Eagles Place Jordan Hicks On Injured Reserve
Jordan Hicks. (USA Today Sports)
After early optimism, the Eagles were dealt some bad news regarding standout rookie linebacker Jordan Hicks.
An MRI Monday revealed that Hicks suffered a left pectoral tendon tear in the win over Dallas Sunday night. He has been placed on injured reserve.
A report earlier in the day said preliminary results were pointing to just a 2-to-4 week injury for Hicks, but further testing proved otherwise.
Jay Glazer was first with the news.
Hicks suffered the injury late in regulation.
Earlier in the game, Hicks intercepted a Matt Cassel pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 67 yards for a touchdown. It was his second interception of the season to go with three fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, three passes defensed, a sack and 50 tackles.
Hicks was asked about the injury after the game last night, but had little information to offer.
“I’m not sure what the extent is right now, but I’m not feeling terrible,” Hicks said. “I feel fine. I can move it around.”
While a big blow, inside linebacker is a position of depth for the Eagles with DeMeco Ryans, Mychal Kendricks and Najee Goode on the roster. Brad Jones can play inside as well. It seems unlikely, then, that Hicks’ roster spot will be used on another ILB.
[Update]: Or, they could sign the Acho.
Guess who’s back, back again! pic.twitter.com/yIDquMhPhn
— Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) November 9, 2015
—
Another Eagles rookie — Nelson Agholor — missed the entire game against Dallas. He was surprisingly listed as inactive after he was a full participant in practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Kelly said he hopes Agholor will be back for Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, and was asked what changed at the end of last week that led to Agholor being sidelined.
“Nothing,” Kelly said. “If you ask Nelson two minutes after his injury: ‘I’m going the next day.’ That’s just the type of kid that Nelson is, but we’re not going to put him in harm’s way. He’s worked extremely hard at his rehab, but it’s not an injury that’s going to take two seconds and ‘I’m going to come back.’
“There’s a certain amount of time you have to work. He practiced every day last week and I just felt he needed a little bit more time and I wasn’t going to rush him back from it.”
Kelly added that he had no updates on Jason Peters or Ryans, but he did touch on Kiko Alonso’s performance. Alonso played 37 percent of the defense’s snaps and recorded one tackle in his first action since Week 2.
“Kiko played well, and I know [his defensive coaches] were pleased,” Kelly said. “It’s his first time back since the last Dallas game, so we also knew we got to ease him into this thing. You just can’t continue to throw him out there and then all of a sudden, we lose him.”
Tim McManus contributed to this report.