Time seemed to stop when Josh Sweat crashed to the turf and strained his neck on Sunday afternoon. The star pass rusher was sent to the hospital as arm-chair doctors in every living room in South Philadelphia and beyond feared a season-ending injury. Well, there appears to be hope and possibly a swift recovery.
Sweat was released from a local hospital after dinnertime on New Year’s Day, according to a team spokesperson. He had movement in all his extremities and a smile on his face. Then, the 25-year-old took to Twitter to thank Philadelphia Eagles fans for their support. He dropped an encouraging update, too:
Thank you for your prayers and support 🙏🏾 I’ll be back this season! #GoBirds
Obviously, Sweat wasn’t in the locker room to talk to reporters, but Fletcher Cox recalled the scary scene when his teammate went down early in the first quarter. He lay there motionless for a few minutes before raising his hands and fingers. Cox was by Sweat’s side as team trainers placed him in a stretcher.
“At first he went down and he didn’t move. It’s really eye-opening,” Cox said. “The first thing you ask him is, ‘Are you OK?’ and he responded. And that was important. You see him move his feet, you see him move his hands and you see him throw a thumbs up. We’ll see. He was smiling, so he was in good spirits. I’m sure some of the guys, maybe a lot of guys, are going to check on him, see how he’s doing.”
Josh Sweat is injured
Brandon Graham Addresses Notching 10th Sack
Brandon Graham is already considered one of the greatest pass rushers in Eagles franchise history. He ranks fourth on the all-time list with 72 career sacks. The 34-year-old defensive end has seemingly done it all in the NFL, except record 10 sacks in a single season.
Scratch another milestone off the list after Graham racked up two more sacks during the Eagles’ 20-10 loss on Sunday. He keeps etching his name in the record book, one year after a ruptured Achilles ended his season.
“It’s a great feeling, especially coming off of an Achilles [injury],” Graham said. “People didn’t think coming off the injury that I would be back doing what I’m doing. It’s a credit to just having a one-day-at-a-time mentality and enjoying the whole process. Now that I’m feeling real good, it’s just going out there and making plays when they come.”
With that sack, Brandon Graham notches his first ever double digit sack season and the Eagles become the first team to ever have 4 players with double digit sacks.
Graham now has 11 sacks this season, 1.5 more than his previous career high set in 2017. He only had 11 sacks in his first four NFL seasons combined. The Eagles also became the first team to have four different players record at least 10 sacks each.
“I’m just thankful to make history with the team,” Graham said. “With the defensive line, we just want to keep pushing and doing what we can to help this team win. It’s a great feeling, I’m not going to lie, to finally get over that hump. I thought I was going to be stuck there for a minute.”
Nick Sirianni’s Message to the Team
Nick Sirianni’s message to his team hasn’t changed much since training camp. The Eagles must maintain the memory of a goldfish, 10 seconds and move on. They have a must-win game staring them down next week versus the New York Giants. Win it and clinch the NFC East division, plus the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
“Our goal from the very beginning has just always been about taking it one day at a time, trying to go 1-0 each day, in attempts to go 1-0 this week. Obviously, it was disappointing what we did today,” Sirianni said. “Coaching, playing, everything. But next week we’ll have a chance to win the division title at home.”
Double down and get to work
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Eagles’ Josh Sweat Tweets Out Update After Scary Neck Injury