Eagles Injury Updates: Latest on Ronald Darby, Jordan Hicks, Sidney Jones, and more

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson gave some updates on the Philadelphia’s injury situation on Friday morning following the team’s win over the Carolina Panthers on Thursday evening. Here’s the latest on a number of players.

RONALD DARBY

Week 7 has been the expected return date for Darby given the original four-to-six recovery timeline that was reported. But it sounds like he’s not ready yet. When asked if he’ll be practicing next week, Pederson said “probably not” although he did say the corner is “close” to being back.

If Darby can’t return for Week 7, maybe he’ll be ready for the Eagles’ game against the 49ers in Week 8. One could argue the Eagles don’t really need him for that game, though, so maybe keeping him out until Week 9 against the Broncos could be the move. At the very latest, it seems like Darby would be back by Week 11 when the Eagles return from their bye.

Darby’s return would likely mean Douglas returning to the bench. Darby and Jalen Mills were the team’s Week 1 starters so I don’t see that changing upon his return, despite the fact Douglas has shown some positive flashes.

Here’s everything Pederson had to say about Darby.

Q. How about CB Ronald Darby? You seemed to indicate that the Redskins game was the target date?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah. Darby's been doing well. He's been running a little bit more now. Again, he’s another one that could be close, but at the same time, just want to make sure he's 100%. We have some guys like [S] Jaylen Watkins [who] is getting healthy now, getting him back. We're getting some more depth there, so I don't want to rush any of these guys back without them being fully healthy [and] fully healed.

Q. Had Darby been traveling before this week? I noticed him at the game.

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, a couple of the guys that probably would have been ruled out, we traveled them so they could get their treatment and rehab on the road, because of the time off this weekend. So we wanted to make sure they got their rehab and their conditioning in before next week.

Q. So is Darby going to practice, do we know that?

DOUG PEDERSON: As of right now, probably not. But, again, he's close. We'll see next Monday when they get back where he's at again, and just making another evaluation at that time.

JORDAN HICKS

Hicks left the Eagles-Panthers game early due to an ankle injury. Hicks also left the Eagles-Giants in Week 3 for the same reason. Pederson said Hicks is set to practice this week so the team’s starting middle linebacker is not expected to miss any time.

Jordan's going to be okay. And we'll expect him this next week in practice.

CHRIS MARAGOS

Eagles special teams captain and reserve safety Chris Maragos got hurt in the Eagles-Panthers game. It sounds like his ACL might be OK but he may have torn his PCL.

Pederson didn’t reveal any more information about Maragos’ injury on Friday.

In Maragos' case, we still need a few more tests, I guess we'll put it that way, just to get some more information on him.

It sounds like Maragos will miss some time but might not be out for the season.

SIDNEY JONES

Jones is now ELIGIBLE to be activated off the non-football injury list since the Eagles’ first six games are over. That doesn’t necessary mean he will be activated. Here’s a reminder on how the NFI list works. In short, the Eagles have six weeks to decide whether Jones is ready or not to start practicing. If he is ready, the Eagles will then have 21 days to either activate him to the 53-man roster or shut him down for the entire season.

Pederson was asked whether a decision has been made on Jones.

It hasn’t. Again, keep the message the same with him. I don't want to rush him back. He's still doing a good job with his rehab and his conditioning. Again, want to make sure that he's fully cleared, medically, before we stick him back out on the field.

Les Bowen say he’s hearing Jones is “not that close” to returning.

But here’s an interesting tweet from Gil Brandt.

WENDELL SMALLWOOD

Smallwood hasn’t practiced since getting hurt in the Eagles-Chargers game in Week 4. No one really knew he got hurt at the time and Pederson has refused to expound upon his exact injury.

It sounds like there’s a chance he’ll return to practice ahead of the Washington game.

Yeah, Wendell's doing really good. He's another one that we took on the trip and rehabbed him and got him some more treatment stuff. Again, he's another one that on Monday when they get back in, we'll evaluate. He's close. I’ll tell you, he's close. Then on Tuesday, when the players are in the building we'll see. He's got some time now to rest. But I would anticipate him maybe doing a little something next week in practice, but not 100% yet with him. So that's kind of where I'm at.

LANE JOHNSON

Pederson wasn’t asked about Lane but one would assume the team’s starting right tackle will clear the NFL’s mandatory concussion protocol in time to be ready for the Eagles’ next game on Monday, October 23.

MACK HOLLINS

Hollins went down in pain after covering a punt. He seems to be fine, though.