Malcolm Jenkins and Jason Peters injured: Who will step up?
On Thursday, the Philadelphia Eagles saw safety Malcolm Jenkins and left tackle Jason Peters leave training camp due to injury.
Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles held their collective breaths as news began to circulate about Jason Peters and Malcolm Jenkins leaving training practice on Thursday with injuries.
For Peters, injury news isn’t really ever a shock. The eight-time NFL Pro Bowl left tackle and two-time first team All-Pro is now in his mid-thirties and has recently spent a lot of time on injury reports. The most concerning thing is the fact that we’re again talking about a quad injury (the same reason he missed a considerable amount of snaps in 2015). When healthy, Peters is the best in the business. He’s just never really 100 percent these days.
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As tough as that is to take, Jenkins may have put even more lumps in the throats of the Philly faithful. Any time anyone hears hamstring injury, it causes a stir. Hearing the words Malcolm Jenkins and hamstring injury in the same season could have a few Eagles fans up all night checking out blogs and social media accounts. This team can ill afford to lose either player.
Still, this is professional football, and even though no team wants to see an important component of the team go down, it is part of the game. The good news is both walked off under their own power, and no major news has surfaced yet about either player missing an extended amount of time. The attention now shifts to those other guys that we know a whole lot less about and guys whose names may not have been called as much to this point. We’ll find a lot out about depth, talent and maybe eve the depth chart extremely quickly.
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Right tackle Lane Johnson has spent time at left tackle in Peters’ absence, but the Eagles really want to keep him on the right side. Talk is now about Matt Tobin seeing time with the first team on offense. With Jenkins out, Ed Reynolds steps in. The hope is that both can be serviceable, and though the ultimate goal is to get Jenkins and Peters back on the field as soon as humanly possible, it’s not a bad thing to see what other guys are capable of. The Eagles may find out that they have a little more depth than they had originally thought.
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There are few other things you may want to keep in mind as well. Neither Reynolds or Tobin are the answer long-term if Jenkins and Peters can’t go, and don’t forget that Eric Rowe and Jalen Mills are expected to compete at the cornerback position but could be tested out at the safety position if push came to shove.