Tank Bigsby

More episodes

• 2026 PreviewJul 3, 2026

  Tank Bigsby 2026 Season Preview — what repeats, what doesn't

  NO CALL — RB54, handcuff money for a handcuff role behind a back who missed one game. The 2024 tape says cheapest starter-skill back on the board if Barkley blinks; three catches a year is the floor if he doesn't.

  ▾

  0:003:30

  1x

  1515

  Your episode · 3:30

  Show notes & transcript

  Tank Bigsby averaged 5.9 yards a carry for the Eagles last season, and almost nobody noticed, because he only got 58 carries to do it with. Running back 54, pick one-71, is what the market pays for efficiency without a job — and standing between him and the job is the one running back in football nobody shares with.

  The season came in two pieces: one game in Jacksonville, then a September trade — Philadelphia sent 20-26 fifth- and sixth-round picks for him, per NFL.com — and 14 games as an Eagle. The combined line: 63 carries, 356 yards — 5.7 a carry overall, five-nine in the Philadelphia stint — two touchdowns, three catches. 3.5 Half-PPR points a game, 60-seventh among backs per game, 60-third in total. 58 carries is a rate, not a role; we price it accordingly.

  The career already contains the proof of concept: 20-24 in Jacksonville — a hundred 68 carries, 766 yards, seven touchdowns, 7.8 a game. That back start-flexed for three months. The rookie year and last year bracket it at under four points a game. High variance, one loud data point.

  The pattern beat mostly declines to speak. No aging risk — career year four; the fade cohort starts at five. His touchdown share, point-two-two, sits under the fade line, and he ranked seventieth by the cohort's measure anyway — far outside the top-36 door, no fire in either direction. The year-two leap pattern is dead on our kill list and he's past it anyway. What the library actually prices here is nothing — a three-catch season means even the Half-PPR floor mechanism has nothing to grab. This is a pure role bet, and we say that out loud instead of dressing it in a cohort.

  The situation is the NFC East's most stable depth chart with new handwriting on the play sheet. Saquon Barkley is the job — 1140 rushing yards last season on 280 carries, all verified — and the July camp previews frame Bigsby as the favorite for the two spot, with Will Shipley in a now-or-never third year and A.J. Dillon's short-yardage niche in question, per PhillyVoice and the Philadelphia beat. The handwriting: Kevin Patullo is out after one season, and the new coordinator is Sean Mannion — a 33-year-old former quarterback who has never called plays, per NFL.com — under a returning Nick Sirianni. The beat's June observation is a fit question: Bigsby's one-cut, downhill style versus the wide-zone concepts Mannion is expected to import, per SI's Eagles coverage. He stood out at spring practices anyway. Contract year — the last of his rookie deal, per Spotrac. Philadelphia won the East at 11-six and lost the wild card to San Francisco.

  The price: RB54 at pick one-71 for an efficient season almost nobody was watching. The market is paying handcuff money for a handcuff role — behind a back who missed one game last year. Our verdict: no call. Priced for the job he has, not the one the 20-24 tape argues he could hold, and we can't call that wrong. The caveat, in both directions: if anything sidelines Barkley, the proof-of-concept season says this is the cheapest starter-skill back on the board — and if nothing does, three catches a year means the weekly floor is close to zero in this format.

  Watch the preseason two-spot rotation against Shipley and Dillon — that's the whole bet — and whether Mannion's install uses him in the passing game at all, because one catch a month is the difference between a stash and a dead spot. Efficiency travels; opportunity doesn't. He's one of your guys? This show covers your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.