{"id":557042,"date":"2025-11-26T23:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/557042\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:49:10","slug":"eagles-place-starting-defender-on-ir-likely-to-be-without-star-wr-in-game-against-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/557042\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles place starting defender on IR, likely to be without star WR in game against Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 It appears as if the Eagles\u2019<\/a> struggling offense is going to be shorthanded Friday when they play the Chicago Bears at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n

It also appears as if Britain Covey<\/a> is going to make his return as the team\u2019s punt returner.<\/p>\n

DeVonta Smith<\/a>, the team\u2019s leading wide receiver this season with 55 catches for 754 yards and three touchdowns, was listed as out of practice Wednesday for the second straight day for multiple reasons. He was listed as having chest and shoulder injuries and he also has an illness.<\/p>\n

If, as expected, he does not play it would mark just the fifth time in his five-year career that he was unable to take the field because of an injury. <\/p>\n

In Smith\u2019s absence, the Eagles will insert Jahan Dotson<\/a> into the starting lineup along with A.J. Brown<\/a>. Dotson has 10 catches for 194 yards and a touchdown this season after contributing 19 catches for 216 yards last season. The only other wide receivers with catches on the Eagles\u2019 roster right now are undrafted rookie Darius Cooper<\/a>, who has two catches for seven yards, and punt returner Xavier Gipson, who has two catches for six yards.<\/p>\n

Cooper has played 27 snaps the last three games after missing four games with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Gipson suffered a shoulder injury Sunday against the Cowboys when he took a jarring hit that forced a fourth-quarter fumble on his final punt return. He has been out of practice the last two days and isn\u2019t likely to play against the Bears. He has been the Eagles\u2019 punt returner for the last four games and he has also returned seven kickoffs.<\/p>\n

With Gipson out and the Eagles shorthanded at wide receiver, the team announced after practice Wednesday that Covey had been promoted from the practice squad to the active roster. Covey had been the Eagles\u2019 primary punt returner in 2022 and 2023 before a series of injuries limited him to five games last season.<\/p>\n

He spent training camp this year with the Los Angeles Rams, but after being released signed with the Eagles\u2019 practice squad.<\/p>\n

The Eagles had room on the roster for Covey after placing rookie safety Andrew Mukuba<\/a> on injured reserve. Mukuba started 10 of 11 games this season, but suffered a severe ankle injury late in the Eagles\u2019 loss to the Cowboys. Sydney Brown<\/a> will start in his place Friday.<\/p>\n

The Eagles are dealing with a number of injuries during this short week of practice. Running back Saquon Barkley<\/a> (groin), safety Reed Blankenship<\/a> (thigh) and guard Landon Dickerson<\/a> (knee) were all limited in practice for the second straight day Wednesday, but they will all likely play Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 It appears as if the Eagles\u2019 struggling offense is going to be shorthanded Friday when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,11621,7,6,3846,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-557042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles_vs_saints_3593","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nflraw24","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","15":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115618681457291378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}