Philadelphia Eagles: Javon Hargrave out “multiple weeks” with injury

Philadelphia Eagles DT Javon Hargrave has reportedly suffered an upper body injury.

Before the 2020 NFL season could even officially begin, the Philadelphia Eagles have found themselves once again being attacked by the injury bug. First it was RG Brandon Brook suffering a torn Achilles, now it is newly signed DT Javon Hargrave being listed out with an “upper body injury”.

According to a handful of reports coming out of the Eagles first padded practice this morning, Hargrave has been ruled out for “multiple weeks” due to an unspecified upper body injury. Five other Eagles also didn’t suit up for practice, with Jason Peters and JJ Arcega-Whiteside both being ruled as “day-to-day”, DE Derek Barnett being ruled “week-to-week”, and LB Duke Riley being listed out due to an illness.

Along with Darius Slay, Hargrave was one of the Eagles key acquisitions this past offseason. Philadelphia has long prioritized the trenches, and pairing up Hargrave with Fletcher Cox projected to give the Eagles one of the best interior defensive lines in all of football.

Cox had a slight down season last year in terms of statistical production, and a lot of that can be attributed to the high amount of injuries the team suffered at DT. Cox was regularly playing alongside practice squad call-ups, which led to him seeing a healthy amount of double/triple teams.

While it’s still unclear if this injury will bleed over into the regular season, the Eagles are in fact equipped to handle this in the short term. Malik Jackson is returning from injury, Hassan Ridgeway was brought back on a one-year deal, and recently signed Vinny Curry has the versatility to kick inside as well.

With a glaring hole at LB and some questions still remaining in the secondary, the Philadelphia Eagles are expecting a lot out of their revamped pass rush in 2020. Hopefully Hargrave is back in action soon, but if he’s not, other guys on the roster will have to undoubtedly step up.