D'Andre Swift Zeroes In On New Jersey Number With New Team

With a new team comes a new number for recently acquired Philadelphia Eagles running back D'Andre Swift. He'll be swapping the No. 32 he wore with the Detroit Lions in favor of a number he wouldn't have been allowed to wear until earlier this year: 0

The Eagles announced that Swift will become the first player in franchise history to wear the No. 0 when he makes his debut with the team later this year.

Swift, who was born in Philadelphia, was acquired by his hometown team through a trade on Day 3 of the NFL Draft.

"I like to think I can help an offense in a lot of ways," Swift said, via the team's website. "I've been blessed with the ability to catch the football and it's something I work at constantly. I'm doing everything I can to become a better player and help this offense."

The Eagles were the team that floated the proposal to allow players to wear No. 0 at the league meetings earlier this year. The team wanted to offer No. 0 because it was getting to the point where it was hard to assign numbers for their 90-man roster.

The league approved the proposal and now any player — aside from offensive and defensive linemen — can choose to wear the ol' goose egg.

The announcement that Swift will be wearing No. 0 came as the Birds announced numbers for all new players and a few returnees who swapped.

Two of the more notable ones were the team's two 1st round picks in this year's draft. DT Jalen Carter will wear No. 98 while LB Nolan Smith will wear No. 30. The two former Georgia teammates wore numbers 88 and 4 respectively while in college.

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.