Doug Pederson concerned about Ryan Mathews' fumbles, but 'not down on' Mathews in 'RB-by-committee'

Ryan Mathews has fumbled in the final minutes of two of the past three games, and though coach Doug Pederson is not demoting his leading running back, he acknowledged that Mathews' fumbles are "definitely a concern."

"We don't want to see it, especially in those situations – four-minute situations there at the end of the game," Pederson said. "We've got to continue to either find out if he's tired, where he's at at the end of the game; if we need to put Wendell [Smallwood] or Darren [Sproles] in there – we'll find out more about that. But by no means am I down on Ryan at all. We just have to make sure that he understands that he can't obviously do that and put ourselves in a situation where we're giving the ball back to the opponent."

Mathews has 67 carries for 262 yards and three touchdowns this season. He leads the Eagles in carries, yards, and rushing touchdowns – and he's also the only running back with a fumble. But Mathews has not exactly been a workhorse running back this season, and it doesn't sound as if he's going to get more work. He's averaging 11.2 carries and 43.6 yards per game. Those numbers are skewed by one game when he barely played, but he still won't get 20 carries consistently.

The Eagles have given a running back at least 20 carries just once this season, and only twice has a running back had more than 14 carries in a game. Pederson is committed to running the ball – he said he does not want Carson Wentz throwing 35-40 times per game – but it won't be Mathews getting the volume of a traditional lead rusher.

The carries will continue to be distributed each game, with Mathews and Sproles getting most of the work, and Smallwood and Kenjon Barner mixing in.

"I would lean more towards running the ball probably with the runners that we have," Pederson said. "I don't necessarily get into 'Ryan has to have X amount of touches or Darren has to get X amount of touches.' I think by a committee, and collectively, they do a good job. We've been around that 100-yard mark each week so far and it's been efficient. … There are certain runs for certain running backs that we put in the game, but overall, it's going to be sort of a running back-by-committee design."