According to Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis, safety Patrick Chung is battling nerve damage in his shoulder and is day-to-day. Photo: Philly.com
For the past two weeks Philadelphia Eagles safety Patrick Chung's shoulder injury was hidden under a shroud of uncertainty.
Last week both head coach Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Bill Davis termed Chung's injury as "unique" and on Tuesday Davis finally offered some clarity on the health of his starting safety.
"It's a nerve thing," Davis explained at the Novacare Complex before Tuesday's practice. "He's doing ok. We tested his shoulder today and it failed the test. There's a lot of pain involved and right now he's getting a couple different things looked at and he'll be day to day."
Chung played against the Buccaneers and was in obvious pain throughout, especially after several tackles on Doug Martin in the game's latter stages.
The five-year veteran has played in four games, recording 20 tackles.
In Chung's absence rookie Earl Wolff has stepped into the starting lineup alongside Nate Allen in the Birds' defensive backfield and that won't be any different this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.
Wolff, the Eagles fifth-round draft choice out of North Carolina State, has posted 29 tackles and is gaining the confidence of his coaches in the process.
"In this philosophy of the defense, the next man up has to step in and handle the scheme," Davis said. "I'm not going to cut back because it's a young guy in there or not, he's held responsible for knowing all of it. I'll go as fast as the top group can handle the scheme and [Wolff]'s done a nice job so far."
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
