Jalen Hurts won't have much help available in revenge game vs. Buccaneers

The Philadelphia Eagles visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday with a chance at revenge. The Bucs, of course, eliminated Philadelphia from the playoffs back in January, putting an end to the misery of every Eagles fan. Philadelphia lost six of its final seven games last season, infamously squandering a 10-1 start.

By the time Philly lined up against Tampa Bay in the playoffs, the Eagles were a sailboat without a rudder, completely beholden to the whims of mother nature. There was nothing guiding that team in a particular direction. All the talent was there, but none of the discipline and execution we were used to seeing from Nick Sirianni's team.

What followed was a spate of reports about disconnects in the locker room and power struggles on the coaching staff. It became clear that Sirianni was trying to do too much, sapping power away from his coordinators and leading the Eagles astray on both ends. Philadelphia kept Siranni around this season, but overhauled the coordinating roles to bring in two established play-callers — Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio.

It has not been seamless, but the Eagles are 2-1 and should've beaten the Falcons on MNF in Week 3, if we're being honest. This is a good, maybe even great team with more than enough depth across the board to contend in the NFC. That said, injuries continue to play a factor, and that could make life especially difficult for Sunday's showdown with the Bucs.

Eagles to deal with multiple key absences in the WR room vs. Buccaneers

Both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have been ruled out for Sunday's game.

Brown suffered a hamstring injury in practice a couple weeks ago. Smith suffered a concussion in last Sunday's win over the Saints on a blatantly dirty hit. Brown was questionable to begin the week, but has since been downgraded as the Eagles presumably play it safe with their top wideout.

That leaves Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense at a distinct disadvantage this weekend. Jahan Dotson steps into the de facto WR1 role, while Philadelphia's only other active WR before the injuries was rookie Johnny Wilson. In order to flesh out the depth chart in the interim, Parris Campbell and John Ross have been called up from the practice squad.

Campbell has been the recipient of much praise from Nick Sirianni, so don't be surprised if he's well and truly involved in the game plan this weekend.

On the whole, though, this generally means that Philadelphia will lean more heavily on the run. Saquon Barkley has been plenty effective in his standard workhorse role, while Jalen Hurts has never been averse to the occasional sprint around the edge of the defense. Philadelphia still has the infrastructure to get a win, but the margin for error is much slimmer without the game-breaking speed and skill of Brown and Smith out wide.

Tampa Bay enters the game 2-1, coming off an embarrassing 26-7 loss to the Broncos. That shouldn't give Philly too much peace of mind, however, as the Bucs also have impressive wins over Washington and Detroit under their belt. Baker Mayfield has settled into a groove as Tampa's signal-caller and there's never a peaceful moment for the defense when Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are running routes.