By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor
In week one, the Eagles lost Malik Jackson to IR. It was a huge loss, but was offset quite a bit due to having Tim Jernigan available to start and being able to bring in Akeem Spence as a fourth option at the position.
In week two, the team had plenty of injuries, including Tim Jernigan not returning from the locker room after halftime. With Jernigan in a boot, the news was not expected to be good.
Early Monday, ProFootballTalk reported that Jernigan has a broken foot and the injury could be season ending, but Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network is saying the timeline is roughly a month.
Another defensive tackle injury for the #Eagles. First Malik Jackson, now DT Tim Jernigan. I’m told Jernigan could be out about roughly a month. https://t.co/kQoqPb1Q5U
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 16, 2019
The recovery time is currently reported to be four to six weeks, meaning that they expect him back week seven at the earliest. They could chose to place Jernigan on IR and Jernigan would only miss one additional game as the eighth week would be the team’s bye week in week 10.
The team will likely need to look for another defensive tackle to roster during that time with the most likely options being Bruce Hector on the practice squad or free agent and former Eagle Bennie Logan serving as the fourth defensive tackle.
If the team does not feel they have the room on the roster, they could move Brandon Graham and/or Vinny Curry inside a few times a game and keep one of Shareef Miller of Daeshon Hall active on gamedays.
Jernigan seems sure to miss games against the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings at the minimum.