Eagles-Giants inactives, with analysis

Zach Ertz kneeling on the sidelines during the Philadelphia Eagles game against the LA Rams at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 20, 2020.
Kate Frese/for PhillyVoice

The Philadelphia Eagles, as always, are one of the most injury-ravaged teams in the NFL, if not the most. For a change, they'll face an opponent with some legitimate injuries of their own in the New York Giants, which is why the Eagles are a favorite in this one for the first time in a few weeks, according to TheLines.com.

Here are the Eagles' and Giants' inactives, with analysis.

• WR Alshon Jeffery🙄

RB Miles Sanders: Boston Scott's best games last year came against the Giants.

DT Malik Jackson: Jackson's strong season has maybe been overstated a bit. He has 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

OT Jack Driscoll: Lane Johnson is poised to return. Can he last the full game?

S K'Von Wallace: Wallace was unlikely to play in the regular defense with the Eagles seeing some defensive backs return from injury.

WR Quez Watkins: Quez is down with DeSean Jackson up.

QB Nate Sudfeld: Poor Nate.

• WR Jalen Reagor (short-term IR): Reagor tore the UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in his thumb. We covered his potential timeline for return in greater detail here. In a lost season, Reagor's development might have been some kind of silver lining, but the Eagles can't even get that, for now.

TE Zach Ertz (short-term IR): Ertz is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.

• TE Dallas Goedert (short-term IR): Goedert has a broken bone in his ankle, which is actually better than a high ankle sprain, but he'll still miss around 2 months of the season.

• LG Isaac Seumalo (short-term IR): With Seumalo out "for the foreseeable future," per Doug Pederson, the Eagles are without three starting offensive linemen.

• LT Jason Peters (short-term IR): Jordan Mailata has played better than Peters.

• LB T.J. Edwards (short-term IR): Not exactly a high bar, but Edwards has been the Eagles' best linebacker so far this season.

: Dillard struggled mightily as a rookie, and he came into camp as a clear player of interest, as he was poised to start at LT this season. He was up and down in camp, with the "down" moments being very alarming. Dillard injured his biceps, and is done for the season.

: He was better than Richard Rodgers?

: Hall tore an ACL on the final play of the 2019 regular season, because Pat Shurmur was calling timeouts to preserve every last minute of his NFL head coaching career.

COVID-19 Opt outs

• WR Marquise Goodwin: Goodwin was a veteran wide receiver with speed that the Eagles took a flier on, as something of an possible in-game replacement for DeSean Jackson.

We'll update with the Giants' inactives when they are made available.

: Barkley's season is over after he tore an ACL Week 2 against the Bears. Barkley is obviously the Giants' best player, and someone who has hurt the Eagles in the past. His four career games against Jim Schwartz and the Eagles' defense:

Year Rush Yards YPC TD 
2018, Week 6 13 130 10.0 
 2018, Week 1213 101 7.8 
 2019, Week 1417 66 3.9 
 2019, Week 1717 92 5.4 
 TOTAL60 389 6.5 

He also had 22 catches for 166 yards and a TD in those games.

 LT Nate Solder (COVID opt out): As we showed in our Giants dumpster fire piece in June, Solder was brutally bad in 2019. He was poised to retain his starting job at LT, however, but he opted out of the 2020 season.

: McKinney broke his foot, and had surgery to repair it. He was projected to start at safety for the Giants as a rookie this season. McKinney was a versatile playmaker in college who drew comparisons to another former Bama DB in Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Giants selected him in the second round (36th overall), which was a good value, in my view. McKinney could return later in the season, according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN:

Of course, that would be after each of the Eagles' matchups against the Giants.

• CB Sam Beal (COVID opt out): The Giants selected Beal with a third-round pick in the 2018 supplemental draft. He missed the entire 2018 season with an injury, and only played in 6 games (3 starts) in 2019. With DeAndre Baker having been released, Beal might have won a starting job, but he opted out of the 2020 season. The Giants subsequently signed veteran CB Logan Ryan.

Edge Oshane Ximines (IR): Ximines had 4.5 sacks as a rookie in 2019. He injured his shoulder against the Rams and went on IR.

This content and the links provided are sponsored by thelines.com and playpennsylvania.com, PhillyVoice.com’s Official 2020/2021 Betting Odds Partner, independently created by PhillyVoice.


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