The injury news wasn’t all negative on Saturday morning.
The Eagles have ruled out standout wide receiver A.J. Brown for the playoff game in Tampa, but head coach Nick Sirianni is bullish about Reed Blankenship’s prospects of playing Monday night against the Bucs.
That’s wonderful news given how thin the Eagles are at safety right now.
Blankenship injured his groin during Sunday’s regular-season finale loss to the Giants and did not practice Thursday or Friday.
“He’s progressing,” Sirianni said Saturday morning. “He has a chance. He’ll presumably make a decision closer to game time. But he’s going out there to work today, and we’ll see how he feels.
Blankenship was at practice in the Bubble on Saturday morning, but he did not appear to participate during the brief media session. When rain and wind forced practice indoors, the Eagles had the opportunity to reconsider Blankenship’s participation. Alternatively, that “work” could have been an individual session held during or after practice.
In either case, the Eagles want to have the 24-year-old in Tampa.
“We’ll work him again (Sunday) and probably work him out on the field on Monday night (before the game),” added Sirianni. “And so we’re hopeful that he can go, but we’ll see.”
With rookie safety Sidney Jones out for the year with a torn ACL, the Eagles are down to Kevin Byard as the only full-time safety who’s healthy.
The season began with Justin Evans, Terrell Edmunds, K’Von Wallace and Brown competing for a starting spot opposite Blankenship. Evans is out for the year with a knee injury, Edmunds was traded to the Titans in the deal that brought Byard to the Eagles in October and Wallace also finished with the Titans after beginning the season with the Cards.
If Blankenship were unable to play Monday, the Eagles’ options opposite Byard would be moving slot corner Avonte Maddox to safety or playing a rarely used practice squad defensive back like Tristin McCollum or Mekhi Garner.
McCollum got his first career snaps on defense Sunday in East Rutherford and played 17 snaps at safety. Garner has also played 17 snaps at safety this year – 13 vs. the Jets and four vs. the Dolphins. He hasn’t played any defensive snaps in the last 10 games.
Blankenship missed the Vikings game Week 2 with a rib injury. He led the Eagles with three interceptions this year, the most by an undrafted Eagle since Dimitri Patterson had four in 2010.
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