The Eagles have made a rather surprising roster move ahead of this week’s matchup against Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. Josh Adams has been promoted from the practice squad and in order to make room, the team have waived DeAndre Carter.
This move is confusing for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost being that the Eagles are in dire need of wide receiver help. Not a single wideout named Nelson Agholor or Kamar Aiken caught a pass in week 2 and after being second to only Shelton Gibson in preseason receiving yards (178), Carter even saw some snaps against Atlanta, catching one pass for 10 yards. Unless the Eagles are going to bring in a replacement or are anticipating an early return for Alshon Jeffery, this leaves the WR depth chart looking worrying at best.
WR1: Shelton Gibson??
WR2: Kamar Aiken
WR3: Nelson Agholor
It’s not great and there is a severe lack of depth. This move only pushes that need even further into the panic room.
The Eagles may well try to help Carter back onto the practice squad, but there’s no guarantee he will land back in their laps, especially after showing his value in the preseason and beyond.
Conversely, the Eagles may have a slight running back problem on their hands. Darren Sproles missed last week’s contest and Jay Ajayi missed most of the first half with a back injury. It’s highly likely that one or even both of these backs have injuries that could linger a little longer than originally hoped. It’s not as if Wendell Smallwood did anything to ‘wow’ the Philadelphia coaches during his stint on the field in Tampa, carrying the ball 7 times for 28-yards.
Adams is coming off of a shortened preseason campaign in which he registered 90 rushing yards, battling injury setbacks of his own. The workhorse back could very much fill the ‘Blount’ type void left in the offense, but at what cost? The Eagles are now short at both wide receiver and running back which could be problematic in the weeks to come.
If I was to guess, this won’t be the final roster move from the team between now and Sunday. The needs are simply too great to ignore and would marginalize an offense seeing the return of its most important player.
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
