While Doug Pederson spent most of his 12-minute press conference on Sunday morning, combatively avoiding questions about his starting quarterback (see story), he did provide an important injury update.
Pederson said starting running back Jay Ajayi is "great" and will be practicing this week.
That's obviously good news for the Eagles.
Ajayi began missing practice on Aug. 19 with what Pederson said was a "lower-body injury." We'll find out later today whether or not Ajayi was a full participant. We'll also find out what specific injury has been hampering him. While the upper-body, lower-body works for the Eagles in the summer, the official injury reports in the regular season must be more specific.
Ajayi played in the first two preseason games this year and had 10 rushing attempts for 43 yards. After getting in great shape this offseason, he looked good in limited action this summer.
Here's some good from Ajayi. This should have been a loss of yards. pic.twitter.com/iaLvpuwOXF— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) August 17, 2018
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After playing in those first two preseason games, Ajayi missed the dress rehearsal in the third and hasn't practiced since.
This is a big year for the 25-year-old running back. He came to the Eagles in the middle of the 2017 season, so he was always catching up. This year, he has a much better grasp of the playbook. That comes at a good time, because LeGarrette Blount left in free agency and Ajayi is going to be the Eagles' featured back. Now, that means something slightly different in Philly, where there's still going to be a rotation. But Ajayi is going to start and will presumably get the most carries.
The other reason this is a big year for Ajayi is because he's entering the final year of his rookie contract and this might very well be his best chance to really get paid as an NFL running back. The chance to earn a lot of money is obviously motivating for him.
