Eagles Injury Updates: McLeod Out For Season, Entire Secondary Banged Up

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Doug Pederson told the media in his Monday press conference that Rodney McLeod will be out for the year after an MRI revealed he had torn his ACL.

McLeod is the only veteran at the safety position the Eagles have under contract beyond 2020.

Meanwhile, starting corner Darius Slay is in concussion protocol while his opposite, Avonte Maddox, will “miss time”.

McLeod is the captain of the secondary and the team’s 2020 Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee.

He is second on the team behind Alex Singleton with 66 tackles.

He also game the pregame speech to the Birds on Sunday.

His loss would, in theory, move Jalen Mills to the top safety spot with rookie K’Von Wallace and second-year man Marcus Epps playing the second and third safety role.

Mills may be moved to corner, however, moving the aforementioned guys to the starting spots with UDFA Grayland Arnold serving as the third safety.

Darius Slay, the top cover corner on the roster, could theoretically return for next week, but the concussion protocol is tricky and he could also remain in it until the end of the season.

With Maddox expected to miss time, the Eagles will be without both outside corners and Mills would almost certainly move down. That leaves the Eagles with promising UDFA Michael Jacquet III, who was injured and unavailable against the Saints and may remain that way this week, as their second outside corner.

Cre’Von LeBlanc remains on IR and Nickell Robey-Coleman is the team’s slot corner, so if Jacquet were to be unavailable, the Eagles would have to once again rely on Kevon Seymour (signed to the practice squad December 2), the only other corner currently on the roster.

The Eagles also have corners Jameson Houston (signed November 25) and Lavert Hill (signed December 8), currently on the practice squad. The Eagles have Elijah Riley on their practice squad as well with the general DB designation.

It is also worth noting that the Eagles having just three safeties and few corners could lead to an increased need for linebackers, where TJ Edwards, Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley were all unavailable due to injury by game’s end. If neither Edwards or Bradley can play against the Cardinals, the team will have just the recently signed Joe Bachie behind Alex Singleton and Duke Riley. Rashad Smith is the only linebacker on the practice squad.