Eagles BREAKING: Zech McPhearson OUT for Season

For the second consecutive preseason game, the Philadelphia Eagles lost one of their top special-teams players.

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles have lost a second core special-teams player to a torn Achilles inside of a week.

Five days after Shaun Bradley was lost for the season with the injury during the preseason opener at Baltimore, an MRI confirmed that cornerback Zech McPhearson will also be sidelined this season with a torn Achilles suffered during an 18-18 preseason tie with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night.

#Eagles CB Zech McPhearson suffered a torn Achilles last night in their preseason game vs the #Browns, source says. He is out for the season.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 18, 2023

McPhearson is the Eagles' top gunner on punt coverage and arguably their top backup cornerback behind Darius Slay, James Brandberry, and Avonte Maddox.

The versatile McPhearson spent the first two seasons of his career playing outside cornerback behind Slay and Steve Nelson during his rookie season and then Slay and Bradberry during the Eagles' run to Super Bowl LVII in 2022-23.

The Eagles moved McPhearson to the slot in the spring and the third-year pro who played his college ball at Penn State and Texas Tech recently returned to cross-training to both be an inside and outside reserve at the position. McPhearson also recently added punt returner to the list of tasks he could handle for Philadelphia.

Against Cleveland, McPhearson started at right cornerback opposite Josh Jobe with Slay and Bradberry sitting out.

He was injured in the second quarter of the win after a nice pass breakup on a Dorian Thompson-Robinson throw to Jalen Wayne that defensive tackle Kentavius Street nearly intercepted. McPhearson landed awkwardly, however, and was unable to put any weight on his right leg.

McPhearson was helped off the field by trainers before ultimately being carted off from the sideline to the locker room.

Without McPhearson, Jobe will settle in as the top backup on the outside with rookies Kelee Ringo, Mekhi Garner, and Eli Ricks in the mix, as well as veteran Greedy Williams.

Inside, Mario Goodrich, who started against the Browns, and Josiah Scott are available.

The biggest issue might be replacing McPhearson on coverage units, however. He led Philadelphia in special teams snaps in his first town seasons with 325 in 2021 and 362 last season when he led the Eagles with nine special teams tackles and earned NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors after recovering a surprise onside kick in the 2022 season opener at Detroit.   

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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen