Mike Wallace injury update: There’s optimism Eagles receiver can return later this season

The Philadelphia Eagles officially placed Mike Wallace, who suffered a fractured fibula in Week 2, on the injured reserve list earlier on Wednesday but his season might not be over just yet.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport reports his understanding is “that there is optimism that Wallace can return late in the year. That indicates a clean break without a lot of collateral damage.”

This report echoes what Doug Pederson had to say about Wallace during his Wednesday press conference.

I wouldn’t say he’s done for the season. He’s definitely week to week. We’ll obviously get through our bye week I think down the road and see where he is.

It also matches up with his potential recovery timeline, which could be around six-to-eight weeks.

By being placed on injured reserve, we do know for sure that Wallace isn’t eligible to be activated until after Week 10. This means he’ll miss at least seven games; note that the Eagles have a bye in Week 9.

We also now know that one of the following three players will not be coming back to the 53-man roster this season: Wallace, Mack Hollins, or Richard Rodgers. The NFL only allows two players to be returned from injured reserve per season. Hollins and Rodgers will be eligible to be activated after Week 8 since they were placed on IR leading up to Week 1.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Eagles decide to do. It’s too early to say for sure what will happen because a lot of things can change from now until then. We also have to see how the players progress during their recoveries.

For now, it’s nice to know Wallace isn’t guaranteed to miss the rest of the season.