Coach Nick Sirianni has said that he is very optimistic that the Eagles will get edge rusher Josh Sweat back for their first playoff game. Sweat was originally taken off of the field and briefly hospitalized after suffering a neck injury only 5 and a half minutes into the Eagles-Saints game at the Linc on January first. He hadn’t played in the season finale against the Giants but did tweet out that he will play again this year.
Sirianni stated, “I know he is feeling better and that’s obviously a long way from when we all had to watch him have to be carted off, I know he’s feeling better. He made a push to play last week, we felt like it wasn’t in his best interest to play last week for health-wise. Are we hopeful he’ll play in two weeks? Yeah. I don’t want to say, ‘Yes, he’s going to play,’ but we’re really hopeful and we really feel good that he will.”
Sweat had a huge season with a career high of 11 sacks and his 8 and a half sacks since Week nine was fifth most in the league. His 86.6 grade ranked 8th among all edge rushers. The Eagles were able to secure a first round bye, so they don’t open play in postseason until the weekend of January 21st-22nd at the Linc.
Sirianni concluded in saying, “Anything can happen, but we know he’s trending in the right direction of getting healthy, and that’s a good thing, because he brings so much to this defense, We feel his presence every time he’s out on that field, and I know that the offense that’s playing against them has to account for him on every play. So we’re hopeful. He’s definitely doing better. Thank God that he is, and we’ll take it one day at a time, but we are hopeful.”
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