Philadelphia Eagles: Keep an eye on the Saints’ injury report

In Week 10, the Philadelphia Eagles got lucky.

The Denver Broncos were without their starting left and right tackles, their offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, was away from the team on the inactive COVID-list, and, most advantageously of all, Teddy Bridgewater opted against tackling Darius Slay in his huge touchdown return, which really wasn’t the play of the game, but certainly made more than a few fans in the Mile High City cheese whiz’d off.

Had the results been different if Garett Bolles, Dalton Risner, and Bobby Massie were active for the game? Maybe, maybe not, but that doesn’t particularly matter, as the game is in the books as there’s a W next to the Eagles’ name.

Why, you may ask, is this relevant? Well, because the Philadelphia Eagles will, in all likelihood, be seeing a similarly undermanned offensive again in Week 11, as three key members of the New Orleans Saints did not practice on Thursday and are questionable for Sunday.

The Philadelphia Eagles need to handle the depleted Saints’ offense.

When the New Orleans Saints took the practice field on Thursday, they were without starting tackles Ryan Ramczyk (knee) and Terron Armstead (knee/shoulder), do-it-all offensive weapon Taysom Hill (foot), starting running back Alvin Kamara (knee), sacks leader Tanoh Kpassagnon (ankle), receiver/running back Ty Montgomery (hand) and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach (knee) according to Nola.com.

That’s a lot.

Factor in an injury reserve that features nine players, including starting quarterback Jamis Winston, defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, kicker Will Lutz, and swing lineman
Andrus Peat and the Saints might look borderline unrecognizable from the roster that took the field in Week 1, let alone the one that made the Divisional Round of the playoffs back in January.

Now granted, could some of these players ultimately get themselves right enough to be active for a Week 11 romp against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Linc? Most definitely. Some teams are more cautious than others when it comes to minor injuries in the middle of a 17 game season, but in all likelihood, at least a few of the players mentioned will be out heading into Week 11, including most likely Armstead and Kamara, who both also missed Week 10.

If those three are out, expect New Orleans to supplement Trevor “T-Money Sizzle” Siemian‘s arm with a steady stream of interior runs from Mark Ingram, who showed out very well for the Saints in his three games back in a black and gold uniform since being acquired from the Houston Texans back in October.

Considering the Eagles have given up the sixth-most rushing yards of any NBA team so far this season, that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

In Week 10, Jonathan Gannon’s defense only sacked Teddy Bridgewater once on 36 drop-back attempts, despite being without 60 percent of his regular offensive linemen. That’s bad. While the Philadelphia Eagles could still pull out a win against the New Orleans Saints with a similarly unproductive pass rush, at some point, the team needs to capitalize on an undermanned offense, especially one without a dynamic outside rusher like Alvin Kamara, and put in a dominant defensive performance the likes of which only Detroit has experienced so far this season. There’s just too much talent on the Eagles’ defense to continue to turn in “meh” defensive showings; otherwise, folks may start to blame the scheme, which totally isn’t the problem.