September 24, 2015
The first few weeks of DeMarco Murray’s Eagles career have not gone according to plan. Through two games, the NFL’s reigning rushing champ has an unthinkable 11 yards on 21 carries after the Eagles offensive line has been, well, offensive blocking for him. And now he has to fight off the injury bug.
Murray left Wednesday’s practice with a tweaked hamstring, and his status for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets is up in the air.
“I think they said it’s tweaked,” Chip Kelly said of Murray’s hamstring. “They will see what it is, he’s not going to go today. We’ll see what he does on Friday and Saturday and make a determination of whether or not he’ll play on Sunday.”
Murray did indeed sit out drills during Thursday’s practice. Losing him against New York would be a big deal, but running back is a position where the Eagles have solid depth with Ryan Mathews, Darren Sproles, and Kenjon Barner.
Another position where the Eagles are deep and will be tested is linebacker. Kelly finally confirmed what most already suspected: Kiko Alonso, who the head coach said sprained his knee last Sunday against Dallas, won’t play against the Jets.
“Kiko won’t go this week,” Kelly said. “He’s not going to go [at practice] today so it doesn’t look like he’ll go this week and we’ll just evaluate it.”
Standing next to Alonso watching linebacker drills was starter Mychal Kendricks, who suffered a hamstring injury at The Linc last Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. According to the head coach, Kendricks is still day-to-day.
“Still don’t know,” Kelly said when asked about Kendricks’ status. “I think he’s going to do some things with [Director of Sports Science] Shaun Huls today and then we’ll monitor him going into tomorrow and Saturday.”
The Eagles will learn just how shorthanded they are in practices at Monmouth over the weekend. Veteran DeMeco Ryans and rookie Jordan Hicks, who played well against the Cowboys, will likely get the majority of snaps at inside linebacker if Kendricks can’t go.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
