Getty Eagles rookie WR Britain Covey has been elevated for Week 1 and slated to be the lead punt returner.
Get ready for the Britain Covey experiment. The Philadelphia Eagles called up the shifty rookie receiver out of Utah from the practice squad less than 24 hours prior to kickoff in Week 1. They also elevated tight end Noah Togiai.
Covey is expected to be the lead punt returner on Sunday. That move was expected after the Eagles went tight-lipped about which player would be returning kicks. Covey left Utah as the school’s all-time leader in punt return yards (1,092), including an electrifying 97-yard touchdown return in last year’s Rose Bowl.
The 25-year-old handled the majority of the reps there during training camp and drew rave reviews as a fill-in slot receiver. Whatever the plan is for Covey moving forward, he’s just happy to be active on gameday.
“You can plug me into any position and I’ll know what to do,” Covey told reporters. “You’ll trust me to know what to do. I’ll show you my skills. But first and foremost, you know that I’m going to be on the right page.”
BRITAIN COVEY 97 YARDS TO THE 🏠
(🎥: @espn)
Philadelphia still lists Quez Watkins as the primary returner for kickoffs and punts on their unofficial depth chart. Kenny Gainwell is the next man up, with special-teams coordinator Michael Clay throwing Boston Scott and Avonte Maddox into the mix as other potential candidates.
Eagles Wearing White Shirts, Green Pants
The Eagles will be wearing white jerseys and midnight green pants (black stripe down the side) for the regular-season opener in Detroit. It’s the same color combination the team wore last season when they destroyed the Lions 44-6. Consistency is good, even if the two squads are completely different heading into the 2022 campaign.
Week 1 fit.
Head coach Nick Sirianni doesn’t care what the scoreboard read the last time. The Eagles need to go out and execute their gameplan in order to win.
“We know we have to come out there with our best game, or we know we can be beat, right? If we don’t go out there and play the way we’re supposed to play and if we don’t pay attention to our detail and we don’t take care of our business, they can beat us,” Sirianni told reporters. “I don’t care what the score was last year. We know this is a good football team and we know we have to be ready to go on game one when we kickoff at one o’clock.”
Injury Report: Miles Sanders Healthy
The most important thing for the Eagles is health. They have a clean injury report entering Week 1, including starting running back Miles Sanders. He seemed to be moving well on his sore hamstring earlier this week at practice. In addition to Sanders, the team listed Derek Barnett (ribs), Javon Hargrave (toe), and Josiah Scott (hamstring) all locked and loaded. No setbacks.
Friday injury report.
What was Sirianni’s final message to the team? Dawg mentality, of course.
“We talked a lot about the daily process, everything like that but we talked about dawg mentality today,” Sirianni said. “Just what that means and how important that is for a season. What that means is you’re on to the next play regardless of if what happened was good or bad the play before.”