January 11, 2018
The Philadelphia Eagles have had a laundry list of major injures this season, most notably Cars... oh hell, you know the list by now. The Atlanta Falcons, meanwhile, have had incredible injury luck all season long. Here's the Eagles' final Saturday injury report:
• LB Dannell Ellerbe (hamstring): Ellerbe has been an upgrade over Joe Walker at middle linebacker, and he may see an increased role with the Falcons playing a fair amount sets with a fullback, assuming he plays, which he should.
• CB Sidney Jones (hamstring): A couple weeks ago, we looked at Sidney Jones' debut, with gifs and stuff. There was some good (speed looked like it was there) and some bad (beaten on double move, bad angle in run game), which is about what you would expect of a talented kid playing in his first game Week 17 after missing the rest of the season before that.
I'd be surprised if Jones doesn't land on the inactive list, even if he were 100 percent healthy. We'll see.
• QB Carson Wentz: The MVP award was going to be given to either Tom Brady or Carson Wentz, so obviously, the loss of Wentz cannot be overstated. Filling in for Wentz, of course, has been the much-maligned Nick Foles
• LT Jason Peters: Peters tore his ACL and MCL against the Redskins. Halapoulivaati Vaitai has filled in, and has struggled at times.
• LB Jordan Hicks: Hicks wasn't off to his best season this year when he went down with a ruptured Achilles. Still, it's a big loss for the Eagles' defense, though the Eagles have adapted.
• RB Darren Sproles: Sproles was lost for the season with a torn ACL. On the field, Sproles was the Eagles' most well-rounded running back, as he can run inside, run outside, be a weapon in the passing game, and he was easily the team's best back in pass protection. Obviously, because of his small size, however, Sproles has been never been used as a 'workhorse' type of back, but he was typically on the field in the Eagles' most crucial situations. He was also the team's primary punt returner.
• K Caleb Sturgis: Sturgis was placed on IR with a quad injury suffered Week 1 against the Redskins. He was replaced by Jake Elliott.
• None. It’s the Falcons’ 18th game, and they have no injuries. I don’t know how that’s possible.
• OG Andy Levitre: Levitre was the Falcons' starting LG, until he was lost for the season the week before their wildcard round game against the Los Angeles Rams with a triceps injury. Levitre was a good-not-great starter, but his replacement, Ben Garland, got torn apart by Aaron Donald last week.
• DE Jack Crawford: Former Dallas Cowboy DE who is "just a guy," but was part of the Falcons' defensive line rotation. In four games, he had five tackles.
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