Doug Pederson spoke to the media on Wednesday and, among other things, offered injury updates on the team’s current mountain of injured players. Most notably, Pederson indicated that WR DeSean Jackson, RT Lane Johnson, CB Avonte Maddox, and LB Duke Riley are all expected to play on Thursday when the Eagles host the New York Giants. Alshon Jeffery, Miles Sanders, Zach Ertz, and Malik Jackson, on the other hand, will miss the game.
Pederson declined to say whether or not Sanders, Ertz, or Jackson will be placed on injured reserve (all are expected to miss multiple games, with Ertz expected to be sidelined for roughly a month. The Alshon Jeffery situation is well documented, and this is now the seventh straight game he will miss to begin the season despite not starting the year on the PUP list. Keeping Jeffery on PUP would have kept Jeffery inactive (and prevented him from practicing) for the first six weeks of the season but would have saved the Eagles a roster spot.
Backup tackle Jack Driscoll, who started in place of Lane Johnson but left the team’s Week 6 game against the Ravens with an ankle injury, is also expected to miss Thursday’s matchup against the Giants.
So, what do these injury updates mean? We’ll provide some context below.
For our complete analysis and daily updates, see our Eagles Week 7 injury report tracker.
Lane Johnson
Lane Johnson being able to play is huge for the Eagles, as they would have otherwise had to rely on Brett Toth, Prince Tega Wanogho, or Matt Pryor to fill-in at right tackle if both Johnson and Jack Driscoll missed this game.
Toth was claimed off waivers a couple of weeks ago and played in his first NFL game on Sunday (it didn’t go well), Wanogho has spent the year on the Eagles’ practice squad and has never appeared in an NFL game, and Pryor has been inconsistent and, more recently, missed time due to his placement on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
Now, the question will be whether or not Johnson will be able to play through the injury/pain and finish the game. He missed Sunday’s game against the Ravens after being carted off in the team’s Week 5 loss to the Steelers.
DeSean Jackson/Alshon Jeffery
After missing most of last season with a core muscle injury that eventually required surgery, Jackson has been out since leaving the team’s Week 3 matchup with the Bengals with a hamstring injury. It’s safe to say that his reunion with the Eagles has not gone well to this point.
But with the Eagles dealing with injuries to Jalen Reagor, Alshon Jeffery, Dallas Goedert, Zach Ertz, and Miles Sanders, they need all the help they can get. Waiver-wire acquisition Travis Fulgham has been a nice surprise for the Eagles, but they really need a healthy Jackson stretching defenses and opening things up for others. He probably won’t play more than 50% of the snaps on offense, but the Eagles need all the help they can get on offense right now.
As for Alshon Jeffery, well, this has been one of Howie Roseman’s more embarrassing blunders. While the likes of Noah Togiai and Casey Toohill probably aren’t going to end up in the Hall of Fame (both were lost on waivers), that he wasted a roster spot on an injured player who clearly wasn’t going to be ready for the first half of the season is inexcusable.
UPDATE: Jeffery is reportedly now dealing with a calf strain, in addition to the foot injury that has sidelined him since last year.
Avonte Maddox/Duke Riley
The Eagles have been very bad on defense this season, particularly in the second and third levels. Darius Slay has been as-advertised and Rodney McLeod is having a solid season, but the rest of the linebackers and defensive backs have been either inconsistent or flat out bad.
With Maddox out for a few games, the team moved Jalen Mills for two games before sliding him back to safety and having Nickell Robey-Coleman start at outside corner against the Ravens. The results were mixed.
While Maddox has not been perfect himself at outside corner, his return means the Eagles may finally be able to play the starting defensive backfield they envisioned coming into the season. With Maddox and Parks both returning, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz will be able to utilize some combination of Robey-Coleman, Cre’Von LeBlanc, Mills, and Parks based on desired matchups with Maddox and Slay on the outside.
Those six defensive backs have yet to all be active for a game this season.
As for the linebacker position, it seems like the team took their philosophy of not putting resources into the position too far this season. Nate Gerry has been one of the worst starting linebackers in football. T.J. Edwards was only slightly better before his injury. Same for Duke Riley.
Rookie third-round pick Davion Taylor played his first defensive snaps last week, while sixth-round pick Shaun Bradley has seen his role increase with Riley out. With Riley back, it’s possible that Gerry’s playing time decreases, at least in sub packages.
Miles Sanders/Zach Ertz
As mentioned above, the Eagles are down Ertz, Dallas Goedert, Alshon Jeffery, Jalen Reagor in the pass-catching department. You can add Josh Perkins to that list if you want, too.
With Ertz out, Richard Rodgers, who was on the team last season but wasn’t re-signed and wasn’t added back to the roster until the Washington Football Team cut him in early September, is now the starting tight end. As for No. 2 tight end spot, the Eagles made a roster move on Wednesday:
Jason Croom was released by the Bills at the end of September and signed to the Eagles’ practice squad a week later. In Week 6, he was temporarily promoted from the practice squad and caught a touchdown pass.
It’s unlikely that Croom knows the entire playbook, so don’t expect a ton of 12 personnel on Thursday. But he does give the Eagles a cromulent option at the position for when they want to utilize two tight ends on the field. The team’s other tight end is Hakeem Butler, but he was a wide receiver until the Eagles signed him from the Panther’s practice squad three weeks ago.
Malik Jackson
With Malik Jackson out, Javon Hargrave will start alongside Fletcher Cox, with Hassan Ridgeway as the top rotational DT. T.Y. McGill, currently on the practice squad, was protected again this week and is likely to be promoted.
Defensive ends Vinny Curry and Brandon Graham could also see snaps at defensive tackle in obvious passing situations.
