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The Philadelphia Eagles are making major changes to their quarterbacks room amid the COVID-19 case spike. Head coach Nick Sirianni promised adjustments were coming and now he has started putting them into practice.
The biggest one is in the quarterbacks room where the three players – Jalen Hurts, Gardner Minshew, Reid Sinnett – have been reporting to different rooms every day at the NovaCare Complex. Sirianni detailed the new social distancing rules during a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday. While he was doing the interview, Hurts was holed up in his own room. Minshew was in another room. Sinnett in a third room.
The goal is to keep everyone apart to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak at the most important position on the field. The Eagles want to avoid the same situation that has wreaked havoc on the New Orleans Saints and Washington Football Team in recent weeks.
“I just can’t say enough about our building and our organization that we’re able to handle changes so seamlessly,” Sirianni said. “To me, I know how hard they are working, and I know behind the scenes they’re doing so much. When we got the rules changed, we changed a lot about how we were meeting again.”
Sirianni revealed that even the coaches are going into their own rooms, including himself, offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson. Normally they would all be in the same room for daily quarterbacks meetings. The Eagles are applying these new rules for their specialists: kicker Jake Elliott, punter Arryn Siposs, long snapper Rick Lovato.
“That’s the one meeting – and specialists, we made them all virtual, as well. Those are the meetings we went all virtual for. The rest of the guys are in person,” Sirianni told reporters. “There is going to be some things we do, as far as getting young guys ready to play that is a little unique and different.
“I’m not going to share that here right now for competitive advantages, but we’re doing some things to make sure if a guy gets sprung into action late, that he’s going to be ready to go even more so than what he would have in the past.”
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Shaun Bradley Clears COVID-19 Protocols
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Philadelphia has only four total players left on the Reserve/COVID-19 list: Derek Barnett and Andre Chachere on the active roster; John Hightower and Noah Togiai on the practice squad.
Sirianni Provides Jordan Howard Update
Miles Sanders has already been ruled out for Week 17. There is no timetable for a return for the starting running back. However, there was extreme optimism that backup Jordan Howard would be back from his stinger this week. Maybe not.
Howard missed practice on Wednesday and Sirianni seemed to skirt around the issue of him being available. He didn’t rule him out, though. The better news is that Howard’s injury has nothing to do with a similar neck injury that sidelined him for eight weeks in 2019.
“We’re aware of the injury last time. We know what went down with that and everything, but it’s a separate injury and we’re just treating it that way and trying to get him back for this football game,” Sirianni said. “And he’s working – him and the trainers and the doctors and our strength staff are working like crazy to get him ready.”
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