October 21, 2017
The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins released their official injury reports for Monday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles are getting healthy once again, while the Redskins have a number of significant injuries.
Here's the final injury report, with analysis:
• CB Ronald Darby (ankle): Darby's injury was originally diagnosed as a 4-6 week injury, and next Monday night will mark six weeks and one day from when it occurred Week 1 against the Redskins. He was a limited participant in practice this week on Thursday and Friday.
Earlier in the week, Doug Pederson explained what he needs to see from Darby to allow him to play Monday night.
"Obviously, with the time off, there are a lot of things that are involved," Pederson explained. "Conditioning, number one, is probably the most important thing. How sore does he get during the week? By no means do I want to rush him back and say 'Hey, we said this is the week or whatever, let's go play.' There are a lot of factors that have to be right. The stars have to align in order for him to be ready to go. This week will be good just to get back and get that process of practicing and getting that conditioning."
We'll see.
• LB Jordan Hicks (ankle): Hicks left last Thursday' win over the Panthers with an ankle injury, but will be good to go this week against the Redskins, per Hicks himself. With Hicks likely back in the starting lineup, Mychal Kendricks will see his snaps decrease, but he has played very well whenever he has been asked to fill in.
• Mychal Kendricks (hamstring): A week after making 17 tackles against the Panthers, Kendricks was a late addition to the injury report with his yearly soft tissue injury.
• RB Wendell Smallwood (knee): Smallwood was a full participant in practice all week, so he's likely to play on Monday.
• RB Darren Sproles: Sproles is done 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's 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.
With Sproles out, Wendell Smallwood is the player who most closely mirrors Sproles' skill set, and Kenjon Barner has assumed punt return duties.
• CB Sidney Jones: Jones was eligible to come off the NFI list after Week 6, at which point he would have been allowed to practice for three weeks before the Eagles will have to decide whether to add him to the 53-man roster or shut him down for the season. The Eagles still have a couple more weeks to decide to take him off the NFI list before his three-week practice period.
• K Caleb Sturgis: Sturgis was placed on IR with a quad injury suffered Week 1 against the Redskins. He was replaced by newly minted Philadelphia legend Jake Elliott.
• S Chris Maragos: Maragos suffered a knee injury against the Panthers, and was placed on IR. He was the Eagles' best player on their kick coverage unit on special teams, and served as the Eagles' special teams captain.
• CB Josh Norman (rib): With Norman out and Bashaud Breeland hampered with a knee injury, the Redskins will have to rely on some combination of Breeland, Quinton Dunbar, Kendall Fuller, Fabian Moreau, and Joshua Hosley to cover Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith, Nelson Agholor, and Mack Hollins. In that event, you may see Doug Pederson try to spread the Redskins' defense out with some more empty backfield sets than normal.
• OT Ty Nsekhe (core muscle): Nsekhe is Trent Williams' backup at LT, which means the Redskins are basically screwed if Williams cannot play. (Williams is listed as questionable below.)
• OG Tyler Catalina (concussion): Backup guard.
• OT Trent Williams (knee): Williams was a game-time decision last week against the 49ers with a meniscus injury, and remains hampered by it heading into Monday night. Williams is considered by some to be the best left tackle in the NFL. Even if he plays, he will likely not be 100 percent.
• CB Bashaud Breeland (knee): Breeland isn't exactly the fastest corner in the league, so expect the Eagles to test his knee if he plays.
• S Deshazor Everett (hamstring): Everett is known by Eagles fans as the cheap shot artist who laid out Darren Sproles with a helmet to helmet hit while Sproles was trying to field a punt last season.
• RB Robert Kelley (ankle): On the season, "Fat Rob" has 29 carries for 131 yards (4.5 YPC).
• LB Mason Foster (shoulder): Foster is a starting linebacker for the Redskins. On the season, he has 25 tackles and 1 INT.
• S Stefan McClure (knee): No relation to Troy McClure.
• DL Jonathan Allen: Over the last two seasons in college, Allen was the best player on a dominant Alabama defense, posting 22.5 sacks and 30.5 tackles for loss. While not an elite athlete by any stretch, Allen does very clearly possess impressive quickness for a 286-pound man, and his country strength was evident when you watched him shed blocks. Leading up to the draft, some made the comparison to Fletcher Cox, which I can see. He was easily a top-five talent in this draft.
So if Allen was so good, why did he slip to pick 17? Well, Allen has an arthritic shoulder, which caused teams to lower his draft grade. The Eagles even had an opportunity to draft Allen at 14th overall, but opted instead for DE Derek Barnett.
Allen's injury was to his foot, which will need surgery. Obviously, that is unrelated to his arthritic shoulder. Allen was a handful for the Eagles' interior offensive line Week 1, and is a big loss to the Redskins.
• OLB Trent Murphy: Murphy tore his ACL and will miss the season on IR. He had a breakout season in 2016, collecting 9 sacks and 3 forced fumbles.
• S Su'a Cravens: Cravens was placed on the non-football/exempt list while he pondered whether or not he wants to retire. The Redskins have since shut him down for the season. Here's what we said about Cravens in our 2016 Redskins draft grades:
As a player, Cravens is one of the trendy LB/S hybrids in the same mold of the Cardinals' Deone Bucannon. His mental makeup, however, has both been praised and criticized. On the one hand, Cravens is thought of as a highly instinctual player with a nose for the football. On the other hand, I was told he interviewed horribly, and even told teams that he did not like practicing.
In other words, Cravens' situation does not come as a major surprise to me.
• K Dustin Hopkins: Hopkins suffered a hip rotator muscle strain, which is probably a big deal for a kicker. He's on IR. To replace Hopkins, the Redskins signed rookie Nick Rose, who is probably not going to hit any 61-yard game winning field goals.
• S DeAngelo Hall: Hall started the season on the PUP list, as he is still not yet fully recovered from a torn ACL suffered Week 3 last season against the Giants.
• NT Phil Taylor: Taylor was a first round pick in 2011 who hasn't played since 2014, but the Redskins took a shot on him with a non-guaranteed deal this season. He reportedly had a good camp, and was poised to start at NT until he tore a quad and landed on IR.
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