January 13, 2018
The Philadelphia Eagles have announced their inactives for their divisional-round playoff matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. Here they are, with analysis:
• CB Sidney Jones: Jones suffered a hamstring injury during the Eagles' Week 17 loss to Dallas, so he's down. I'm curious if he would have been up otherwise.
• DE Steven Means: Means is the victim of a numbers crunch once again at DE. He's a good player, but there isn't enough room for him on the final 46.
• RB Wendell Smallwood: Smallwood has been inactive for most of the end of the season. He is the fifth running back in the pecking order.
• OT Will Beatty: The Eagles are one injury away from Isaac Seumalo playing tackle.
• WR Marcus Johnson: Johnson is inactive once again like he's consistently been the last part of the season.
• DT Destiny Vaeao: This is a surprise inactive. The Eagles only have three active defensive tackles.
• DT Elijah Qualls: Qualls is the fifth DT.
• 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.
• 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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