The injury list for the Eagles is a long one, and Head Coach Nick Sirianni is not ready to commit to anyone's availability ahead of Sunday night’s Football Night in America game against Miami at Lincoln Financial Field, the first of two games this season, incidentally, that the Eagles will wear their Kelly Green helmets and jerseys.
Sirianni was asked repeatedly during his Monday afternoon virtual press conference about the status of the injured players, and each time he resisted placing timetables on those with injuries.
"We're really early," Sirianni said when asked about right tackle Lane Johnson, who exited Sunday's 20-14 loss to the New York Jets after just seven offensive snaps with an ankle injury. "I got to see Lane today, got to talk to Lane, and his status is 'to be announced.' We'll see how it goes. I know Lane is going to want to do everything he can to play and we're going to want to do everything we can do to get him to play. He's one of the best players in the NFL and it's going to be important that he's on the field."
Sirianni did say that when Johnson isn't on the field, "it is going to affect things," for the offense, although Sirianni reiterated his support for Jack Driscoll, who replaced Johnson at right tackle on Sunday and has done so in the past. "I've got a ton of confidence in Jack," Sirianni said. "Jack is versatile and can do a lot of different things."
Cornerback Darius Slay (knee) and defensive tackle Jalen Carter (ankle) missed Sunday's game and Sirianni was asked about those two players, along with cornerback Bradley Roby (shoulder) and safety Reed Blankenship, who left the Jets contest with a rib injury. Sirianni did not specify any injury information on any of those players, although he did say he was "hopeful" that safety Sydney Brown might be able to return after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury.
"We'll see on all those guys," Sirianni said. "They're all in a little bit different categories as far as potential time out. I don't want to put timetables on anything because there are just so many different things that can happen the next couple of days. I'm going to always keep that close to the vest."
The safety group, in particular, has been hit hard all season and Sirianni said, "when it rains, it pours," understanding that injuries are part of the NFL experience.
The approach this week after the team's six-game regular-season win streak ended is to keep things the same: Consistency is king, Sirianni said.
"I think that what happens is that you set a standard of what you want a week to look like and we don't try to make them guess, like this week's more important," he said. "It's business as usual. We've had some hard conversations today as coaches; we had some hard conversations together as a team to make sure that we got better from this game, and then when Wednesday comes in, we'll be 100 percent focused on Miami. They're a good football team and we've got to be ready to go."
