OLB Marcus Smith injured his hamstring in Thursday’s joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens.
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Smith, taken 26th overall in the 2014 draft, is trying to rescue his career after barely playing previous year as a rookie and having his position switched inside linebacker to compensate for injuries there.
“I’m glad it wasn’t anything major, but it’s still something that keeps him out”, defensive coordinator Bill Davis said before Friday’s practice. “It’s disappointing, probably to him more than anybody. He really took some development actions and arriving along, and today he’s got a setback”. “I’ll try to be back for the last preseason game”.
“I definitely want to thank the Luries, Jeff and Christina, and the whole Eagles organization”, Harbaugh said. “It’s a process. The more reps we give them the better we’ll get at it. Vinny is bright-eyed, very excited about the project, and he’s diving into it and attacking it. So he’ll probably get it quicker”.
What would be better for the Eagles, though, would be for Marcus Smith to return quickly and pick up where he left off as someone who has shown significant progress from Year 1 to Year 2; and for Barwin, Graham and Jones to remain upright.
He needs to become back for that regular time. We kind of slowly leaked him in and in the last couple weeks he’s got more and more and this week we gave him a lot.
But the most intriguing option might be Vinny Curry, a defensive lineman who was used mostly as a pass-rush specialist during the last two seasons in Davis’ defense. “It’s going to be a little bit”.
The Eagles held the Bug Light Fantasy Football Insider Mock Draft event on Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field. He did not earn much playing time as a rookie. Wolff was in the running for the third safety spot. “This week, we gave him a lot”. Brad Jones, who can play inside and outside linebacker, could also fill in. He’ll make his preseason debut Saturday.
Emmanuel Acho could also get work there although for the time being he’s needed inside, where Kiko Alonso is coming off a concussion, DeMeco Ryans from a torn Achilles’ tendon and Mychal Kendricks has been limited in practices. The more he understands the scheme, which he has a really good understanding right now, it enables him to break and to make some plays the other night. Smith appeared to be on track to gain control of the third outside linebacker spot but now the Birds are looking awfully thin at outside linebacker, as they were even before his injury. As for the competition between Ed Reynolds, Chris Maragos, Chris Prosinski and Jerome Couplin, Davis said: “They’re all bunched up”. “That’s all it is, is a setback”.
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The second day of practice featured contact, but no fisticuffs and the Friday session was a glorified walkthrough as the teams play Saturday.
