Philadelphia Eagles: Davion Taylor’s promising season takes a detour to IR

*sigh*

After watching Jordan Howard and Davion Taylor play significant parts in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ mid-season resurgence, the duo are expected to miss time moving forward, with the former doubtful for Werk 12 and the latter likely headed to IR after suffering a knee strain versus the New Orleans Saints.

See why I sigh? It’s like any time things start to look promising, another injury crops up that casts the team’s winning formula into question. Between losing Brandon Brooks, Isaac Seumalo, and Brandon Graham in quick succession, to Lane Johnson‘s absence, and a steady string of short-term stints on IR for everyone from Miles Sanders to K’Von Wallace, the Eagles have had 62 different players log snaps so far this season, with a few more players likely to add to that total before the season is done.

While it will be hard to replace Howard’s unique style of play, as the Eagles don’t have another power back on their roster, they do have three capable running backs on the 53 plus Jason Huntley on the practice squad to help ease his absence.

Losing Davion Taylor, by contrast, will be harder to replace, as he’s arguably been the Philadelphia Eagles’ most dynamic linebacker over the last month and a perfect partner in crime for recently extended MIKE T.J. Edwards.

The Philadelphia Eagles will have to wait a few weeks for more Davion Taylor.

Through the first 11 games of the 2021 NFL season, Davion Taylor has been targeted 28 times in coverage, allowing 25 catches for 255 yards and no touchdowns.

He’s allowed 104 yards through the air, 151 yards after the catch, and holds a missed tackle percentage of 16.3 on 49 total attempts.

Those numbers aren’t very good but don’t quite tell the full story.

You see, when Taylor took the field for the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1, he was a markedly worse player than he is in Week 11. He was played far more cautiously, allowed a few more yards after the catch than one would like, and was caught flat-footed more than a few times by “Eagle”-eyed observers with a subscription to All-22.

But by Week 11? Taylor was coming off of a two-fumble game and had amassed at least four tackles in each game since Week 6. While Taylor still looks a bit green in midnight green, it’s clear he is better equipped, physically speaking, to play the weakside linebacker role in Jonathan Gannon’s defense, even if he still makes a few errors as he further feels out the position.

Had Taylor been allowed to continue on at the same clip for the remainder of the season, playing an average of 40 snaps per game, maybe the front office would have seen enough to anoint the third-round pick out of Colorado a foundational piece for the future, but after coming up hurt versus the New Orleans Saints, that just won’t happen.

Once it’s made official, Taylor will miss at least the next three weeks of action while he rehabs his knee and will have to continue to study the game off the field instead of logging triple-digit snaps on it. He’ll miss an opportunity to chase down Saquon Barkley with his 4.49 speed, pursue his first sack against former second-team quarterback Joe Flacco, and maybe even make a play or two on Washington’s interior pass-catching options like Antonio Gibson, Logan Thomas, and even Panthers transplant Curtis Samuel.

*Sigh II: Electric Boogaloo* I really would have liked to see how Taylor would have fared in those matchups.

In the NFL, the only constant is change. Players play well, get injured, and hope they aren’t an afterthought by the time they return to the field. While I doubt the Philadelphia Eagles will find a new starting outside linebacker in Davion Taylor’s absence to totally take him out of their long-term plans, these snaps were more important to him than most, as few players in the NFL have less actual football experience than the two-year starter out of Colorado. *Sigh III: Revenge of the Sith* maybe Shaun Bradley will breakout in Taylor’s absence.