It’s hard enough for the Philadelphia Eagles as they navigate the ups and downs of an overall young defense. That’s especially true when their head coach has trouble keeping his cool with the fans. And they also have to deal with rough injury updates for Jalen Carter and Darius Slay ahead of the clash with the Giants.
Neither player made it to the practice field, according to posts on X by NFL Eagles writer Martin Frank.
“Looks like Jalen Carter is not practicing today. Neither is Darius Slay. Slay was limited yesterday, JC was not on injury report yesterday.”
The Eagles enter their first NFC East game with a record of 3-2 while the Giants carry a mark of 2-4.
Eagles CB Darius Slay tough to replace
If Slay can’t go, it’s a problem for the Eagles’ secondary. And it magnifies if Giants rookie star Malik Nabers manages to return from injury.
Slay is a 12th year veteran. The Lions picked him in the second round of 2013 NFL Draft. He became a Pro Bowl selection in 2017 and earned that honor six times over seven seasons. Slay missed out last year, playing on five game for the Eagles, a team he joined in 2020.
Not having his veteran savvy against a raw but supremely talented player like Nabers would hurt. Giants head coach Brian Daboll said he’s seen good things in regards to Nabers’ injury, according to giants.com.
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“Malik has made progress,” Daboll said. “Good progress where he's able to come out here today and practice. He'll have a red jersey on, but he passed some of the steps that he needed to do. He's better, which is a good thing. So, we'll see. We'll go through today. I'm optimistic, but I'm not going to push anything. That type of injury you want to be smart with. But he is doing much better and it'll be good to have him out here at practice today.
Not having Carter would impact the Eagles’ pass rush, which figures to give the Giants a hard time because of the absence of sturdy left tackle Andrew Thomas. He will miss the season because of an injury in last week’s game.
“Well, you can't replace an Andrew Thomas,” Daboll said. “I feel terrible for him. I was able to text with him today. He had his surgery this morning, everything was successful. He's a leader, he's a captain, he's great in the locker room, (and) he's a very good football player. So, that's what the development of players is all about. … Once this happens, you have discussions about how you want to approach it. We'll do a few things here this week and then ultimately after Friday's practice, we'll make our decision on how we're going to go with that.”
