Brandon Scherff is out versus the Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles got some bad luck yesterday when Landon Dickerson was placed on the COVID-list (more on that here).

The move, which came mere hours after Quez Watkins and Jason Huntley were removed from the list, understandably angered many a Philly fan, as Dickerson may or may not have been able to play had the game occurred at its original time – which breeds a completely different conversation that’s hard to truly unpack since we don’t know the exact situation of Dickerson’s contact.

But here’s the thing about moving the game back to Tuesday; Washington can suffer move COVID-related absences too, and they have, with Pro Bowl guard Brandon Scherff officially out for the Tuesday night contest.

Needless to say, this is a pretty big deal and could seriously impact how the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive line is able to operate against whomever Washington opts to start at quarterback.

The Philadelphia Eagles should have a good interior rush versus Washington.

Brandon Scherff is a darn good player.

The fifth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the former Iowa Hawkeye has started every game he’s appeared in for Washington’s football team and has been named to four Pro Bowls and a single All-Pro list for his efforts.

Over the past seven seasons, Scherff has surrendered only 11 sacks versus 5,559 total offensive snaps and has been flagged for 29 penalties over that same timeframe, which isn’t quite as good but is still quite impressive. At 6-foot-5, 315 pounds, Scherff is a big, road grading guard who is equally as effective versus the run and the pass and has transitioned beautifully from five years of Jay Gruden to Ron Rivera’s current run.

Needless to say, Scherff is a big part of Washington’s offense and will be sorely missed on Tuesday evening, as it’s not like Football Team is exactly flush with top-level talent on the offensive line at the moment.

With six offensive linemen either on IR or the COVID list, including Tyler Larsen, Cornelius Lucas, and Wes Schweitzer, Washington is expected to only field two of their typical starting offensive linemen in Charles Leno Jr. and Ereck Flowers Sr., with all but only one other interior reserve currently listed on their official depth chart, Keith Ismael, currently healthy enough to play.

Down Larsen, Scherff, and Lucas, Washington will likely now have to turn to some combination of Ismael, Jon Toth, Jamil Douglas, or Saahdiq Charles to fill out the right side of their line, who have combined to play 82 offensive snaps for Washington this season.

Have you been waiting for that Josh Sweat breakout game? Well, this might just be the contest, as he and either Fletcher Cox or Javon Hargrave will have some incredibly advantageous matchups on Tuesday against a makeshift line of deep reserves.

If Philly can pull off their best Week 8 impression, a commanding win could very well be in the cards.

Look, it’s never cool to be excited that a player comes into close contact with someone who has COVID. As fans of every single professional sports team can vouch for, it’s not a matter of if a team will have an outbreak, but when and how bad it will be. Unfortunately, both the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington will be down a guard heading into the final game of Week 15; the only difference is Nick Sirianni’s squad still has Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, and Jordan Mailata to help ease Landon Dickerson’s loss.