Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery is thrilled to be back on the football field full tilt. He practiced on Wednesday and appears to be on track for Sunday's game in Tennessee, but Jeffery still says he has "a long way to go before I get there."
Jeffery was listed on Wednesday's injury report as a full participant. Not taking part in practice: running backs Jay Ajayi (back) and Darren Sproles (hamstring), defensive lineman Michael Bennett (illness), and safety Rodney McLeod (knee).
For Jeffery, cleared for contact, just being able to compete was worth the wait.
"I missed being out there with the guys, working next to them," Jeffery said. "It's a blessing being out there. It was a lot of fun. I feel good, but it's still early in the week. I still have a lot of work to do to get to where I want to be."
Jeffery, it was revealed after the Super Bowl LII victory, played the 2017 season with a torn rotator cuff that required surgery. Instead of taking part in Organized Team Activities and Training Camp, Jeffery was in the weight room building his strength. He watched the action from the sidelines more and more as he closed in on being cleared.
After a 2-1 start to the season, the Eagles are hopeful that Jeffery can play on Sunday in Nashville.
"We're excited to get him in the mix and see where he's at. But we'll make a final determination, obviously, later in the week," head coach Doug Pederson said. "You've just got to see him in practice, see how he moves around. See how he gets bumped around. The contact aspect of it, even though we are not live or anything like that. And just see where he's at physically with everything that he's going through. Again, it's a situation where you want to make sure the player's right, 100 percent right, before we put him out on the field."
It could be this week, in Tennessee. It could be the week after when Minnesota visits Lincoln Financial Field. Jeffery has exercised a lot of patience to get to this point and he doesn't want to rush into anything now.
"We'll see how this week goes," he said. "Today was a good start but I think I have a lot of work to put in before I'm out there. But it was fun to get on the field full go today. I missed it."
