Tuesday Eagles Injury Report: Questions On The Line And Defense

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles released their latest Injury Report after a Walk Through Practice that leaves the status of several players on the Offensive and Defensive Lines in question for Thursday Night

With several injuries impacting the Eagles Offensive Line, listing Lane Johnson as a Limited Participant sends mixed signals after Doug Pederson was non-committal about Johnson when he spoke to the media on Monday.  The expectation is that the Eagles will be without Jack Driscoll for a couple weeks and if Lane Johnson cannot play, Philadelphia may be stuck starting Brett Toth at Right Tackle.  Before coming in relief of an injured Driscoll this past Sunday, Toth has not played any meaningful football snaps since the 2018 Senior Bowl; his Senior Year started 12 games at Right Tackle for the Army Black Knights.

Avonte Maddox has missed the last three games and with his status undetermined for Thursday Night, the Eagles have to prepare for the potential of another game without one of their starting Outside Cornerbacks.  On Tuesday, Jim Schwartz was asked about why the team started Nickell Robey-Coleman on the Outside and moved Jalen Mills back to safety versus the Ravens:

Just matchups with their wide receivers, particularly a guy like [Ravens WR Marquise] Brown, a smaller guy that can just fly. We thought that [CB Nickell] Robey-Coleman would be a good matchup.  Other than the first third down, he was loose on his coverage on that first third and 12, I think our whole defense was adjusting to the speed that those guys had. It's hard to replicate the speed....I thought that, in particular, Robey, after that first series, I thought he really settled down and did an outstanding job. That's the most he's played corner, probably going back to USC and he's probably an eight-, nine-year guy in the NFL right now. It was another unselfish move for our guys. He's obviously best suited in the slot. - Obviously, Avonte (Maddox) was our starter coming into the season. He's working his way back from an injury. We'll see where he is. We have some different ways that we can go with it depending on matchups and things like that. But we'll just see where we get to on Thursday night. Like I said, I was pleased with (Nickell Robey-Coleman).

Also Safety Marcus Epps was a limited participant and Rookie K'Vonn Wallace is still listed as Did Not Participate.  The return of Will Parks from his injury was an important post for the Secondary that is having to adjust week to week due to injuries and different matchups.  The Giants have an offense on Thursday Night with Speed Receiver Darius Slayton and Mobile Quarterback Daniel Jones, so one could theorize the Eagles use a similar strategy against New York.  Jim Schwartz spoke about the players willingness to move around on defense each week:

Our guys have a do-whatever-it-takes mentality. It's going to be a little bit different on a weekly basis. Sometimes it's due to injury. Sometimes it's just due to matchups. Sometimes it's due to responsibility in the game plan. But they are up for the challenge....But that's life in the NFL. I mean, you start the season, and you have one plan and then on a weekly basis or a monthly basis or whatever basis, whether it's game plan, personnel matchup or injury, you have to be able to be flexible and change. And I think that you see that from our secondary, guys like Robey trained at corner. Strap played at corner. Both of those guys have played inside-type roles. Safeties can play corner if we need them to. I think that it's obviously not reflected in our record, but I think that that's something that's important to us over the course of 16 games.