PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - The Eagles placed receiver Mack Hollins on injured reserve Thursday before the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons.

Hollins had already been ruled out of the game Tuesday with a groin injury.

"This week, [he had] a little bit of a minor setback," coach Doug Pederson said when discussing Hollins. "We just made the decision to keep him out of this football game, and then we'll evaluate after we get a little bit of time after this game."

That evaluation on Hollins, a second-year player out of North Carolina who had sports-hernia surgery back in February, was obviously moved up

Also out Thursday is WR1 Alshon Jeffery, who is expected to miss at least the first two games of the campaign as he recovers from offseason rotator cuff surgery.

Interestingly Hollins had told reporters earlier in the week that he believed he was ready to play. Now he will be out a minimum of eight games.

The Eagles re-signed veteran Markus Wheaton this week after originally releasing him in the cutdown to 53.

With Hollins to IR, the Eagles had only six inactive players on Thursday: quarterback Carson Wentz and Jeffery, who both had already been ruled out, as well as three offensive linemen, rookies Jordan Mailata and Matt Pryor, and Chance Warmack, plus rookie defensive end Josh Sweat.

Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Wentz's absence could now be for several more weeks.

went deep at OL on the final 53-man roster but only Halapoulivaati Vaitai (swing tackle) and Issac Seumalo (interior) were the only backups on game day.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

 

More From 97.3 ESPN