WR DeVonta Smith On Crutches & In Walking Boot: 'Insult To Injury' for Slumping Philly
The saying goes, "Adding insult to injury.'' The Philadelphia Eagles can feel the saying.
So much fell apart for the defending NFC champs on NFL Week 17 Sunday in a weird, sad 35-31 home loss to a lousy Arizona Cardinals team. As boos cascaded down at The Linc, the Eagles came to the realization that they'd ceded a chance to get the top playoff seed in the NFC (that's been gifted to the Niners) and that they'd lost control of the NFC East (That now belongs to the hated Dallas Cowboys, who can clinch the division with a win at Washington or an Eagles loss to the Giants next weekend.)
But the Eagles might have lost something else, too.
Philadelphia star wide receiver DeVonta Smith left The Linc on Sunday in a walking boot and aboard crutches after the loss on Sunday. ... and while football is a game of attrition, and while Philly has one of the best and deepest rosters in football - even as the Eagles have dropped four of their last five games to settle in at 11-5 - this is not good.
The Eagles as of this writing have not offered specific details on the receiver's status; reports suggest it’s a “mild” ankle sprain. But suffice to say that this offense - already struggling in recent weeks in some ways, even with him - is losing any talent-related margin for error.
If Smith is forced to miss time, the Eagles would likely rely on off-the-couch veteran receiver Julio Jones to play a more prominent role. He's a former All-Pro and he caught a pair of TD passes from Jalen Hurts on Sunday.
But he does not give Eagles, in a pairing with the suddenly quiet A.J. Brown, the play-by-play firepower that Smith does.
The Eagles are "miserable'' and in a free fall and while coach Nick Sirianni insisted after this loss that "there is time'' to fix all of this ... the clock is about to start running on the health of DeVonta Smith as both the insults and the injuries keep piling up.
