’m going with Bigsby here because he’s a bit better between the tackles on gap scheme runs,” Acosta wrote. “Bigsby is a thicker back with good contact balance, which should help as the Jags transition to being more of a gap scheme team. How the carries get ironed out will be the question, but Bigsby will make the most of his attempts.”
Tank Bigsby will fill vacancy of Will Shipley?
The Eagles – of course – have the the NFL’s leading rusher from last year Saquon Barkley. He broke the 2k mark last year, rushing 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. He’d probably have had 20 touchdowns in 2024 if not for the Tush Push. He also averaged a monster 5.8 yards per carry, which is just insane. For reference, Barry Sanders averaged more than that once (6.1 YPC in 1997).
The Eagles actually appeared to be content with Barkley’s backups in second-year man Will Shipley and veteran A.J. Dillon. Dillon is coming off of a neck injury that cost him the 2024 season, but looks pretty good so far. Shipley looks very good too, but he suffered a rib injury in their Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys and maybe the Bigsby trade indicates that it’s worse than initially thought.
However, there are some that don’t think the Shipley injury has anything to do with the Bigsby trade. Brooks Kubena of The Athletic, posted on X that the Eagles really want him as a kick returner.
“The Tank Bigsby trade is not related to Will Shipley’s rib injury against the Cowboys last week, to my understanding,” Kubena writes. “The Eagles like their RB room. They like Bigsby’s effectiveness as a kickoff returner — a role they’ve been exploring.”
Etienne may have won the job for good with Week 1 performance
For the Jaguars, maybe their willingness to trade Bigsby shows that they’ve got renewed confidence in Etienne. He ran just 16 times against Carolina but amassed 143 yards including 71 yards on one run.
Matt Okada of Yahoo! Sports broke down what happened on Sunday.
“After months of consternation over what was perhaps the murkiest backfield in the league, Travis Etienne Jr. answered a whole lot of questions in Week 1,” Okada writes. “He handled 19 of the team’s 29 running back touches, on 62% of the snaps, and totaled 156 scrimmage yards while averaging 8.9 yards per carry. While 71 of those yards came on a single breakaway run, Etienne was the only Jacksonville back to flash that big-play ability … and averaged 4.8 yards on his other 15 carries.
“So far, only Derrick Henry (182) sits above Etienne on the scrimmage yards leaderboard. Oh, and Tank Bigsby and Bhayshul Tuten combined for just 23 yards on their eight carries. For now, this looks like Etienne’s backfield to lose.”
It definitely does now. Or, at the very least, Bigsby won’t be pushing him for playing time anymore.
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