The first shoe has dropped in a week where the Eagles will likely need to make multiple roster moves.
With Dallas Goedert's status for Sunday in question because of a calf injury, the Eagles on Tuesday afternoon signed tight end Alex Ellis from their practice squad to their 53-man roster. In order to make roster space, the Eagles waived cornerback Craig James.
That's the first roster move this week, but based on how many injuries the Eagles suffered on Sunday, it's likely not their last.
Here's a list of injured players from Sunday:
Dallas Goedert (calf)
Alshon Jeffery (calf)
DeSean Jackson (groin)
Tim Jernigan (foot)
Corey Clement (shoulder)
The fact that Ellis has already been brought up from the practice squad probably doesn't bode well for Goedert's availability for Sunday against the Lions. Either way, the Eagles needed to call up a tight end. They had just two tight ends on the active roster, so even if Goedert could play Sunday, he'd still be getting over an injury and the Eagles would need at least two healthy tight ends for a game.
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If Jeffery and Jackson can't play on Sunday, the Eagles have just three healthy receivers on their 53-man roster. They would likely need to add another receiver.
And Jernigan reportedly has a broken foot, which leaves the Eagles with just three healthy defensive tackles.
On Monday, the day after the 24-20 loss in Atlanta, head coach Doug Pederson understood the difficulty in the roster balancing act to follow this week (read more).
"That's the chess match we have to find out in the next couple days," Pederson said. "We have a couple games here now in 11 or 12 days. We'll make it work. That's just what we do. We find a way, we make it work, we coach the guys up that are going to play and we go play."
As Pederson mentioned, the Eagles play in Green Bay just four days after Sunday's home game against the Lions. So there's a chance some of the roster moves made this week are for two games.
Ellis, who joined the Eagles during training camp, was on the Eagles' 53-man roster for Week 1 but played just two offensive snaps. The Eagles gambled by going into Week 2 with just two tight ends and they paid for it when Goedert got hurt in warmups.
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