Egos are the least of Pederson’s injury concerns
PHILADELPHIA >> How extensive are the injuries that have helped push the Eagles to the brink of irrelevance some nine months after a championship parade?
“Big list,” head coach Doug Pederson said Monday. “Biiiig list. Big list. Big list.”
You get the idea that Pederson thinks the Eagles have a lot of injuries. But then, he knows he can’t use it as an excuse, especially about 20 hours after New Orleans Saints put the wraps on a 48-7 humiliation of Pederson’s proud crowd of underachievers.
No excuse for a loss like this. Nothing to say. Or is there?
“The message to the fans is just what I told the team after the game,” Pederson said. “First of all, you can’t hang your head. If anybody does, if anybody begins to sort of doubt, quite frankly you don’t need them. Because we believe. And I believe in those players and believe in those coaches.”
Well, it’s almost that time of year for all of us to believe in Santa Claus, too. That doesn’t mean we can’t shrug our shoulders and show our kids our depleted checkbook numbers when they wonder why Christmas is coming late this year. So Pederson will have to continue walking the fine line between truth and pain, which of course is part of a head coach’s job. Part playcaller, part motivator, part salesman ... and several parts per week, the spokesman.
So when a questioner seeking some injury truth asked Pederson Monday whether it might be a good idea to have a few extensive conversations with the Eagles’ medical staff about why so many players, most of whom work in one area called the secondary, might be dealing not only with similar soft-tissue injuries, but some of which have been recurring all season, Pederson’s spokesman persona took on a bit of an edge.
“So basically when somebody has an ankle sprain you want me to just shut them down for the year? That’s what you’re suggesting,” Pederson said amid an uncomfortable and all-too entertaining brief exchange. “Listen,” he finally added, “we made sure our players are 100 percent. Now, ankle attached to the knee, attached to the hammy, attached to the quad, attached to the hip all the way up the body. So if you have an ankle sprain and you’re 100 percent healed, what’s your percent to have it reoccur?
“... There’s a chance fo a reoccurance, right? There’s a chance that could happen. We’re looking into every soft-tissue (injury). There’s no problem. No problem.”
Pederson’s main problem – and certainly not his only problem – has much less to do with discussions with paid medical pros, that it does lack of available football pros.
So on this Day After the Deluge, it became clear that Jordan Hicks (calf) and rere-recurring hamstring patient Sidney Jones will probably be gone a while, while Avonte Maddox and Rasul Douglas are considered status TBD, with coaching fingers tightly crossed. That means the Eagles at the cornerback spot aren’t exactly vulnerable, but rather laid bare.
Delighting in an open field choice of New Orleans targets, Drew Brees hit on 22 of 30 pass attempts for 363 yards and four touchdowns. And unless that biiiig injury list isn’t mercifully pared down by some mystically healing turkey juice, even the always forgiving one, Eli Manning, should find his looks very favorable when the Eagles host the Giants Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
“The injuries last year were like one guy at a position,” Pederson said. “This has devastated almost an entire position group, which is different. Last year it was Jason Peters, Darren (Sproles), (Chris) Maragos, (Jordan) Hicks. It was one guy kind of around the roster and we had enough depth there to overcome it. This is kind of attacking one position group, especially the secondary. We’ve just got to find a way.”
They have to find a way because they certainly aren’t about to find any answers elsewhere.
“You’re only given so many roster spots, so it’s kind of hard to go outside if you have to start letting guys go and all that,” Pederson said. “So we have to get the next guy ready. It’s always been that way around here. We’re going to continue to do that and it’s a little more sense of urgency for the ones playing.”
It should be, because with Ronald Darby out for the year, Jalen Mills (foot) still out and his current status unclear, the ingame injuries to Maddox (day-to-day) and Douglas (week-to-week), both with ouchy knees and promises to drag their uncertainty through this week, the old “next man up” theory when applied to the Eagles’ defensive backfield is a bit of a joke. The Birds had such glittering names as recent practice squad grad Chandon Sullivan, Cre’von LeBlanc and the immortal De’Vante Bausby back there with Brees still wideeyed and in the game long after the outcome had been determined.
Pederson’s Monday report on the carved up cornerbacks and several other needed bodies making up that extensive injury list certainly had a positive spin, whether each one was detailed as “week-to-week” or “day-to-day” or the always popular “we’ll see how it goes.”
But, edgy answers aside, listen closely Monday and you’d hear the injury spokesman own up a hint of concern.
“It’s a group that is hurting, quite frankly,” Pederson said. “It’s a group that will pick themselves up this week. They’re not going to feel sorry for themselves and we’re going to get ready for the Giants.”
Asked if his players were hurting mentally or physically, Pederson added, “Both. I mean, look at our injury list; so physically. And emotionally too.”
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NOTES >> Other injuries: Rick Lovato is going through the concussion protocol and Jordan Hicks is “going to be more week to week” according to Pederson. Oh and Jason Kelce’s “fine.” ... Pederson added the injury to Jones is a new injury, not the hamstring injury that’s been going on for a record amount of time . ... Finally, Pederson was asked how he plans to get his flattened players off the philosophical floor to try to get ready for the Giants after he had to peel them off the SuperDome carpet: “Keep preaching it, keep preaching it, keep preaching,” Pederson said. “If you’re going to throw mud against that wall some of it’s going to stick.”