Eagles Already Bitten By Injury Bug

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

It is day one of padded practice for the Eagles, an exciting development for fans.

Some of that excitement was tempered, however, by the Eagles announcements of injuries.

Chief among those injuries were two potentially major ones to defensive linemen.

No specifics on injuries were given and no press conferences were scheduled for Monday, so the injury descriptions are vague for the time being.

First, Eagles defensive end Derek Barnett is considered week to week with a lower body injury.

Each year is supposed to be his breakout year, each year he suffers an injury and each year he fails to breakout.

The Birds hope this is not a continuation of that cycle. It is unknown whether this injury is serious enough to threaten his availability week one, but it is possible.

Inside, Javon Hargrave is labeled as “out multiple weeks”, which absolutely places his availability early in the season in doubt.

Hargrave was the marquee signing of the Eagles in free agency this past offseason, billed as a top defensive tackle that can both be paired with Fletcher Cox to maximize his play as well as serve as a younger building block for the team to begin getting younger around.

Unfortunately, Hargrave missing time would fit the situation that the Eagles have faced since handing Tim Jernigan his original extension. Since that time, the Eagles have been unable to pair a defensive tackle alongside Fletcher Cox with Jernigan taking multiple trips to IR followed by Malik Jackson hitting IR after just one game and Hassan Ridgeway following suit just as soon as he got going in replacement of Jackson.

The recent addition of Vinny Curry may have come about as a result of the team knowing they may be shorthanded on the defensive line to start the season.

On the offensive side, the Eagles have just two players listed day to day with lower body injuries.

Guard Jason Peters is day to day, which is not too surprising given his age and his recent return to the team.

Peters has suffered from plenty of “minor” injuries over the past few seasons and not seen his play dip, so this should not be too much of a concern at this point.

The other day to day player is JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who is supposed to compete for a starting job after an awful rookie season.

Missing reps is not the way to get a starting job or improve play, but the injury is listed as minor for now, so he should be back soon.

It is worth noting that JJAW suffered from injuries all last season and that was attributed as part of the reason his play was below what was expected. Hopefully the same scenario does not play out this year.

His absence could explain why the Eagles re-signed Marcus Green just this morning.

Of course, this is all in addition to the Eagles having already lost one of the top offensive linemen in the league in Brandon Brooks.

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