Eagles Rule Out Four More Players Against the Panthers: What It Means for a 2-3 Team
The Eagles waited until Saturday afternoon to post the sentence their fans have learned to dread: the following players have been ruled out of tomorrow’s game. Four names followed.
Guard Landon Dickerson with a knee injury, tight end Grant Calcaterra with a back problem, tight end Eli Stowers with a quad issue and cornerback Jakorian Bennett with a knee injury are all out against the Panthers. All four are on injured reserve and were not activated, so none of them had a path to play once the roster deadline passed.
Philadelphia had listed five players as questionable. Only center Drew Kendall still has a chance to suit up.
What Philadelphia Actually Has Left
Willie Lampkin stays the starter at left guard. At tight end, with Calcaterra and Stowers both down, Dallas Goedert is going to live out there on a near-full snap count, which is a lot of blocking and route running to pile on one veteran tight end.
Bennett is not the best cornerback on the roster, but he would have helped a secondary that has not held up for a month. Instead the Eagles elevated linebacker Keyshawn James-Newby and safety Cole Wisniewski from the practice squad and signed running back Jaydon Blue to the active roster.
There is some good news. DeVonta Smith, Zack Baun and Jalen Carter are all expected to be available, which matters, because a defense without Baun and Carter against a Panthers team that wants to run would have been a long afternoon.
A 2-3 Team Running Out of Bodies
The Eagles are 2-3 and have lost three straight. October has stripped this roster down to a degree nobody in Philadelphia planned for, and Saturday’s four downgrades landed on top of a list that was already long.
Tanner McKee runs the offense Sunday. He will do it without the starting left guard and without the two tight ends behind Goedert, and with a backfield that has been rebuilt on the fly. That is a lot to ask of a backup quarterback making his way through his first real stretch of starts.
Carolina comes in at 2-2 and activated three players off its reserve lists on Saturday, so the Panthers are getting healthier in the same week the Eagles are falling apart.
Carolina is not whole either. Running back AJ Dillon was ruled out with an ankle injury, starting offensive lineman Monroe Freeling is doubtful, and edge rusher Jaelan Phillips is questionable with a hamstring. Guard Damien Lewis is questionable with an elbow problem.
What It Means
Philadelphia can still win this game. The Panthers are not a juggernaut and Lincoln Financial Field is a hard place to play. But the margin has collapsed, and the Eagles no longer have the kind of roster that absorbs a bad quarter.
The bigger question is the calendar. Dickerson, Calcaterra, Stowers and Bennett are all on injured reserve, which means none of this is settled by next Sunday either. Philadelphia has to get through at least one more week like this, and probably more than one, before the roster starts looking like itself.
A 2-3 team with a backup quarterback and four more starters and rotational players ruled out on a Saturday is a team playing for survival, not seeding. The Eagles have about a month to change that.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
