It may be a case of too little too late, but defensive tackle Tim Jernigan is finally back.
The Eagles on Tuesday activated Jernigan from the reserve-non-football injury list, and he's expected to make his 2018 debut on Sunday, when the Eagles face the Giants at the Linc.
To make room on the 53-man roster, the Eagles released defensive tackle T.Y. McGill.
Jernigan hasn't played since the Super Bowl. He got hurt during an unsupervised offseason workout, underwent disc surgery and has been on reserve-NFI since.
During the interim, the Eagles slashed his contract, converting guaranteed money to non-guaranteed salary, so in a way he's playing for his roster spot these last six weeks. He's earning $3 million this year.
Once Jernigan was cleared to practice on Nov. 5, the Eagles had three weeks to either activate him or shut him down for the season.
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How much he can play and how much he can contribute after missing all of the offseason, OTAs, training camp and the first 10 games of the season remains to be seen.
But considering what the Eagles have been running out there at defensive tackle, it's hard to imagine he won't be a major upgrade.
In Jernigan's absence and with Haloti Ngata in and out of the lineup (he missed three games), the Eagles used Bruce Hector in six games (he's currently on the practice squad), Treyvon Hester in six games (he had been on the practice squad) and the last two weeks McGill, who got 15 snaps against the Cowboys and 30 against the Saints.
McGill, who had previously spent time with the Seahawks, Colts, Browns, Chiefs and Chargers, earned $82,941 for his two-week stay with the Eagles.
"It's been a long journey for him," defensive end Chris Long said of Jernigan earlier this month. "He's very eager. He's been patient, because that's not something to mess around with, but at the same time, I know he wants to be back out here with us. We've watched him work every day and he's ready to roll.
"He's definitely a complete player. We're not going to expect him to come back the first game and light the world on fire. [But] he's going to be a valuable member of the team."
Jernigan, 26, spent his first three seasons with the Ravens before the Eagles acquired him for a 2017 third-round pick. He started 15 games last year for the Super Bowl champs. He has 15½ sacks in four seasons.
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