Will Parks Inches Closer to Eagles Debut

The Eagles started the clock on the 21-day practice window for veteran safety Will Parks on Tuesday

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles started the clock on the 21-day practice window for veteran safety Will Parks on Tuesday, and the North Philly native could make his debut for the hometown team on Sunday against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.

Parks, 26, signed as a free agent after four seasons in Denver this offseason and was penciled in as the third safety in the big-nickel package before a hamstring injury late in training camp pressed pause on those plans.

Parks has been seen off to the side practice field with a trainer over the past two weeks working on his rehab and will now be able to join practice fully on Wednesday. Technically he remains on injured reserve but could be activated to the 53-man roster for Sunday's game.

The Eagles created space for that Tuesday as well when they waived two rookies: seventh-round defensive end Casey Toohill and undrafted free agent defensive back Grayland Arnold. Both are expected to be re-signed to the practice squad if they clear waivers.

That could be tricky for Toohill because edge rushers with promise are always in high demand around the NFL.

Parks was supposed to start as the third safety behind Rodney McLeod and Jalen Mills but injuries to outside cornerbacks Avonte Maddox and Trevor Willaims have pushed Jalen Mills back to CB for the time being so Parks will be returning to a different landscape.

Second-year player Marcus Epps and rookie K'Von Wallace have been filling in at safety next to McLeod in a platoon-like situation. Epps usually plays in when more coverage responsibility is needed while Wallace was the run-support option.

If Parks is healthy and capable of handling the workload he could be thrown into the deep end as a starter. On the other hand, if the University of Arizona product needs more time to knock the rust off the Eagles could use two more weeks of practice to get him ready to play.

Philadelphia also protected two practice-squad players this week: tight end Jason Croom and DB Elijah Riley. Croom and Riley were also the two PS players elevated for the 38-29 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM and every Monday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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