Sixteen carries the last five games of 2023, 40 in 2024 and just 14 last year. Dameon Pierce has 70 rushing attempts to show for his last 2 \u00bd NFL seasons, and for a guy who was once a starting running back that\u2019s not easy to take.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing from an athletic standpoint, coming from just being a competitor, you know, it sucks,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cYou know, it sucks, just bluntly putting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierce, who signed with the Eagles on Thursday, got off to a hot start in his career with 939 yards and a 4.3 average as a rookie with the Texans in 2022, including 139 yards in a loss to the Eagles at NRG Stadium.<\/p>\n
But his career has trended downward since, with 416 yards in Year 2, then 293 yards in 2024 and just 36 last year split between the Texans and Chiefs.<\/p>\n
Has to be tough dealing with riding the bench when you\u2019ve been a high-level starter. How did Pierce get through it?<\/p>\n
\u201cJust staying grounded and looking at the end goal,\u201d he said in a Zoom call Thursday. \u201cAt the end of the day, I’m an NFL football player. I’m doing what most guys dream of. I’m doing what I’ve been dreaming of ever since I was a little kid. That’s enough for me, personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in the heat of the moment, I’m human, so of course it’s gonna be tough. But like I say, I find ways to persevere and I’m here in Philly ready to get back on brand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pierce enters a crowded Eagles running back room led by Saquon Barkley backed up by Tank Bigsby and Will Shipley.<\/p>\n
Where does Pierce fit in? The reality is he may not. He\u2019ll have to prove he belongs once the Eagles get to training camp, but the Eagles kept four backs last year \u2013 Barkley, Bigsby, Shipley and A.J. Dillon \u2013 so if Pierce shows he can still play and stay healthy he\u2019ll have a shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m at a point now in my career where I\u2019ve got experience on my side and I’m just using it as a building block to go further,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever I can do to help this team win, whether it’s running the ball, returning the ball or just embracing any role that Nick (Sirianni) expects of me. The conversation I had with Howard (Roseman) was just, come here, have fun, just get acquainted to the offense, get acquainted to the city. We’re just going to see how it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierce has good perspective on the ups and downs of his career. As a rookie he averaged 72 yards per game and 4.3 yards per carry. Since then he\u2019s averaged 25 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, it’s still a career,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m still learning. Coming into this year, I just look at it as I\u2019ve got four years of experience on my side. I take every up and down in my career as a collective. And I’m just looking at it and trying to learn how to get better from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cComing to Philly is just another step in my journey that I’m looking forward to. And at the end of the day, man, I just want to play ball. And Philly gave me a great opportunity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sixteen carries the last five games of 2023, 40 in 2024 and just 14 last year. Dameon Pierce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,4904,7,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-822929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles-blog","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116261248258080271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}