When the Philadelphia Eagles host rival Washington Football Team on Sunday night, they will be looking to not only play spoilers at NFC East, but potentially save the job of coach Doug Pederson. They may be doing this, however, without a series of key initiators. According NBC Sports Philadelphia and NFL Network, the Eagles are expected to have a handful of rehab veterans who could prepare for action, probably to avoid further injury before an important off-season.
As Phil Bow.com’s Les Bowen speculates, “No one who can make an injury worse will see the field for the Eagles.” Those numbers include the running back Miles Sanders, the wide receiver DeSean Jackson, the tight end Dallas Goedert, the left tackle Jordan Mailata, the defensive Derek Barnett and the defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, all of whom missed training this week with various illnesses.
Philadelphia was already scheduled to enter the end of Sunday’s season pretty exhausted on the defensive side of the ball, where coordinator Jim Schwartz was forced to call up reserves and new faces in secondary on week 16. Without Sanders, Jackson, Goedert and Mailata in the attack, however, Pederson’s own unit will likely depend on younger backups – from Boston Scott’s running back to rookie Jalen Reagor to face Matt Pryor and Brett Toth – around rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts.
This could be good news for Washington, which needs a win on Sunday night to secure NFC East and a playoff spot.