Eagles injuries force more lineup juggling

Only 2 starters on the Eagles offense have not missed games due to injury this season, guard Evan Mathis and FB Stanley Havili. Of course, considering how few snaps Havili actually plays, its hard to consider him a starter, but he at least is a first stringer.

Either way, we can scratch him off the list of guys who have survived the season. So it seems as though Evan Mathis has won Eagles offensive Survivor. That's what we've been watching these past 17 weeks right?

Andy Reid said today that Havili would be "a stretch" to play this weekend meaning the Eagles will need a fullback for Sunday. That's ok because they've recently promoted FB/TE Emil Igwenagu to the roster, so he can play there right?

Right, but he was called up to the roster because the team needed a backup TE when starter Brent Celek went down. But now Brent Celek is back so it's all good.

Oh wait, the other TE Clay Harbor was just put on IR? Awesome.

But wait, Andy Reid has a solution. It seems as though Chris Polk is finally healthy and ready to play, so he's going to play fullback... well, some fullback.

Polk can go at fullback with [FB/TE] Emil [Igwenagu] and Emil can also be that backup tight end spot for Clay. But Polk, we've worked in at fullback. We've done it all season. We've worked him in there, so that should be an easy transition for him.

So will Igwenagu & Polk split time at FB and will Igwenagu also be the backup TE? Reid really didn't offer an answer to that question. So I suppose it will be a surprise come game time... The Redskins will never know!

Oh and I wanted to give Clay Harbor a little shout out here because as it turns out, he's kind of a badass. On his first catch last Thursday he took a shot to his lower back in the second quarter that ended up causing three separate fractures.

Problem was, Stanley Havili also got hurt and couldn't play so the backup TE, Igwenagu, was having to play FB and the Eagles had no other TE. So Harbor just toughed it out and stayed in the game.

Brent Celek said he was impressed.

"That's really tough. The fact that he played the rest of the game, I'm proud of him for that. He fought through it and knew he had to because we didn't really have another tight end who could do it. We have [FB/TE] Emil [Igwenagu] but he was taking some fullback stuff, too. I'm proud of what he did in that game."

I agree. Respect to Harbor. This season is over, these games don't matter, but its really great to see a guy out there willing to give everything he's got.