The Eagles’ Receiving Room Is a MASH Unit — and the Rams Just Got Their Best Weapon Back

PHILADELPHIA — I’ve been watching this team since I was eight years old on the Camden side of the bridge, and I know a get-right week when I see one. This isn’t one. This is a get-healthy-or-get-exposed week, and right now the Eagles are nowhere close to healthy.

The Thursday report

The Thursday injury report landed, and if you care about this football team it’s the only document that matters today. Did not participate: DeVonta Smith, hamstring. Dallas Goedert, knee. Hollywood Brown, ankle. Zack Baun, in the concussion protocol. Fred Johnson, knee. Read that list again. That’s two of the three receivers Jalen Hurts trusts most, his starting tight end, and a defensive leader — all on the sideline in street clothes two days into a short practice week.

Add the limited group — Jordan Davis (calf), Marcus Epps (groin), Moro Ojomo (calf and elbow), Will Shipley (foot) — and the picture gets uglier. The one piece of genuinely good news is Jalen Carter practicing in full despite the wrist, because Carter wrecking a game is about the surest thing this team has going.

But let’s be honest about what Sunday is shaping up to be. The Eagles are 2-1 and still smarting from that Monday-night embarrassment in Chicago, where they scored seven points and looked nothing like themselves. The plan was simple: come home to the Linc, get the Rams, get well. Except now the receiving corps is held together with hope. You can scheme around missing one weapon. Missing Smith and Goedert at the same time, with Hollywood Brown banged up too, means Hurts is going to be throwing to guys most of this fan base couldn’t pick out of a lineup.

Nacua is back

And here’s the part that really flips the week. A week ago the story was a wounded Rams team limping into South Philadelphia without Puka Nacua, their best receiver. Not anymore. Sean McVay said Nacua is returning to practice and is expected to play Sunday after missing two games with a hip and groin injury. So the matchup everyone penciled in as a soft landing — a 1-2 Rams team you were supposed to handle — just got Matthew Stafford’s favorite target back. The margin I was counting on for the Birds shrank overnight.

The test

This is where you find out what a team is actually made of. Anybody can win when the depth chart is full and the stars are upright. Championship teams — the 2017 group, the 2024 group — won games in stretches exactly like this one, when the injury report looked like a hospital ward and somebody nobody expected had to make a play. That’s the test in front of this group.

I’m not panicking. It’s a 17-game grind and injuries are the tax every contender pays. But I’m also not going to sit here and tell you a shorthanded offense coming off its worst performance of the year is a lock against a Rams team that just got its best receiver back. That’s not analysis, that’s wishcasting, and I don’t do wishcasting.

That’s not analysis, that’s wishcasting, and I don’t do wishcasting.Samuel Banks

Kickoff is 1 p.m. Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. The building will be loud and impatient, the way it gets when a proud fan base is waiting to be reassured. Whether the Eagles can give them that reassurance depends on names we won’t know for sure until Friday’s practice report — and on whether the healthy men left standing are ready to carry more than their share.

Based on reporting from PhiladelphiaEagles.com, Yahoo Sports and TheRams.com.