Eagles place MLB Joe Walker on Injured Reserve

The Philadelphia Eagles have placed middle linebacker Joe Walker on the IR.

It has been a rough season of injuries for the Philadelphia Eagles. It is still crazy to think that they are the number one seed in the NFC with a record of 13-2 at this point. Just a few weeks ago, they added their star quarterback, Carson Wentz to the injured reserve along with many other significant names on the roster. On Friday, the Eagles had to add yet, another player to the list. Middle linebacker, Joe Walker.

Walker suffered a neck injury a few weeks back, which has kept him out of the lineup for a while. What was originally diagnosed as a stinger seems to have been a little bit more serious considering he never returned. Walker would be the second middle linebacker to have his season cut short behind Jordan Hicks.

There were rumors last week that Walker was actually a healthy scratch against the Oakland Raiders. He was replaced by one of the Eagles recent free agent signings, Dannell Ellerbe. But with the news coming out on Friday that Walker is done for the season, it looks like he was actually dealing with his lingering injury still rather than being a healthy scratch.

Freeing up a spot.

All week the Eagles have had multiple decisions to make regarding the defense. Doug Pederson had to address topics such as the starters on defense playing this week, or who will start at linebacker moving forward? Or yet, the most intriguing topic, will Sidney Jones play this week? While Pederson has thrown out a few hints on those three concerns, this specific move regarding Walker almost guarantees two things.

One, Ellerbe officially becomes the starting middle linebacker now. He finally got his chance to play last week and the Eagles seem to feel comfortable with him moving forward. Now the second question would be, is Sidney Jones finally going to play?

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We don’t want to speak too soon, but it sure seems like the Eagles will finally let Jones make his debut this week against the Dallas Cowboys. As Pederson teased the idea all week, we all knew that a move had to be made to free up a spot on the roster. Well, moving Walker to the reserve gives us hope that Jones will be taking his spot.