Eagles DeSean Jackson Close to Returning; Darren Sproles will Miss Time
The revolving door to the Eagles’ medical ward continues to spin, with the possibility of receiver DeSean Jackson heading out and running back Darren Sproles moving in.
Head coach Doug Pederson on Monday said that the team will have Jackson do some more running this week and push him a little harder to see where he is as he continues to battle an abdomen injury that has sidelined him since the season opener, except for a handful of plays in the Week Two game in Atlanta.
“He’s getting close, day-by-day,” said Pederson. “We’ll see here (Tuesday) and Wednesday and the next day where he’s at.”
Pederson said Jackson’s injury is a strain and that surgery isn’t being considered.
The Eagles offense didn’t click on all cylinders despite a 31-6 win over the New York Jets on Sunday, and Pederson was asked how much the team misses Jackson.
“You miss his explosiveness, obviously, the threat to stretch a defense, his ability to get open, yeah, you miss that,” said the coach. “And yet at the same time, though, we can’t make excuses for it. We have to help him get healthy and get back on the field and then play with the guys we have.
“Alshon’s (Jeffery) been doing a great job, Nellie’s (Agholor) been doing a great job, our two tight ends have been solid, the run game’s picked up, so we just have to make that work as well.”
As for Sproles, Pederson said his quad strain is a week-to-week injury.
Before suffering his injury, Sproles piled up 32 all-purpose yards, which moved him into fifth place all-time on the NFL’s all-purpose yards list, ahead of Tim Brown. Sproles has 19,684 career all-purpose yards, two ahead of Brown.
That figures to be about as high as the 36-year-old Sproles can climb since the player in fourth, Emmitt Smith, has 21,564 yards. Jerry Rice is on top (23,546) followed by Brian Mitchell (23,330) and Walter Payton (21,803).
Sproles’ absence means a new punt returner will be needed.
Corey Clement handled the role initially on Sunday after Sproles went out, but he muffed a punt, so the Eagles turned to Agholor.
Those are the two players who will get reps there this week, and those reps will be valuable for Clement.
“We just have to get (Clement) reps this week,” said Pederson. “He’s missed some time (with a shoulder injury), obviously, but he hasn’t done enough of it in practice because he’s been working special teams and other areas, so we have to get him some reps this week, whether we do it live or off (punter Cameron Johnston) foot or the Jugs machine. Nellie obviously can do it, but yeah I’m confident in him (Clement).”
