October 19, 2019
When the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Dallas Cowboys tonight, they'll be without a number of their key players, as usual. The Dallas Cowboys, on the other hand, are banged up as well, but many of them are giving it a go.
Here are the Eagles' and Cowboys' inactives, with analysis.
• WR DeSean Jackson: Without Jackson, the Eagles are absent a true threat to take the top off a defense, which allows opposing defenses to allocate more resources toward stopping the run, as well as the short-to-intermediate areas of the field in the passing game.
The Eagles' offense has been slow in Jackson's absence, and often frustrating for its lack of big-play ability from the remaining receivers.
• LT Jason Peters: Peters is "week-to-week" with a knee injury. Rookie first-round pick Andre Dillard will fill in, and see a lot of Cowboys DE Robert Quinn, as we noted in our five matchups to watch.
• LB Nigel Bradham: With the Eagles cutting Zach Brown this week, the likely starting LBs will be Kamu Grugier-Hill and Nate Gerry, with undrafted rookie T.J. Edwards mixing in. Bradham's absence in this matchup is more meaningful, with Ezekiel Elliott running the ball.
• CB Avonte Maddox: Andrew Sendejo nearly ended Maddox's career with a reckless "friendly fire" shot to Maddox's head against the Packers. He's still week-to-week.
• DT Timmy Jernigan: Jernigan became a starter when Malik Jackson was likely lost for the season with a Lisfranc injury Week 1. Jernigan is expected to be out for a while, possibly into November.
• RB Darren Sproles: Sproles is week to week with a quad injury. This is the third straight season that he is going to miss a substantial amount of time. While Sproles has had an outstanding career, but he is now 36 and it really made little sense to bring him back this season.
• iOL Nate Herbig: The Eagles should be using Herbig as a field-stretching wideout with DeSean Jackson out, but they continue to refuse to play him. Senseless.
• DT Malik Jackson (IR): Originally, the loss of Jackson hurt most when the Eagles forced obvious passing downs, as the Eagles don't have a clear replacement for him in those second-and third-and-long situations. In the base defense, however, Jernigan was a capable replacement who played well Week 1, after missing almost the entirety of the 2018 season with a mysterious back injury. With Jernigan now out as well, the Eagles are digging deep into their DT depth, and they'll need guys like Hassan Ridgeway and Akeem Spence to step up.
• RB Corey Clement (IR): Clement worked his way back from a knee injury only to suffer a shoulder injury Week 2 against the Falcons that wasn't getting better.
• CB Cre'Von LeBlanc (IR): LeBlanc is out with a Lisfranc injury. He'll be allowed to practice after Week 6 of the regular season, and can return to the active roster after Week 8.
• OT Jordan Mailata (IR): Mailata has a back injury, but he's mainly on IR because the Eagles needed the roster spot.
• DE Joe Ostman (IR): Ostman was having a great camp, before he was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
• DL Tyrone Crawford (IR): Crawford was a starter who played both DE and DT in the Cowboys' scheme. He had a sack in each game against the Eagles in 2018. Crawford's season is over, as he'll have hip surgery.
• DE Randy Gregory (Suspended): The NFL suspended Randy Gregory indefinitely for violating the league's substance abuse policy. That is now his fourth NFL suspension!
• S Kavon Frazier (IR): A pectoral injury suffered in the Saints game ended his season. He appeared in all 16 games in 2018, and all 4 for which he was healthy in 2019. Good special teams player.
• OG Connor McGovern (IR): Rookie 3rd round pick, went on IR with a pectoral injury.
• DT Daniel Ross (IR): Backup DT.
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