Connor Barwin surprisingly missed practice for the first time all season yesterday and whilst nothing was suspect at the time, it turns out that last years NFC Leader in Sacks is actually suffering from a Quad injury.
Barwin is also out today due to the pain in his quad but Walter Thurmond, another surprise absentee yesterday returned to practice.
Chip Kelly seemed confident in todays press conference that Barwin would be ready for this weekends home stand against Tampa but was quick to say that Marcus Smith “has been coming along” and that he remains very confident in his ability.
Smith is yet to really break out in this Eagles Defense and after the controversy of last year, he needs to make the most of every opportunity he can get..something he has struggled to do so far.
The Eagles have had problems with linebacker injuries all season and it’s something Chip was quick to address. He said that “it’s always been a priority to have ILB depth for us and it’s been tested this year” before going onto reference that Najee Goode is available.
Elsewhere in the team, Sam Bradford, Ryan Mathews and Josh Andrews are all still out under concussion protocol whilst Jason Peters is also still absent from practice. Jerome Couplin is also absent and the chances of him being placed on IR are increasingly high.
