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Cam Jurgens expected to miss multiple weeks, Sua Opeta next man up

Nick Sirianni said Monday right guard Cam Jurgens is "week-to-week” with a foot injury suffered in the second quarter of the Eagles’ overtime win against Washington Sunday.

In Eagles' medical parlance, "day-to-day" means a player is expected to miss one game at most, and "week-to-week" means a multiple-week injury.

"It’s still early in the week,” Sirianni said. "So we’ll see there.”

Jurgens, seen leaving the locker room wearing a boot, started the Eagles’ first four games this year after playing only 35 offensive snaps as a rookie last year.

Veteran Sua Opeta replaced Jurgens when the Eagles came out for the second half, and Sirianni said it will be Sua and not Tyler Steen – the Eagles’ rookie 3rd-round pick – who will start against the Rams Sunday.

"I don't think there's any secret,” Sirianni said. "I think you see where we lie right now between Sua and Tyler. Sua has been up, Tyler has been inactive.”

Steen, who split time between right guard and left tackle in training camp, has been inactive for all four games so far this year.

Opeta, undrafted out of Weber State in Ogden, Utah, has been with the Eagles since 2019. He’s been released four times, including as recently as this past January, and has been on and off the practice squad and active roster many times.

Opeta has started five games – at left guard for both Giants games in 2020, at left guard for the first Washington game and second Dallas game in 2021 and at right guard for the 2021 wild-card game in Tampa.

Sirianni didn't say whether Jurgens will be placed on Injured Reserve. Players on IR must miss at least four games. If Jurgens were placed on IR this week, he’d be eligible to return for the first Cowboys game on Nov. 5.

As for Opeta, the Eagles were encouraged by his 43 snaps Sunday in his most extensive playing time since he got 47 snaps at left guard against the Cards last October when Landon Dickerson got banged up.

Obviously, there are many factors that affect this, but the Eagles averaged 2.5 points and 36 yards per drive in the first half and 3.8 points and 45 yards per drive in the second half and overtime.

"I thought he played outstanding yesterday,” Sirianni said. "I mean, outstanding. I think we all felt that in the game, and then you watch it on tape, and you verify that and confirm that, and even Lane (Johnson) came up to me in the locker room after the game … and was singing the praises of Sua. 

"We recognized it as coaches when we got to watch it, and I know his teammates recognized it in game. So excellent job by him to come in and play a great game. That's a hard (and) very necessary thing to be able to do because injuries are part of this game and to be able to step in and not miss a beat. 

"These guys don't get enough credit for when they do that and so he was outstanding and that's not easy to do against a very good front. That's a very good front we played yesterday and Sua was outstanding.”

With Jurgens unavailable and Opeta starting, the Eagles would have three healthy back-up linemen on the 53-man roster – veteran Jack Driscoll, who can play guard or tackle, as well as Steen and Fred Johnson, who is exclusively a tackle.

The Eagles have four offensive linemen on the practice squad – recent addition Tyre Phillips, veteran Le’Raven Clark, perennial training camp body Brett Toth and undrafted Julian Good-Jones. Clark is a tackle, Phillips and Toth are guard-tackles and Good-Jones is a center-guard. Of that group, Good-Jones had a solid training camp and could be a game-day call-up for depth.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/eagles-cam-jurgens-expected-to-miss-multiple-weeks-sua-opeta-next-man-up/538698/

Sucks. But I think Opeta was more prepared for RG.

Though Opeta did well on sunday.

It helps being between Lane and Kelce, they can probably help guide him in game and hide some of the deficiencies in his play. We'll see how he goes against Aaron Donald 

2 hours ago, rrfierce said:

Though Opeta did well on sunday.

Depletion of depth unfortunately. I guess Steen is next man up.

1 hour ago, Mat said:

We'll see how he goes against Aaron Donald 

We could have said the same about Jurgens.

Just now, ilikepargo said:

We could have said the same about Jurgens.

At least with Jurgens we would get a better idea of what we have. Every game he plays next to Kelce is a bonus since he will likely be the starting C next year

Pretty sure people were calling jurgens a revolving door earlier in the season

1 hour ago, rrfierce said:

Pretty sure people were calling jurgens a revolving door earlier in the season

It still is early in the season 

Last season, hardly any injuries.

Feels like this season, there's too damn many.

Interesting that early speculation was that Steen might be a contender to land the starting RG spot over Jurgens, and now he isn't even mentioned as a possibility to replace him for a few weeks. 

On 10/4/2023 at 2:55 PM, LacesOut said:

Last season, hardly any injuries.

Feels like this season, there's too damn many.

Seasons is just getting started, but a bunch of injuries are piling up on the team. There were injures last season as well though. CJGJ, Hurts, Goedert, Sanders, Lane, and Maddox missed time with injuries. There were others as well. They battled through most of that and still ended up where they wanted to be. Heck they even lost their punter for several games too…. Well maybe he should’ve stayed injured. 

The nice thing about minor injuries, especially when they happen early, is that they give the depth a chance to grow, develop, impress. They can also let you know if the depth is adequate or not. Dean's injury allowed Morrow a second chance to impress and he has really taken advantage. Now when Dean returns, we know we have strong depth.  Maddox's injury allowed us to see that Goodrich wasn't yet ready for more than spot duty. But it also gave us a chance to get Sydney Brown on the field (until his minor injury). Brown's and Evans' injuries showed us that Edmunds isn't a guy we want to get a lot of snaps. Jurgens' injury is giving Opeta a chance to play and he has played well so far. Now with a couple DTs a bit banged up, we might get a look at Ojomo, who looked pretty good in preseason. Watkins' injury helped Zaccheaus get more work and he helped us win a game. 

Anytime you can survive the injuries early and get wins, it's a huge positive overall for your team, especially if the injuries aren't prolonged. 

On 10/4/2023 at 2:55 PM, LacesOut said:

Last season, hardly any injuries.

Feels like this season, there's too damn many.

Silver lining is that it's happening early and they are still winning. 

I wonder if Steen is that far off or if they are just committed to him focusing on being a backup tackle this season.  

Yeah what is going on with Steen? Are they just stashing him for emergencies?

OG was new to Steen. It's not surprising that Jurgens beat him easily for the starting RG role. It's also not surprising that Opeta is farther along at this point. 

The Eagles, I'm sure will continue to develop Steen, but Opeta is ready to step in right now. 

3 hours ago, opa-opa said:

Yeah what is going on with Steen? Are they just stashing him for emergencies?

Some of this is coaching too. Opera has been here for a while under Stoutland tutelage. Steen could become a much different guy in a year or two. 

Eagles haven't put Jurgens on IR like they did with Dean so maybe he really is week-to week.  If they thought he would be out four weeks or more they would have put him on IR.

On 10/6/2023 at 4:20 PM, Kz! said:

Interesting that early speculation was that Steen might be a contender to land the starting RG spot over Jurgens, and now he isn't even mentioned as a possibility to replace him for a few weeks. 

He's a left tackle and can probably play RT at a high level

He’s out today but the backup from last week seemed to do alright.

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On 10/8/2023 at 3:37 PM, xxeaglesfanxx said:

He’s out today but the backup from last week seemed to do alright.

He was out because they placed him on IR.  

I just can't see Opeta losing the starting job now.  

With Jurgens out, Opeta's the starter for at least several more weeks.  Assuming he plays like he did on Sunday, I have no problem with him continuing as the starter.  The real plan for Jurgens is that he'll take over at Center when Kelce retires.  I'll be curious to see what happens with Steen.

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