Jordan Davis said he felt good during the week as he returned to practice from a four-week stint on Injured Reserve recovering from a high-ankle injury. The coaching staff clearly liked what it saw from Davis, who was officially reinstated the team's 53-man roster on Saturday afternoon. To make room for Davis on the active roster, the Eagles placed safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson on Injured Reserve. Johnson, who suffered a lacerated kidney and rib injury in Sunday night's win over Green Bay, will miss at least the next four games and will be eligible to return for the January 1 game against New Orleans – his former team – at Lincoln Financial Field.
Having Davis back helps beef up – pun intended – the Eagles' depth along their defensive front. The team now has six defensive tackles on the 53-man roster – Davis, Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, Ndamukong Suh, Linval Joseph, and Milton Williams. There is some flexibility there as both Cox and Williams have shown they are able to play well taking reps off the edge, so this is truly a position of depth and strength.
"I felt good out there," Davis said Thursday after practice. "We'll see how it goes. It was great to be out with the guys and getting back into action. Seeing how things are going with our defense, the new players we added (Suh and Joseph), it's exciting and I can't wait to be part of it again."
He didn't have to wait long. Davis, who said he dropped 20 pounds during his injury rehabilitation, was an instant-impact player after the Eagles made him the 13th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. In his seven games, with five starts, Davis recorded 14 total tackles, with 8 solo stops, 4 quarterback pressures, and a pass defensed playing 33 percent of the defensive snaps (154 total snaps) in those contests.
Davis hopes to pick up where he left off before the injury.
"I want to be the player I was or an even better player," Davis said. "The whole goal is to keep improving every day. I felt I did that during my rehab, taking care of my body, working on my strength, eating right, and preparing even though I wasn't playing. That's going to help me when I get back on the field on Sunday."
Davis provides another big, strong defensive lineman on Sunday against Tennessee's power running game, featuring 247-pound Derrick Henry, who has 1,048 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground this season.
The Eagles also announced that linebacker Christian Elliss will be a standard practice squad elevation on Sunday to the active gameday roster.
