Jordan Davis' Injury Expected to Sideline Him Thursday, Perhaps Longer
The trade deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m., and suddenly the Eagles might very well have a need.
On a roster without many holes other than possibly a third safety, an injury suffered by rookie Jordan Davis could leave an opening in the middle of the defense.
Head coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday evening that he is still trying to determine how much time Davis will miss, but he would probably not be available to play when the Eagles travel to Houston to play the Texans on Thursday night.
“I don't know the extent of it yet, of how long he's going to be out,” said Sirianni.
Typically, the recovery time frame for a high ankle sprain, which has been reported by NFL Media, is four to six weeks.
“It’s just one of those funny things where he got rolled up and somebody fell on him," said DT Fletcher Cox. "The biggest thing for him is that I told him to stay positive. We’ll see how bad it is or whatever is going on. I’m not the doctor, but hopefully he can bounce back quickly.”
With 10 games remaining, Davis could return for the team’s final playoff push.
"We have guys that can play in that position," said Cox. "We can move some guys around if we need to and that’s why (defensive line coach Tracy Rocker) is really good at moving guys around in practice, during training camp, and even during the season.
"He puts guys into positions that they really haven’t played. You have to know what you’re doing no matter who is out there.”
The downside, of course, is the rookie’s development would potentially be stunted a bit.
He was playing well in the 25-snap role or so defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon had carved out for him. It was a role, however, that would have likely grown coming out of the bye.
He had already played 19 snaps before getting hurt with 3:20 to play in the first half, putting him on pace to play a career-high in snaps.
GM Howie Roseman could try to swing a trade for a backup-type of defensive tackle to take a few snaps, but the likely best option would be to play Marlon Tuipulotu and Milton Williams a few more snaps per game.
Both second-year DTs had their best games of the season against Pittsburgh.
The Eagles also have Marvin Wilson on the practice squad.
Wilson had a solid training camp and the former undrafted free agent of the Cleveland Browns out of Florida State played 19 snaps in last year’s meaningless regular-season finale against the Cowboys. He made three tackles.
Sirianni said that if he needs to play, he is confident Wilson be ready to contribute.
“What we saw with him is that he came back in great shape,” said the coach. “He came back with his body ready to play. He had a great training camp that we're like, hopefully - and we're deep at that room, right? We're like, ‘We can't keep them all. Hopefully, we don't lose Marvin.’
“We are fortunate that we have him. … it's not just like blind faith. We're seeing him work every single day. We're evaluating him. We're evaluating the practice squad players all the time.
"All the time with the different things that we're doing with them from the developmental periods to the individual periods to the one-on-one periods, and we have a lot of faith in him if his number is called on.”
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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.
