Scariest Thing About Washington is the Next Man Up

PHILADELPHIA – There’s not much that puts a fright into an NFL linebacker, except, maybe, one thing – the next man up.

The Washington Football Team figures to have plenty of those, with their Injured Reserve/COVID-19 list bursting at the seams. It’s a list that sat at 21 on Thursday evening, but one that could be alleviated after the NFL loosened its return to play rules after a positive COVID test from two negative tests in a 24-hour period to only one, provided that a player is asymptomatic.

Even then, the WFT could be without some key members of the roster when they visit Philadelphia to play the Eagles in a must-win matchup for both teams in order to keep their playoff hopes from flatlining.

"I think the scariest guy is that next guy waiting,” said Eagles LB Alex Singleton on Thursday. “When you can watch a guy play for two or three years on film you can kinda learn a lot about that guy. When you just have a guy when everybody just thinks is a player off the street, they've been in the building, they've been around the NFL and it's a guy hungry to play. Those are the guys, you just give them an opportunity to usually show up, spark a little bit.”

Before finding a starting role on the defense last year, Singleton was one of those guys.

“Yeah, I think, exactly,” he said when asked if that reminded him of him. “I would be more worried about me when you don't know what's going to happen.”

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Obviously, this is a game on Sunday the Eagles can afford to take for granted no matter who Washington runs onto the field. They must know that they simply cannot show up and expect to win, and they seem to understand that.

“There’s always going to be 11 players out there,” said tight end Dallas Goedert. “I don’t look at players too crazily…I just look at the overall picture. Really, it’s not that big of a deal. They’re going to have 11 guys out there.

“They’re going to be in the same positions. They’re all in the NFL. They’re all very capable of doing things. It’s really no different. You know what they’re going to run defensively with their schemes. They’re just going to be different players in those positions.”

Veteran Fletcher Cox said it’s not so much looking at who lines up across from them on Sunday, but a matter of simply looking at the calendar.

“December is so important to me,” he said. “You just try to stress it to a lot of guys in the room, a lot of guys on the team, how important the month of December is. I think I said it a while back, they really remember you in December. No matter what happened earlier in the season, I think everybody kind of forgets that.

“But you go into December, everybody knows how important it is, and knowing, especially right now for this team…The veterans that have been around, the guys that have been the league, know what December means. You can’t fake the energy, you can’t fake the intensity.”

The Eagles are sitting at 0-2 in the NFC East, their hope of winning the division all but out of reach with the Cowboys sitting firmly on top at 9-4.

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Their remaining games are against the division, with two against Washington, one against the Giants then the regular0season finale against Dallas.

A wildcard berth is still in front of them, thanks to a turnaround from a 2-5 start to 6-7.

“I think the reality of it is, I knew, everyone knew, that we were always in it,” said QB Jalen Hurts. “The dog was never out of the fight, and I think that’s the mentality we’ve always had regardless of what was said outside, the rat poison we had out there, we just kept our head high, focused on the things we could control and tried to get better every day.

“We learned so much about ourselves throughout this year. I think we’re still growing, and I think our best football has yet to be played.”

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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.