Eagles Expected to Add Kicker to Practice Squad
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The Eagles opened a practice squad spot on Tuesday, releasing tight end Dalton Keene.
It is expected to be filled by former University of Texas kicker Cameron Dicker, per NFL Media.
There were several injuries in the win over the Jaguars, including starting offensive linemen Jordan Mailata and Isaac Seumalo.
Nick Sirianni believes that his injured players have a chance to play on Sunday when the Eagles put their 4-0 record on the line in Glendale against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
The head coach, though, wouldn’t fully commit to that, preferring to wait until later in the week before more information is gleaned. The Eagles are having a closed walkthrough on Wednesday, so only an estimated injury report will be released.
So let the speculation begin.
Will Jake Elliott kick?
That is the one position the Eagles do not have a backup to step in if he can’t.
The team worked out two kickers on Tuesday - Dicker and East Carolina's Jake Verity.
Neither has kicked in a pro game.
In four years with the Longhorns, Dicker made 206 of his 210 PAT attempts from the college distance and was 60-for-79 on field goals.
Elliott got hit by Tyson Campbell, who seemed to lose his footing and wasn’t able to avoid plowing into Elliott’s plant leg during a 43-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter.
The roughing penalty gave the Eagles a first down, but they couldn’t turn it into a touchdown, so Elliott was called on to make a 28-yard field goal after TV cameras showed him popping a couple of pills of some sort after being roughed.
“Jake is one of the toughest people I've ever met regardless of the position that he plays,” said Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay on Tuesday.
“Everyone sees a kicker and they think something differently, but he's tough out there, and him to go back out there, he drilled that - the first field goal, drilled it, to come back, hit another wet ball in a tighter location right there still takes a lot of guts right there, and he did."
One thing Clay said is not to count out Elliott to be ready for Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
"I'm around him almost every day, just the toughness he has," said the ST coordinator. "He may be the pound-for-pound best athlete on this team right here, but just the toughness.
"Let's not talk about his mental toughness because that guy, he’s got ice water in his veins when it comes down to it, but he's one of those guys when it comes to competitions, he's going to chirp you, he's going to try and beat you in everything he does."
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
