Nate Sudfeld Suffers Broken Wrist

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

This is not the headline that Eagles fans wanted to see.

In just the first preseason game, the Eagles are already down a quarterback after Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Isaiah Mack thought it would be a good idea to get a late hit on the Eagles quarterback. Mack, a rookie undrafted free agent, apparently thought that stupid penalties are what get you on an NFL roster.

Following the hit, Sudfeld went to brace himself and suffered an injury.

After the game, Doug Pederson revealed that the injury was in fact a broken wrist.

#Eagles coach Doug Pederson tells reporters that QB Nate Sudfeld suffered a broken left wrist and will have surgery on Friday. But they won’t bring in a QB just yet. It’s on Cody Kessler to back up.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 9, 2019

The injury is not in his throwing hand, so his mechanics should not be affected, but the team will likely be without Sudfeld for at least eight weeks. That means a week five return might be an optimistic time to return. If the team believes that, Sudfeld may not start the season on IR because he would be unable to be activated until week eight.

Sudfeld was having a great game, going 10/18 with 177 yards, including a 75-yard bomb to Marken Michel. He had a passer rating of 107.9.

Following the injury, the Titans took a cheap shot on veteran Cody Kessler.

Kessler was not impressive, but certainly should not be written off after getting only six passing attempts. Based on Doug Pederson’s comments, the team plans to stay in-house for a backup while Sudfeld is out. If you saw the game, you know (or at least hope) that the team is not looking at using Thorson as the backup right now.

Cody Kessler was actually released by the Jaguars when Nick Foles signed with the team this offseason and Foles called him up and told him how great the Eagles were. Kessler was sent to the team by Nick Foles single handedly – perhaps Foles has another miracle to provide for Philadelphia.

Kessler has started in the NFL before and has a nearly 65% completion percentage to go along with 1922 yards and a 7:3 touchdown to interception ratio in just 12 starts. His teams have gone 2-10 in those starts. Those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as Kessler did all of that with the Browns and Jaguars when each was among the worst teams in the league with virtually no offensive weapons for him to utilize.

As long as he is given the reps to build chemistry and learn the playbook, the offense in Philly should help Kessler see improvement from the stats he previously put up, which are not all too bad to begin with. In fact, he already has chemistry with college teammate Nelson Agholor.

Should Kessler not impress, the team does still have options like Sam Bradford, Brock Osweiler, Mark Sanchez, Colin Kapernick, Geno Smith and Josh Johnson that could be signed in free agency.

Update: ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Sudfeld is expected back in six weeks. If that timeline is accurate, he’d be back a few days before the Eagles week three match-up with the Detroit Lions.

After undergoing surgery this morning for a broken bone above his left wrist, Eagles’ backup QB Nate Sudfeld is expected to return in six weeks, per source. Best-case scenario for Philly.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 9, 2019

Sudfeld would likely be available to play by week four when the team visits Green Bay if this timeline holds, so the team will almost certainly not place Sudfeld on IR, which would require him to miss at least the first eight games.