Fire up the 'reunite Saquon Barkley with Miles Sanders' takes

The Carolina Panthers released running back Miles Sanders Tuesday, leading to quite a few social media posts about how the Eagles should reunite him with college teammate Saquon Barkley.

(Again, we would love to show you some of those posts, but X's embed feature continues not to work as part of the problems the site has had for 24+ hours now.) 

Sanders and Barkley were teammates at Penn State in 2016 and 2017. The Eagles selected Sanders in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, and for much of his early career he was referred to on national broadcasts as having been Barkley's backup in college. That always seemed a little dismissive of Sanders' accomplishments in college because he ran for 1,274 yards in 2018, at which point he was the starter and Barkley was a rookie for the New York Giants. 

In any event, Sanders rushed for 3,708 yards in four seasons with the Eagles, averaging five yards a carry. The Panthers then rewarded him with a four-year/$25 million deal that guaranteed him $11 million. The deal didn't work out well, as Sanders rushed for just 637 yards on 3.5 yards per carry in two seasons with the Panthers. 

The Eagles would need to determine whether Sanders — who will turn 28 in May — is cooked physically or was just with a dysfunctional organization. If they brought him back, it obviously wouldn't be in a starting role, but they would probably like to have someone capable of alleviating some of the stress on Barkley, who was used at an incredibly high rate this past season. 

Will Shipley is under contract for 2025, but Kenneth Gainwell is a free agent. The most likely scenario is that the Eagles pass on a chance to bring back Sanders, instead signing another option and/or drafting one to back up Barkley. There's no doubt that Barkley and Sanders reuniting on the Eagles would be a fun story, though.