A trio of Eagles — OLB Nolan Smith, WR Olamide Zaccheaus and CB Zach McPhearson — were all injured during the first half of the preseason game against the Browns at the Linc.
Smith (shoulder) and Zaccheaus (shoulder) are officially questionable to return, while McPhearson (ankle) has been ruled out.
Smith seemed to initially hurt his shoulder on a near-sack on a third down in the first quarter but stayed in the game for the very next snap on punt coverage. The first-round pick continued to play and on the next series the injury became more apparent after he chased down receiver Anthony Schwartz and got into a collision.
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After a short trip into the blue medical tent, Smith took the long walk inside for further evaluation. As he walked inside, Smith was flexing his arm and seemed to be laughing with the trainers.
McPhearson was injured early in the second quarter and it looked to be the most serious of the three. The Eagles’ backup cornerback needed help just to get off the field and was then carted inside.
During training camp, McPhearson has been practicing as a nickel cornerback but he was pushed back outside this week in practice and played outside cornerback in this game before leaving.
Zaccheaus left in the first quarter with a shoulder injury. After a brief trip to the blue medical tent, Zaccheaus walked inside to the locker room but emerged later and jogged back to the sideline. Before the injury, Zaccheaus had 1 catch for 17 yards on 3 targets. He also had a drop on a pass that sailed a bit on Marcus Mariota. He also had a punt return of 11 yards.
NFL
In the two joint practices this week against the Browns, the Eagles were without Quez Watkins, who is dealing with a hamstring injury. So Zaccheaus has had more reps. But it was pretty clear before this week that Watkins is ahead of Zaccheaus on the depth chart.
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