Philadelphia Eagles: Quez Watkins and Jason Huntley come off COVID list

The Philadelphia Eagles probably could have gotten away with playing football today.

While it’s never a bad idea to operate out of an abundance of caution, as the Philadelphia 76ers have already added two players to their COVID list following a game against an increasingly ill Brookly Nets squad, six of the players on Washington’s exempt list have been activated, including Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen, and or old pal Casey Toohill, which still leaves the squad with 16 players out but is better than the 22 they had on Friday.

But hey, things aren’t all doom and gloom for the Eagles. Much like Washington, the extra time off has allowed Philly to get healthier, too, as both of the players on their COVID list, Quez Watkins and Jason Huntley have been activated and could see playing time in Week 15, assuming the latter is called up from the practice squad, of course.

Factor in both Miles Sanders and Jordan Howard being full participants at practice and the Philadelphia Eagles should actually be happy they had their game postponed… just kidding, moving the game back creates a ton of issues for the team in Week 15, 16, and beyond but hey, why not make the most out of a bad situation?

The Philadelphia Eagles have an aerial advantage in Week 15.

If the Philadelphia Eagles played Washington today – which they don’t, but I digress – the Football Team would be without their top-two quarterbacks, their top cornerback, two linebackers, three safeties, and a slew more players including our old pal Wendell Smallwood, who is surprisingly still in the league as a practice squad player.

That’s a lot of players not on the field.

Now granted, could some of those players be cleared before Tuesday? Yes. Josh Allen appears to be trending in that direction, which obviously would be a massive upgrade over starting either Garrett Gilbert or Pat Shurmur’s son Kyle (more on that here), but some of those players, like Kendall Fuller, are unvaccinated and thus, are ineligible to play regardless.

No matter how things specifically shake out, having Quez Watkins on the field and Fuller off it should present some very interesting options for the Philadelphia Eagles when they take the field for only their sixth Tuesday night game in franchise history (more on that here).

With Fuller out, Washington will likely turn to William Jackson III as their top cornerback versus Nick Sirianni’s offense. That’s good news for DeVonta Smith and company, as Jackson has allowed 475 yards and six touchdowns so far this season, and has clearly been the weaker outside cornerback for one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL (more on that here).

And opposite Jackson? Well, Washington will likely roll with Darryl Roberts on the outside, a player who is athletically gifted but has appeared in 70 games over the last six years and isn’t quite starting-caliber by NFL standards.

Needless to say, the Eagles are going to have a ton of options at their fingertips to attack a Washington defense with a very light depth chart.

I’m talking go routes, comebacks, corners. Sure, Sirianni will still call his fair share of screens, which could work but why not do some jets sweeps, play-action passes to running backs, and maybe even some trickery like having JJ Arcega-Whiteside lineup in the backfield and serve as a bizarre fullback like he did against New York in Week 12.

No matter how Sirianni opts to attack his divisional foe there will undoubtedly be plays on the table.

December Sundays without football are weird. There’s nothing to look forward to, the forthcoming workweek is looming, and the idea of ordering wings to watch

the Philadelphia 76ers game

Christmas movies just feels wrong. While some good news from the injury report isn’t going to magically fix that, it’s at least better than more back news, which has become increasingly common as of late.