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Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby did NOT suffer major ligament damage in his dislocated ankle and will only miss four to six weeks, according to a report from NFL insider Ian Rapoport.
This is great news for the Eagles. Relatively speaking, at least. Ideally Darby wouldn’t be hurt at all, but it looked like his season might have been over when he was carted off the field during Philadelphia’s win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday afternoon.
Now we know Darby will only miss four to six games. Note that the Eagles don’t have their bye until November 12, so he should be back before their rest week. Here’s a look at the Eagles’ next six games.
Week 2 - at Kansas City Chiefs (Sept. 17, 1:00 PM ET, FOX)
Week 3 - vs. New York Giants (Sept. 24, 1:00 PM ET, FOX)
Week 4 - at Los Angeles Chargers (Oct. 1, 4:05 PM ET, FOX)
Week 5 - vs. Arizona Cardinals (Oct. 8, 1:00 PM ET, FOX)
Week 6 - at Carolina Panthers (Oct. 12, 8:25 PM ET, CBS/NFLN) Thursday Night Football
Week 7 - vs. Washington Redskins (Oct. 23, 8:30 PM ET, ESPN) Monday Night Football
At the latest, Darby should be able to return in time for the Eagles’ Week 8 game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Darby missing time still isn’t great. The Eagles were weak at cornerback to begin with and his absence only magnifies that concern. To their credit, Jalen Mills and Patrick Robinson played well in Week 1. A strong pass rush certainly made life easier on them as well.
We’ll see how things hold up. The key takeaway, though, is that this Darby injury could have been a lot worse and the Eagles are lucky he’ll be back in a month or so.