PHILADELPHIA – It’s never ideal for any team, much less one like the Philadelphia Eagles who are anxious to snap a two-game losing run and defeat a team they haven’t defeated in fifteen years, to go into a game without Jalen Hurts, their starting quarterback and last year’s MVP. But when the Eagles get ready to take on the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on Monday night, that is what they have to contend with. Hurts missed practice on Saturday due to an illness, which led to his downgrading to questionable for the game.
The obvious choice to replace him is Marcus Mariota. According to Jason Kelce, this Week 15 matchup has major playoff implications. Of all, without Hurts, things would be incredibly difficult. The replacements for the three starters who have already been ruled out due to injuries: right guard Cam Jurgens (pec), linebacker Zach Cunningham (knee), and cornerback Darius Slay (knee). These are not as clear. In order to replace those three, where do they look? The hardest position to forecast is Slay’s replacement because they don’t have many choices at linebacker save the recently signed Shaq Leonard, and it looked this week that Sua Opeta was receiving first-team reps at Jurgens’ spot during practice.
As for Slay, the Eagles have several different ways they can go, but none of those options inspire confidence against a veteran 1-2 punch of the Seahawks in D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
One option could be to stick with rookie Kelee Ringo, who saw a career-high 22 snaps last week. When asked this week if he thought he would play more in the loss against the Dallas Cowboys, Ringo replied, “There was a possibility, but I would say throughout any type of week, no matter if it was 100 percent sure or not the best thing you can do is just be prepared. I feel like you would be disserving in yourself if you weren’t so the realistic situation is you have to be prepared for any type of situation.” The Eagles also have Eli Ricks and Josh Jobe available to replace Slay.
When Reed Blankenship cleared the concussion protocol this past week, Sydney Brown might be able to get some reps at the slot if Roby moves outside. when cooling off on Jobe when he replaced James Bradberry at the slot during Bradberry’s concussion-related absence, the Eagles may stick with a rotation outside of Ringo, Ricks, and possibly Roby. Despite the fact that Opeta was sidelined for three of the previous four games and rookie Tyler Steen was the starting reserve on game day, the Eagles appear happy with Opeta as Jurgens’ replacement. Head coach Nick Sirianni wasn’t showing his cards, as one might expect.
