Eagles rookie wide receiver Jalen Reagor is reportedly going to “miss some time” due to a UCL tear in his thumb. Reagor suffered the injury during Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
While head coach Doug Pederson did not mention Reagor at all during his press conference on Wednesday, the rookie was seen standing on the sidelines during practice. Shortly thereafter, the reports started trickling out that Reagor was injured and was going to miss multiple games.
The instant comparison for Reagor has been Drew Brees, who dealt with this injury last year:
Of course, Brees being a quarterback and Reagor being a wide receiver makes the comparison imperfect. However, Rueben Frank and others are reporting that Reagor’s injury is one that requires surgery to fix. So, he is likely headed to injured reserve and will miss, at a minimum, three weeks.
With Alshon Jeffery out, that leaves DeSean Jackson, Greg Ward, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, and John Hightower as the only healthy wide receivers on the active roster. Deontay Burnett remains on the practice squad but will likely be called up to the active roster this week.
Obviously, this is a bummer and is yet another injury for an Eagles team dealing with several of them. Arcega-Whiteside reportedly had a solid training camp but has struggled mightily through the first two weeks. He will likely start opposite DeSean Jackson on Sunday, but it would not be surprising to see John Hightower or even Burnett sprinkled in.
This also means that the Eagles will probably continue to lean heavily on 12 personnel (two tight ends), as opposed to spreading things out with multiple receivers. It is possible that Alshon Jeffery returns in the near future, but he did not practice on Wednesday and has not practiced at all as he continues to recover from Lisfranc surgery that he had over the winter.
UPDATE: Apparently, Fletcher Cox is dealing with an oblique injury and could miss Sunday’s game against the Bengals.