Eagles designate Richard Rodgers to return from injured reserve

The Philadelphia Eagles officially announced veteran tight end Richard Rodgers has been designated for return from the injured reserve list this season.

This means the Eagles are choosing Rodgers as one of the maximum of two players they can activate from IR. It also means Rodgers is now eligible to participate in practice. The Eagles have 21 days to officially activate him to the 53-man roster. Until then, he does not count against Philadelphia’s roster limit.

Rodgers, a free agent signing back in April, originally ended up on injured reserve prior to the Eagles’ Week 1 game against the Falcons. Rodgers had suffered a knee injury in the Eagles’ second preseason game that caused Doug Pederson to describe him as “week-to-week” at the time.

The Eagles’ decision to activate Rodgers means that only one of Mike Wallace or Mack Hollins can now be designated to return. Hollins has been eligible to be activated for a couple weeks now but the team has not done so. The Eagles have publicly expressed hope that Wallace might be able to return.

Getting Rodgers back is clearly going to save the Eagles’ season. Just kidding, it really doesn’t figure to have a major impact. Rodgers projects as a third string tight end who can also help out on special teams.

The Eagles have already gotten great production out of the tight end position from Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert. The latter of those two players isn’t getting enough playing time. It remains to be seen how Rodgers’ return will impact the tight end usage. Hopefully it doesn’t mean even less Goedert.

Rodgers’ eventual activation likely means the Eagles will be moving on from Joshua Perkins.