PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will wrap up Super Wild Card Weekend on Monday night in the Sunshine State, adding an extra day for the cottage industry that’s ever-present in the NFL: paralysis by analysis.
The Eagles will hold a walkthrough on Thursday, meaning only an estimated practice report will be released pushing back a traditional practice session another 24 hours coupled with a more meaningful injury status update.
The belief was always that five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay would return for the postseason but any remaining uncertainty was removed by Slay himself on his “Big Play Slay Podcast” Wednesday.
Slay has been on the sidelines since a Dec. 10 loss at Dallas when a troublesome knee injury became too much to deal with and arthroscopic surgery was recommended.
A team captain, Slay has talked with the media while injured and noted his rehabilitation was going well. Had the Week 18 game been at Lincoln Financial Field instead of MetLife Stadium and its much-maligned turf Slay would likely have been back to knock the rust off.
rather than a huge splash at this year’s deadline. “Philly is in great position in the offseason to make some more dramatic upgrades, because of their impending salary cap space, some valuable draft picks and a lineup with [Joel] Embiid and [Tyrese] Maxey that good players would certainly love to join,” he added.
If it appears increasingly unlikely that dramatic upgrades will be available this offseason, perhaps that will spurn the Sixers into action sooner. If they can’t get a third star ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline, they might decide to double down on the two-stars-and-depth model and swing for non-stars who would complement Embiid and Maxey (guys like Dejounte Murray, Bojan Bogdanovic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dorian Finney-Smith, etc.).
