The Philadelphia Eagles have not had a power running back in a long, long time that is automatic in short yardage situations.  That is about to chance now that they drafted Tony Hunt out of Penn State in the 3rd round.  Hunt is a big guy at 6′1″, 239 pounds and he runs a 4.6 40 which is pretty good for a running back his size.  Hunt always pushes the pile forward and he’s a great runner between the tackles.  In 46 games (35 starts) at Penn State, Hunt carried the football 654 times for 3,320 yards (5.1 ypc) with 25 TD runs.  He also caught 88 passes for 799 yards (8.1 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  Look for Hunt to push Correll Buckhalter for carries this season.

The Eagles have released WR/KR Bethel Johnson.  Johnson played in 11 games (2 starts) for the Eagles last season and he caught 9 passes for 156 yards (17.3 avg) and he carried the ball 4 times for 8 yards (2.0 ypc).  The hardest thing to replace about Johnson will be as a kickoff returner.  He returned 45 kickoffs for 1,054 yards (23.4 avg) last season for the Eagles.

Starting Eagles TE L.J. Smith had surgery to repair a sports hernia on Wednesday.  He might not be ready for Training Camp which could get a lot of reps for rookie 5th round pick Brent Celek.  The Eagles are lucky they drafted a tight end to back up Smith.