Philadelphia Eagles Knocked Down With Injuries; Who Rises vs. Miami Dolphins?
PHILADELPHIA – Knocked down in New York, the Philadelphia Eagles must rise from the canvas in a hurry in order to be ready for Sunday night’s heavyweight matchup against the Miami Dolphins in a primetime bout on Sunday night.
They are two of the top pre-Halloween teams in the NFL. There’s plenty of football left, but right now, the Eagles and Dolphins are the two best teams in their respective conferences, and this very well could be a preview of Super Bowl LVIII.
Philly is bloodied right now, and head coach Nick Sirianni wasn’t offering any tourniquets when it came time to offer any injury updates in his day-after-game news conference.
The entire right side of the best offensive line in the biz could be manned by backups, depending on the health of Lane Johnson’s ankle. The right tackle hobbled off the field, into the locker room, and onto the X-ray table on the first possession of the Eagles' stunning 20-14 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
Sirianni isn’t saying anything about Johnson’s status.
“Obviously we're really early,” he said. “Real early. Got to see Lane (Monday). Got to talk to Lane (Monday). Status is to be announced. We'll see how it goes.
“I know Lane is going to want to do everything he can do to play. We're going to want to do everything we can to get him to play. He's one of the best players in the NFL. It's going to be important that he's on the field.”
Johnson is tough, to be sure. He played through a torn groin in the postseason last year.
The Eagles are a different team without him in the lineup, going just 10-22 in games he hasn’t started since being drafted fourth overall in 2013.
Lane Johnson
Ed Kracz/SI Fan Nation Eagles today
Jack Driscoll stepped in and mostly got stepped on as the Jets pressured Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. He wasn’t alone in allowing the Jets to push the line backward.
“We have won a lot of football games with Jack Driscoll there playing a little bit last year when Lane had to miss, too, but make no mistake about it, when you lose a guy like Lane, he's just one of the better players in the NFL,” said Sirianni. “It's going to affect things. I’ve got a ton of confidence in Jack.
“We'll continue to work with Jack. Jack is versatile and can do a lot of different things. We'll try to put Jack in the best positions we can to help him succeed as well.”
Sua Opeta, starting his second straight game in place of Cam Jurgens, who is on injured reserve and still must miss at least two more games, didn’t appear to play as well against the Jets as he did against the Los Angeles Rams in a Week 5 win.
Hey, at least Jason Kelce is still available. The veteran center started his 145th straight game in Week 6 to set a new franchise record.
Then there’s the secondary, a big concern with the speedy Dolphins wideouts, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Braxton Berrios, and Robbie Chosen.
The Eagles have already shuffled through 15 defensive backs after enduring season-ending injuries to cornerbacks Avonte Maddox and Zech McPhearson. They have been without cornerback James Bradberry for a game and, against the Jets, they didn’t have cornerback Darius Slay.
Even backups Eli Ricks and Mario Goodrich have been banged up.
It isn’t any better at safety, where Justin Evans was put on IR prior to the game in New York, Sydney Brown has missed three straight games, and Reed Blankenship was knocked from the game with a rib injury, something that already forced him to sit out a game this season.
The only healthy safety at this point is Terrell Edmunds.
“Kind of when it rains it pours on that position, right, because we've been - the injuries have gotten us there,” said Sirianni.
It’s so bad at safety that undrafted free agent cornerback Mekhi Garner had to make his pro debut at a position he never played before when Blankenship got hurt against the Jets.
Garner had been elevated from the practice squad the day before the game for the first time this year prior to the game in case an emergency struck. And, of course, it did.
“Our defensive coaches did a really nice job getting Mekhi reps these last couple weeks,” said Sirianni. “He's been doing it for the last couple weeks. We’ve just got to be able to do that with guys consistently throughout the year just because you're limited in the amount of players you have, you’re limited to the amount of guys you can have up on game day.
“So good job by Mekhi. I thought he did a nice job. He hasn't played a lot at safety outside of practice, so I thought he did a nice job under the circumstances, and he'll continue to improve.”
The Eagles don’t have any choice. Their options are shrinking and they have to find a way to stem the bleeding against the high-flying Dolphins who enter with the league's best offense and top point-producing team.
“It's business as usual,” said Sirianni. “We had some hard conversations (Monday) as coaches. We had some hard conversations together as a team to make sure we got better from this (Jets) game.”
