Eagles RB Miles Sanders on Jalen Hurts benching: 'Nobody liked the decision'

It’s Tuesday, but we’re still talking about what happened Sunday night in Philadelphia because it seems most folks still aren’t over it.

Count Miles Sanders in that group. The running back expressed his and his teammates’ displeasure with how things ended — with Doug Pederson benching rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts in favor of third-stringer Nate Sudfeld late in a one-score game — during a radio interview.

“Man if I’m being honest, nobody liked the decision, nobody,” Sanders said during an appearance on 94WIP. “That’s all I can say really. I don’t know who was the main person behind that decision. All I know is that a lot of people on the team was confused.”

Pederson explained Monday he’d planned all along to get Sudfeld some playing time in Week 17, which was essentially a meaningless game for the Eagles, who’d been eliminated from playoff contention with their Week 16 loss to Dallas. Still, the plan apparently didn’t reach all of the Eagles, even those who weren’t active Sunday, based on Sanders’ comments.

Sanders was one of a slew of key Eagles who did not play in the regular-season finale, joining the likes of Carson Wentz (who’d been benched in Week 13), Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Fletcher Cox and Derek Barnett on the inactives list before kickoff.

“Oh man. It was definitely hard to watch just because I wanted to be out there,” Sanders said. “With everything going on, I didn’t want to be one of the guys that was just out. I know everybody has — some people — have legit reasons of being out for the game, but I didn’t want to be out for any reason just because it was the last game of the season and how everything went. I just wanted to go out there and ball out for my teammates for the last time this season, despite how everything went.

“But I physically couldn’t go and that was definitely hard for me. Not even going to bring up 1,000 yards, but I just wanted to go out there and finish off the season with my team, for real, for real.”

Sanders finished with 867 yards on 164 carries (5.3 yards per carry) and six touchdowns as part of an Eagles offense that was stuck in neutral for much of the season. His absence hurt Philadelphia’s chances Sunday night, but it sounds as if the way the game ended stung much worse — and might linger well into 2021.

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