By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor
When Doug Pederson gave updates on all the injured Eagles this Monday, he left the door open for a potential return of Avonte Maddox, Jordan Hicks and Jalen Mills. That makes the latest Eagles news rather shocking: Mills has been placed on IR.
Mills not being on IR gave fans hope that at least two of their three starting corners could be playing come the end of the season. With only nine weeks until the Super Bowl and a minimum stay of eight weeks on IR, the move ends The Green Goblin’s season no matter how deep the Eagles could get.
Despite missing the last four and a half games, Mills remains second on the team with nine defensed passes and fifth on the team with 42 tackles. With him officially out for the remainder of the season, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas will be the starting outside corners while Cre’Von LeBlanc is likely to be the corner in the slot. The Eagles will hope that their improved pass rush will continue to benefit the corners and that Sidney Jones can play to the level that made him a potential number one overall pick in the draft prior to suffering an Achilles injury during his pro day workouts.
In his place, the Eagles have re-signed defensive tackle Bruce Hector to the active roster. The Eagles like Hector and think he could be a valuable contributor in the future. In his limited snaps across six games this season, he has registered only one assist and is credited with half a sack.
With the Eagles seemingly expecting to get receiver Mike Wallace back this season, Hector would seem like a likely candidate to be waived to create room. Should that be the case, Hector would almost certainly return to the practice squad should he clear waivers for the third time this season.