Latest Injury Report rules out Three Eagles Starters vs Vikings

The Philadelphia Eagles have a quick turnaround from their Week One victory over the Patriots and play on Thursday Night Football against the Vikings. Both teams have ruled out key players for Thursday's game that puts certain positional matchups into question.

The Eagles Injury Report has ruled out three starters for the home opener Thursday Night against the Vikings while Veteran Defensive Tackle Fletcher Cox is listed as Questionable after being a Limited Participant at this week's Walk-Through Practices:

The one player ruled out that is not a surprise is Starting Cornerback James Bradberry, who has been in the NFL Concussion Protocols all week.  Because of the NFL's strict process for players to be cleared from the Concussion Protocol, it makes it very rare that those players will be available to play on a short week.  With Bradberry out of the lineup, the expectation is that Josh Jobe will play the Outside Corner Spot across the field from Darius Slay.  Thursday Night would be Jobe's first NFL start in his second season with the Eagles but in 27 games playing Cornerback at the University of Alabama, Jobe was a reliable player for the Rolling Tide compiling Three Interceptions, Two Sacks, 18 Passed Deflected, and 88 Solo Tackles.

The biggest concern is how the Eagles Defense will playout with Bradberry AND starting Safety Reed Blankenship.  The second year Safety was the Eagles leader in Tackles in Week One and had won the starting job because of his reliability.  Without Blankenship starting at Safety, veteran Terrell Edmunds will get the start in the Eagles Secondary.  Edmunds is a fundamentally reliable Defensive Back but without Bradberry at Cornerback, the Eagles Defense will be at a disadvantage against a Viking Offense with arguably the best Wide Receiver in the NFL (Justin Jefferson) and one of the best pass-catching Tight Ends in the league (TJ Hockenson).

After Kenny Gainwell functioned as the Primary Running Back for the Eagles' Offense in Sunday's win over the Patriots, he will be unavailable to play on Thursday Night.  Without Gainwell, the Eagles have two veteran Running Backs who have shown they can be very productive in the NFL.  D'Andre Swift has compiled 18 Rushing Touchdowns and 7 Receiving Touchdowns during his three seasons with the Detroit Lions.  Rashaad Penny had Eight Rushing Touchdowns and averaged 6.2 Yards per Rush Attempt over the last two seasons for the Seattle Seahawks.

The Minnesota Vikings are entering their matchup with the Eagles on Thursday Night with injuries on their Offensive Line.  Garrett Bradbury is the Vikings' starter at Center and without him playing the team will be asking backup Austin Schlottmann to get on the same page with starting Quarterback Kirk Cousins against a talented Eagles Defensive Front.  Starting Left Tackle Christian Darishaw was a Limited Participant at Walk-Through Practices this week so he will be less than 100 percent going against the Eagles Defense that had 17 Quarterback Hurries in Week One.