Eagles sticking with their punt returner swap

The Eagles face the Chargers on Monday Night Football

By Dave Zangaro • Published December 7, 2025

The Eagles on Sunday afternoon waived receiver/return man Xavier Gipson.

That means they’re sticking with Britain Covey as their punt returner.

Gipson injured his shoulder in Dallas on a disastrous play that resulted in a fumble. He missed last week and Covey filled in and performed well. Now that Gipson is healthy, the Eagles have elected to stick with Covey, who has been the Eagles’ full-time returner before.

Covey didn’t have many opportunities last week but made the most of the one he got.

"Yeah, obviously a familiar face with Covey,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said during the week. "I thought he had a good job, difficult with conditions out there with being windy. Only had really that one opportunity to return it. I thought he did a nice job. It was one of those punts that we call, it was so bad, it was good, in terms of it came off Tory Taylor's foot kind of sideways and it was short then it just kept rolling and we didn't know -- if he didn't pick that up, who knows where that ball would've rolled to, could have been to the 15, things of that nature. He did a good job of kind of corralling and getting square. Then he made two miss and got nine yards out of it and kind of vintage Covey making something out of nothing to get us that first down in terms of the return.

"So I thought he did a good job of battling against the conditions, the kickers, the punters right there. It was a good to have a familiar face there in Covey back.”

By waiving Gipson, the Eagles opened a roster spot that can be used to bring safety Marcus Epps off Injured Reserve. The Eagles must make that move by 4 p.m. on Monday.

Epps has missed the last four weeks on IR with a shoulder injury but is expected to play against the Chargers on Monday Night Football.

The Eagles on Sunday also downgraded rookie OT Myles Hinton to out. Hinton has been on IR all season but has been practicing after having his window opened. The Eagles next week will have to either activate Hinton or shut him down for the season.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/roster-moves-waive-punt-returner-xavier-gipson-britain-covey/699424/

No brainer decision right? Covey is generally solid, doesn’t tend to do dumb things and is capable of really positively influencing a game. Gipson showed absolutely nothing, was shaky and made a bone headed decision in the Dallas game.

4 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

No brainer decision right? Covey is generally solid, doesn’t tend to do dumb things and is capable of really positively influencing a game. Gipson showed absolutely nothing, was shaky and made a bone headed decision in the Dallas game.

Knowing his fumble rate, not sure what Howie was thinking when he picked him up. Even with how crappy the offense played for the latter 40 min of that game, it is really hard not to think we come away with the W if Gipson doesn't muff that punt. If we had won that game, we'd be sitting in the 2 seed with a chance to regain the 1 with a W tonight (right now we are stuck in the 3 spot regardless of win or loss tonight). AND ... the Cowboys would not have a chance to win the division. The one play really f***ed us.

I still have NO idea what took them this long to finally bring Covey up.. I never wanted hm to leave, it was foolish to add another hole in the team

when you had a solid return man there.How many moves did we make to try and replace him?