Heading into Week 6, the Eagles are getting healthier, as the entire offensive line participated fully in practice on Friday. The Cowboys, meanwhile, have major injuries to extremely important players, like QB Dak Prescott and LT Tyron Smith.
Here are the Eagles' and Cowboys' inactives, with analysis.
• QB Ian Book: No. 3 quarterback.
• RB Trey Sermon: Sermon was active for a couple of games while Boston Scott was nursing a rib injury.
• OL Josh Sills: The Eagles will have nine active offensive linemen. Andre Dillard will back up Jordan Mailata, Jack Driscoll will back up Lane Johnson, Cam Jurgens will back up Jason Kelce, and Sua Opeta will back up Landon Dickerson and Isaac Seumalo.
• DE Tarron Jackson: The Eagles felt it more necessary to have nine linemen up than have Johnson active for special teams duties. Can't say I disagree with them there.
• CB Josh Jobe: Jobe has a shoulder injury.
• S Reed Blankenship: The Eagles called up Andre Chachere for this game.
Notable players on IR, PUP, suspension, etc.
• DE Derek Barnett (IR): Barnett tore his ACL Week 1 against the Lions, and his season is over. After a 2021 season in which he had 8 penalties vs. 2.5 sacks, Barnett lost his starting job, but remained a depth player poised to get his share of snaps in 2022.
The Cowboys' inactives:
As expected, Dak Prescott won't play, and Cooper Rush will get his fifth start of the season. Rush is proving to be a smart, ball control quarterback who knows his limitations. He has not turned the ball over (0 INTs, 0 lost fumbles), while allowing the defense to win games. However, the Cowboys have also not generated many big plays down the field, as they only have 12 completions of 20+ yards this season, which is tied for the fourth-lowest in the NFL. They have 44 passing first downs, or just 8.8 per game. That's fifth-worst, in the company of teams like the Bears, Panthers, and Texans.
The challenge for Jonathan Gannon and the Eagles defense will be to try to force Rush to have to make plays down the field.
The other noteworthy inactive is Dalton Schultz, the Cowboys' starting tight end.
Notable players on IR, PUP, suspension, etc.
• LT Tyron Smith: The Cowboys' offensive line took a huge blow when they lost Smith, the longtime starting LT, before the season even began. Pre-injury, the Cowboys' offensive line starting five looked like this:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Tyron Smith | Tyler Smith | Tyler Biadasz | Zack Martin | Terence Steele |
Post-injury, the Cowboys opted to kick first-round rookie Tyler Smith out to LT, with a combination of Connor McGovern, Matt Farniok, and old friend Jason Peters filling in at LG. Peters has been the best of the bunch, but his snaps are limited and he's already injured as well.
• DE Tarell Basham: 39 tackles, 3.5 sacks in a rotational role last season. Basham injured his thigh Week 1 against the Buccaneers and landed on IR.
• WR James Washington: After trading away Amari Cooper and losing Cedrick Wilson in free agency, the Cowboys signed Washington to help with the depth at receiver, but he broke his foot in training camp, and has not yet been able to play.
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