Eagles injury report: Brown out again; Hurts tests finger

Here are the latest Eagles injury updates from Friday's practice at the NovaCare Complex.

By Dave Zangaro • Published January 12, 2024

 

Eagles receiver A.J. Brown missed his second consecutive practice on Friday with a knee injury he suffered in Week 18 against the Giants.

While the Eagles have a win-or-go-home playoff game in Tampa on Monday, Brown’s status is now clearly in question.

Brown, 26, was not seen on the field even as a spectator in the first two practices of this week. The Pro Bowler had another huge season in 2023 with 106 catches for 1,456 yards and 7 touchdowns. Without Brown, the Eagles would be left with DeVonta Smith, Julio Jones, Quez Watkins, Olamide Zaccheaus and Britain Covey at receiver in the wild card round. The Eagles have one more practice this week on Saturday.

In addition to Brown, the Eagles were also without starting safety Reed Blankenship (groin). Blankenship on Friday worked a bit with a trainer on a side field. The Eagles don’t have much depth at safety either. Sydney Brown is now out for the season with a torn ACL and Blankenship is on the shelf too. That leaves Kevin Byard as the only pure safety on the 53-man roster.

Here's the full injury report from Friday:

DNP: Sydney Brown (ACL), A.J. Brown (knee), Reed Blankenship (groin)

Limited: Britain Covey (groin)

Full: Jalen Hurts (right middle finger), DeVonta Smith (ankle), Darius Slay (knee), D'Andre Swift (illness)

It was a big boost to see Hurts as a full participant on Friday after beginning the week listed as limited.

Hurts didn’t do much throwing on Thursday but he was able to throw the ball on Friday with good velocity. He again wore a glove on his right hand to protect his middle finger, which popped out in Week 18. After a few throws, Hurts was grabbing at the hand, seemingly to adjust the glove.

On Thursday, Hurts said he hadn’t thrown a football since the game on Sunday but insisted the injured finger was improving.

"Time will tell with that,” Hurts said. "I can assure you everything is progressing in the right way.”

There was a funny moment during the early portion of practice. After throwing the footballs for the ball security carwash, the quarterbacks typically go through it themselves. On Friday, Hurts tucked a football and acted like he was about to partake in the drill but Nick Sirianni stopped Hurts and joked that he has to keep an eye on him.

All of the players who were listed as full on Friday are expected to play on Monday.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/eagles-injury-report-brown-out-again-hurts-tests-finger/558188/

If we have any chance at all we need AJ to be good to go. He may not be 100% but we need him out there otherwise there’s like zero chance.

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the Eagles were also without starting safety Reed Blankenship (groin). Blankenship on Friday worked a bit with a trainer on a side field. The Eagles don’t have much depth at safety either. Sydney Brown is now out for the season with a torn ACL and Blankenship is on the shelf too. That leaves Kevin Byard as the only pure safety on the 53-man roster.

FWIW - they are planning to play Maddox at S opposite Byard on Monday night. 

https://thelibertyline.com/2024/01/12/eagles-avonte-maddox-play-safety/

Brown is not playing

1 hour ago, weko said:

Brown is not playing

Well that’s a bummer, but … maybe there is a silver lining.  Maybe they won’t feel the need to force feed him and will spread the ball around more.  And maybe they’ll rely on the run game more (which they need to do regardless of Brown’s availability).  

Uh-oh.  AJ is a rockstar.  Have to game plan for him.

4 hours ago, time2rock said:

Well that’s a bummer, but … maybe there is a silver lining.  Maybe they won’t feel the need to force feed him and will spread the ball around more.  And maybe they’ll rely on the run game more (which they need to do regardless of Brown’s availability).  

Exactly my 1st thought. Let's just hope Hurts doesn't force throws to Smith instead. Julio gonna need to dig deep. Supposed to be raining there Minday night, hopefully will force then to run. 

On 1/13/2024 at 8:45 PM, Portyansky said:

Exactly my 1st thought. Let's just hope Hurts doesn't force throws to Smith instead. Julio gonna need to dig deep. Supposed to be raining there Minday night, hopefully will force then to run. 

I think for multiple reasons they need to run the ball. They need to control the clock and they need to keep their defense off the field as much as possible. But yeah Jalen needs to take what is there and not force things.