Eagles injury report: 6 question marks for Commanders matchup

The Philadelphia Eagles have an incredibly light practice schedule this week. Nick Sirianni said that it’ll be a mix of walkthroughs, individual periods, and just some other stuff. That means you have to take the injury reports with a grain of salt.

Weeks like these are weird because, at the bottom of the injury report, the not-so-fine print says that the reports are an estimation. Monday’s said it was an estimation because the team didn’t practice and Tuesday’s said it was an estimation because it was a walkthrough. That sure seems like some legal mumbo-jumbo, but there are still some things that we can take away from these so-called ‘estimations.’

The Eagles injury report on a short week includes some important players.

For the uninitiated, the three designations a player can have on the injury report are Did Not Practice, Limited Participant, and Full Participant. 

If a player takes part in exactly 0% of the practice, they are DNP. If they take part in 100% of the practice, they are a full participant. If they take part in anywhere from 1% to 99% of the practice, they are limited. It sure would be cool if there was more specificity in those ranges, but what are you going to do? 

Luckily, on Tuesday’s walkthrough, there were no players that were designated DNP. So based on that, it seems like it should be full steam ahead. That being said, it’s worthwhile to look at the guys who might be a little dinged up, especially since they don’t have a full week to get healthy.

Nakobe Dean, Groin

Nakobe Dean was on the injury report as a ‘Did Not Practice’ on Monday and ”Limited” on Tuesday with a groin injury. That’s one of the weirder injuries because a groin could be any number of things. Maybe it’s a strain, maybe it’s something that’s pulled, or maybe something incredibly important got squished. You have to hope that it’s not the last one.

Nakobe’s been playing really well this year, so seeing him on any injury report is kind of a bummer. He had his 2023 season steamrolled by foot injuries, so seeing him on an injury report isn’t great. He’s having a breakout season this year and you really don’t want any part of that to get hampered by an injury.

Dallas Goedert, Ankle

The thing that’s important to note is that the Eagles waived tight end Jack Stoll on Tuesday. They wouldn’t release tight end depth if they weren’t incredibly confident in Dallas Goedert’s health… or at least that’s what you’d hope. 

Regardless, Goedert missed Weeks 7, 8, and 9 with a hamstring injury, so for him to find himself right back on the injury report with another leg thing is kind of a groin punch. 

That looked pretty gnarly, but he’s been through worse, which isn’t good. When you think of Dallas Goedert, the two things that come to mind are ‘good’ and ‘hurt a lot.’ These kinds of nicks and dings add up. It feels like he’ll probably play on Monday, but this is just another thing to keep an eye on. 

Darius Slay, Ankle

Slay’s taken some damage this year. Early in the Cowboys game, he had a pass breakup and came up a little lame. It seems like that’s becoming a weekly occurrence at this point. 

He’s turning 34 on January 1, 2025. We know that when cornerbacks fall off, they fall off incredibly quickly. Slay has not had that fall off, but there's a sinking feeling that any of these injuries, or the stacking effect of these injuries, might lead to that. 

That’s just a feeling though. He hasn’t shown that they’re adding up and affecting his on-field performance. Hopefully everything stays that way and these are just the side effects of a guy playing in the NFL for 12 years.

He was limited on Tuesday’s practice and he’ll probably play against the Commanders, but the question comes down to how much? Week 2 was the last time he played 100% of the defensive snaps, and since then, he hasn’t played more than 90% of the snaps in any game. Luckily Isaiah Rodgers has been coming in and playing really well, but Slay being on the field provides a sense of comfort that not many players can give you.

DeVonta Smith, Hamstring:

This is the second week in a row that DeVonta has been on the injury report with a hamstring. DeVonta has only missed two games in his entire career: Week 18 in 2023 and Week 4 of this season. 

DeVonta’s knock in the draft process was that he was too scrawny to be successful in the NFL, which has proven to have been wildly untrue. The dude might only be 185 pounds, but he’s apparently got the body structure of Wolverine and the elasticity of Mrs. Incredible. 

A hamstring is probably nothing to actually worry about with him, but who knows? Short weeks are dumb and they put players in a risky situation because they don’t get a full week’s rest and rehab. 

Bryce Huff, Wrist:

Bryce Huff is interesting only because of what Vic Fangio said in his Tuesday press conference. He was asked about Jalyx Hunt’s increased playing time and then brought up Huff without being questioned about him.

Vic said, “... Bryce, he’s got a big cast on his hand. It leaves his thumb totally immobilized, really his palm is immobilized. So really he’s got just four fingers dangling there with no thumb or palm to help him…”

It’s great to hear football guys describe injuries. “Four fingers just dangling there” is an objectively funny thing to hear a 66-year-old defensive coordinator say at a press conference.

Whatever the case, Bryce Huff was a full participant in practice on Tuesday. If things don’t get better for him by Thursday, and there’s no reason to think they will, we might get ourselves a pass rusher with one of those big old clubhands. 

That’s clearly not the most effective thing for a player to have on their hand, but it’s such an awesome thing to see. Club hands bring good vibes.

Jordan Mailata, Hamstring:

Jordan Mailata was a full participant in practice on Tuesday too. That seems like that's a good sign.

It wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for the Eagles to open up his 21-day practice window if he wasn’t going to play on Thursday, right? If they wanted to keep him on ice, they would simply keep him off the field until after the game or early next week. 

He says that he just wants to feel good when he plays and that he trusts the trainers to help him get there. Apparently, that plan was to not do “jack all” for the first couple of weeks because of the injury, but he’s been feeling better. 

Take from that what you will. Maybe he’s just saying the things that he’s been told to say to keep some sort of competitive advantage, or maybe it really will be a game-time decision. Whichever one it is, it’ll be great to see the big Aussie back on the field.