After losing to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6, the Eagles have a short turnaround for Week 7, as they are scheduled to host the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football. Most weeks, the Eagles release official injury reports on Wednesday and Thursday and a final report with official injury designations on Friday afternoon.
But since they are playing on Thursday, they put out an “estimated” injury report on Monday and will post subsequent injury reports on Tuesday and Wednesday. The estimated injury report is always a little bogus, but teams are supposed to be as honest as possible. Luckily for the Eagles, they are dealing with so many significant injuries that their injury report isn’t very hard to estimate.
As always, we’ll track the injuries throughout the week here and provide updates and analysis. We’ll break down each day of injury reports below.
Eagles Week 7 Injury Report Tracker
Monday’s Injury Report
As we detailed earlier, the Miles Sanders injury creates a big hole at the running back position since the team doesn’t have any kind of viable backup. It’s possible—and Doug Pederson hinted to this during his Monday press conference—that the team could expand the Jalen Hurts package in an attempt to make up for the temporary loss of Sanders.
The Eagles also lost Zach Ertz, Jack Driscoll, Malik Jackson, and K’Von Wallace to injuries on Sunday, and all are expected to miss at least Thursday’s game against the Giants. Here is the estimated injury report the team released on Monday:
DeSean Jackson is reportedly close to returning, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that he is expected to return for Thursday night’s game against the Giants. As for Alshon Jeffery, it would be a surprise at this point if he were able to plan on Thursday. Howie Roseman and the Eagles have embarrassingly mismanaged the Alshon Jeffery situation, but he is likely to return at some point over the next few weeks.
With Jack Driscoll out and Lane Johnson expected to miss another game as he continues to attempt to recover from offseason ankle surgery, the Eagles have a real problem at right tackle. When Driscoll went down on Sunday, Brett Toth entered the game on Sunday. The Eagles claimed Toth on waivers a couple of weeks ago, and Sunday was his first appearance in an NFL game. The results were predictably poor.
Complicating matters is that Jamon Brown, who was filling in for Matt Pryor (Reserve/COVID-19) at right guard, was arguably even worse than Toth. If Pryor is able to return, the team will have to decide if he should slide back in at right guard or attempt to fill in at right tackle for a week or two.
Avonte Maddox has missed the last three games with an ankle injury and is questionable for Thursday. He has inexplicably not been placed on injured reserve, even though it was clear from the beginning that he was going to miss at least three weeks.
Duke Riley and Marcus Epps both miss Sunday’s game against the Ravens but were estimated as limited participants on Monday. It’s possible one or both will be able to return for Thursday.
Tuesday’s Injury Report
Tuesday’s injury report was again an estimation, as the teams don’t really practice before Thursday games. As for the Eagles, the main difference is that Lane Johnson was estimated to have been a limited participant if the team did in fact practice.
Does this mean that Lane Johnson has a chance to play? Maybe. The Eagles really, really need him, and he is no stranger to playing through injuries. It would probably be better for him to rest his ailing ankle and wait until November 1 against the Cowboys or even November 15 against the Giants after the bye week. But it would not be surprising to see Johnson at least attempt to tough it out on Thursday.
If Johnson is unable to go, the Eagles have a really tricky situation on their hands. As outlined above, backup right tackle Jack Driscoll will not play on Thursday, and Doug Pederson expressed concern about Matt Pryor being able to get cleared and return on a short week since he can’t currently be in the building (Pryor is on the Reserve/COVID-19 list).
During his Monday press conference, Doug Pederson seemed to hint that Sua Opeta could slide into the lineup at LG, with Nate Herbig moving over the RG in place of Jamon Brown, who was an absolute disaster on Sunday.
But that still leaves RT as a question mark. If Johnson can play, then that probably is solved, as long as he can play the entire game. If he can’t, it’s possible that the team is forced to start Brett Toth again and hope for the best. Other options include Pryor sliding out to RT (but again, not a given that he will be able to return) or promoting Prince Tega Wanogho from the practice squad.
UPDATE: T Prince Tega Wanogho was one of the two practice squad players protected by the Eagles ahead of Thursday’s matchup. Look for Wanogho to be active for the game, even if it is just as a reserve.
None of the above options is ideal, but this is where the Eagles are with their injury situation.
We’ll get our final Eagles Week 7 injury report on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s Injury Report
Earlier on Wednesday, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson spoke to the media 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.
Later in the afternoon, the team’s official injury designations confirmed what Pederson said:
Lane Johnson being able to play is huge, but now the Eagles have to hope he is able to actually finish the game. Credit to him for playing through what is likely some pretty significant pain, and playing well while doing so.
As for the interior of the line, Jamon Brown was released on Wednesday after his disastrous performance on Sunday. Matt Pryor is still on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and is unlikely to be active on Thursday. That means the Eagles are about to start their sixth different combination of offensive lineman in seven games on Thursday.
As Brandon guesses in his post, the likely combination this week will be Jordan Mailata at LT, Sua Opeta stepping in at LG, Jason Kelce at C, Nate Herbig moving from LG to RG, and Lane Johnson returning at RT. If Johnson has to leave the game, Brett Toth or Prince Tega Wanogho (assuming he is promoted) would fill in at RT.
It is also worth noting that none of Lane Johnson, Avonte Maddox, DeSean Jackson, Duke Riley, or Marcus Epps carries an injury designation for Thursday’s game. They’re all playing.
Alshon Jeffery, Miles Sanders, Zach Ertz, Jack Driscoll, Malik Jackson, and K’Von Wallace have all been ruled out.
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