Philadelphia Eagles: Nate Sudfeld’s injury hurts Marken Michel’s chances
With Nate Sudfeld going down, Marken Michel’s chances of making the Philadelphia Eagles roster goes down.
This past Thursday was a tough blow for the Philadelphia Eagles. When backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld left the first game of the preseason on a cart supporting a cast on his arm, nobody knew what to expect. Philadelphia fans went into a panic as suggestions of potential Sam Bradford, and Colin Kaepernick signings started hitting social media as early as the third quarter.
After the game, Pederson would confirm that Sudfeld did in fact, break his wrist. While it was the worst-case scenario at the time, the news the team received the next morning following Sudfeld’s surgery was promising. Sudfeld would be ruled out for six weeks. That means he misses all three final games of the preseason, and the first three games of the regular season.
That doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well, that’s because it isn’t — not for the team at least. The Eagles will be able to survive for three weeks without Sudfeld’s services considering Carson Wentz IS healthy for those who forgot — but one player, in particular, does get put in an unfortunate situation. That player is veteran journeyman wide receiver, Marken Michel.
How can Michel make his case without Sudfeld?
We seem to do this every year in Philly, where an unknown player flashes some nice plays and makes a case to crack the final 53-man roster when they were initially viewed as camp bodies. Most of the time, those players don’t even make the team. Other times, they crack the final roster but won’t get much playing time in the regular season.
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The Eagles aren’t thin at wide receiver, considering they have Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, and Nelson Agholor as starters. The fourth wideout was initially a battle between Mack Hollins and JJ Arcega-Whiteside, but Hollins hasn’t been on the field for a game since week one of last preseason. While we don’t believe Hollins is on the chopping block, his potential fifth spot on the depth chart could be surpassed if somebody becomes a preseason standout.
Marken Michel was on his way to preseason stardom, but an injury to the backup quarterback could cause his stock to drop over the next three weeks. Michel was only targeted three times during the first week of the preseason. He caught one ball, which was the play that everybody was raving about — a 75-yard bomb from Sudfeld to Michel for six.
Could everybody be overreacting to the big play? Sure. At the same time, though, what the fans saw for the first time from Michel on Thursday, was what the Eagles and the media have been seeing in practice on a daily basis. During spring and summer practices, Michel has built up nice connections with both, Carson Wentz and Nate Sudfeld. The other two guys? Not so much.
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Spending the next three weeks with Cody Kessler and Clayton Thorson under center could destroy Michel’s final chances of making the Eagles roster. So while the Sudfeld injury doesn’t affect the Eagles as bad as everybody believed it would initially, it will hurt Michel’s chances.
Unless of course, the Eagles put a ton of stock into his practice reps, which could be an unlikely scenario. Either way, the former fourth-round pick, Mack Hollins might get lucky in this scenario — because it seemed like Michel was really gunning for his spot.