Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens will be snapping the football to Jalen Hurts on Sunday against the Detroit Lions, making his return to the Eagles’ lineup for the first time since suffering a knee injury during Philadelphia’s 28-22 victory at the Minnesota Vikings. In Jurgens’ absence, Brett Toth started against the Giants and Packers, with the Eagles‘ bye week coming in between the two games.
Toth Helped Steady Eagles’ Offense With Jurgens Sidelined
This season, Toth has filled in at left guard and center, being thrust into the starting lineup due to multiple injuries on the Eagles’ formidable offensive line. Toth had never started at center in his career before this year.
After Toth replaced an injured Landon Dickerson in the first meeting against New York, he did a masterful job replacing Jurgens, which the veteran center took note of.
“Brett did a great job,” Jurgens said. “He’s been in the league seven, eight years now. He stepped in. Did a great job. Communication was good. He knows exactly what we’re doing.”
However, Jurgens is ready to return to game action after missing nearly a month. After Friday’s practice, he said to the media, “I’m just trying to get better every day, every week.”
The Eagles will certainly benefit from Jurgens’ services as they face off with a ferocious Lions’ defensive front, including edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson. Detroit’s star defensive end indicated the importance of this Lions-Eagles matchup to NBC Sports Philadelphia earlier this week.
Eagles’ Offensive Line Healthy After Concerning Injury Report
Four of Philadelphia’s five offensive line starters were listed as limited in Wednesday’s practice, including offensive tackle Lane Johnson, left guard Landon Dickerson, center Cam Jurgens, and right guard Tyler Steen.
In addition to Johnson being limited with an ankle injury that caused him to miss significant time in Monday night’s 10-7 win over the Packers, Jurgens was listed as a partial participant with his knee injury.
Steen was listed as limited due to an oblique injury, while Dickerson had a quad injury, which was new for him after he already battled through knee, back, and ankle issues this season.
However, every Eagles player on the active roster was a full participant in Friday’s practice, with the only questionable player being Willie Lampkin.
The reserve center/guard has been on injured reserve with knee and ankle injuries, and despite being a full participant in practice this week, he would need to be activated off of IR by Saturday at 4 PM.
With Lampkin’s activation window open until November 27th, he may stay on injured reserve until next week, as the Eagles’ starting five is ready to go for Sunday’s pivotal showdown against the Detroit Lions.
In other Eagles injury news, linebacker Nolan Smith, wide receiver Darius Cooper, cornerback Jakorian Bennett, and long snapper Cal Adomitis were also listed without injury statuses on Friday’s report. This comes after each player began the week on the injury report.
Philadelphia will put its three-game win streak on the line when it hosts the Lions on Sunday Night Football at Lincoln Financial Field. With Detroit just one game behind the Birds in the NFC standings, this matchup will almost definitely have playoff seeding implications in January.
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