A Week 3 win took an unnecessary toll on the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster. Throughout the game, Mekhi Becton, Lane Johnson, Britain Covey, DeVonta Smith, and Darius Slay all got either hurt or injured. It was a bloodbath for some incredibly important players.
The Eagles had a walkthrough instead of a full practice on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and we learned a little bit about the state of the roster going into Week 5. It’s mostly bad.
The Eagles injury report is pretty much the worst
Because the Eagles Wednesday practice was just a walkthrough, the Injury Report is just an estimation. Still, based on what we know of the players’ injuries and the Eagles' schedule, the word “estimation” might be more of a formality.
The single most important thing to keep in mind when thinking about the Eagles' injuries this week is that their bye week is next week. That means if someone is even remotely questionable for Week 4, they could rest this week and actually have two weeks of rest. That’s incredibly beneficial given how early the bye week is.
Wide Receivers, or lack thereof
It would be crazy for A.J. Brown to be active. He’s missed two games with some kind of hamstring injury that happened during practice. If he can get the extra two weeks of rest by missing Week 4, then give it to him. The level of explosiveness in the passing game isn’t the same without him, but it still exists. Just look at Dallas Goedert from last week and his two catches for 104 yards.
DeVonta’s brain is canned chili right now so let him rest even if it’s not mandated because concussions are no joke. Britain Covey went on the IR with some kind of broken bone in his shoulder. This makes the wide receiver group ruthlessly thin.
We're going to be watching Jahan Dotson, Johnny Wilson, Parris Campbell, and maybe John Ross as the guys on the outside. That’s really, really, really terrible. It might be worse than the Eagles' 2020 wide receiver group of J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, John Hightower, jalen reagor (who doesn’t deserve capital letters), and Greg Ward.
For reference, (per Next Gen Stats) Jahan Dotson has been targeted 148 times on 1,048 routes in his three-year career (14.1 percent target rate). He’s had 84 receptions for 1,055 yards (12.5 yards per catch).
Johnny Wilson is just a rookie, but he’s been targeted just four times on 24 routes (16.7 percent). He’s had one catch for nine yards.
Parris Campbell has been targeted 173 times on 1,009 routes (17 percent) in his six-year career. He’s had 119 catches for 1,100 yards (9.24 YPC).
It’s bad. These are guys who are not used to having anywhere remotely close to a WR1 workload, but they’re being thrust into that position. Luckily, again, Dallas Goedert has shown that he’s not washed up and he can turn short passes into huge gains and also be a downfield threat. It also helps that Kellen Moore has experience scheming tight ends open from his time in Dallas. All is not lost, but buddy ... It’s really close to being there.
The offensive line without Lane Johnson
Per Statmuse, when Lane Johnson plays, the Eagles have a record of 91-54-1. When Lane doesn’t play, their record is 14-22. Aside from Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson is the most important player on the Eagles roster and it’s not really close.
He’s in his 12th year in the NFL and this is the fourth time he would miss playing time due to concussions. There is no reason to rush him back, again, if he is even cleared. That means it would be Fred Johnson as the starting left tackle in Week 4.
That’s not a bad thing. We’ve seen players come in for Lane in the past and really struggle and it looked like Fred did pretty well as Lane’s relief in Week 3. Later into the game, the Saints’ defensive end Carl Granderson was able to win a few times, but for the most part, Fred was one of Lane’s better backups.
Week 4 is a totally different beast though. If the Buccaneers can see what worked against Fred, they might try to replicate it. If that’s the case, the right side of the offensive line might be a little compromised.
That’s because right guard Mekhi Becton was also on the injury report with a finger injury. He left the game in Week 3 and never played again despite coming back to the sideline with his helmet.
This assumption is based purely on the knowledge that the offensive line is a chain, and defenses attack the weakest link: it seems like it’s a good thing that it’s Becton’s left hand that is hurt rather than his right hand. It feels like you want your starting right guard’s right side of his upper body to be healthy when the guy to his right is a backup. That could be completely wrong, but it feels like it makes sense.
That being said, it sure would be cool if Becton was completely healthy. If he’s playing with a mondo-sized club on his left hand it’ll look awesome, but it’s going to be pretty disadvantageous. Vita Vea, the Buccaneers’ gigantic run-stuffing defensive tackle, likes to play on the inside, and having a right guard who has a hand with an opposable thumb on the side toward a game wrecker would be helpful.
Cornerback depth might be tested
It’s been awesome seeing Darius Slay play this year. He’s held up incredibly well and looks like he hasn’t lost a step, which is impressive for a defensive back who’s going to turn 34 on January 1st.
Slay left the game after a wildly dirty play when the Saints’ 325-pound left tackle Trevor Penning blocked the 190-pound cornerback into the parking lot.
Slay was a full participant in the Wednesday walkthrough, but players over 30 don’t bounce back from injuries the way 25-year-old players do. He simply cannot afford to take too many dings to his legs or else we might see the post-30 fall off.
He needs to stay healthy and it’s not great that he was unnecessarily dinged up in Week 3 because those kinds of things can add up quickly. If he’s not there it could be Kelee Ringo or Isaiah Rodgers, and both of them are downgrades.
Ringo came into the game when Slay left and the Saints immediately targeted him with a 25-yard shot to Chris Olave. That was probably because he came off the bench without warming up, but based on how well Quinyon Mitchell has been playing on the other side of the field, it would make sense for a quarterback to throw at Slay’s backup anyway.
The Eagles are in a tricky spot here because the NFC East plays the NFC South. That means a win against the Buccaneers will eventually mean something at the end of the season. It’s just hard to balance that with trying to keep playmakers and foundational players healthy for the next 13 games.
Should the Eagles rest less-than-healthy players to make sure they’re good to go for the next three months or should they go into this game with as many weapons as possible to win and bury the hopes and dreams of the other teams in the division? It’s always tough to decide between the smart thing to do and the really cool thing to do.