The Philadelphia Eagles were dealt some tough news Thursday afternoon as star defensive tackle Jalen Carter has been ruled out for Monday night’s game at the Los Angeles Chargers and will be considered a week-to-week return reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The 24-year-old underwent a procedure on both of his shoulders so he could be as close to fully healthy for the team’s playoff run.
After Friday’s loss, Carter had mentioned he was going through something, but did not want to reveal what it exactly was when asked about his uncharacteristic performance on the field where he only played in 70% of the snaps.
“There were some runs out there I got drove back and wasn’t able to have an effect on the play. We kind of made an adjustment, if you saw who was playing first and second down then third down and we just went from there,” Carter said.
On Wednesday, Vic Fangio confirmed that the defensive lineman was dealing with a shoulder issue, forcing Carter to sit out on early down plays because it limited his effectiveness in the run game.
Carter has been dealing with shoulder issues since the start of preseason workouts. Missing the first three days of training camp back in July because of the shoulder and has been trying to play through it.
On the season, Carter has 32 tackles (20 solo) with two sacks, four tackles for a loss to go along with 11 quarterback hits and matching a career-best with six batted down passes.
It goes without saying how big of a loss this is for the Eagles who turned in an All-Pro season last year in just his second year as a pro.
With the absence of Carter, Moro Ojomo and Jordan Davis are expected to assume most of the work on the defensive line with Byron Young mixing in as well. Vic Fangio said that “it’s possible” rookie Ty Robinson, the team’s fourth-round pick and nicknamed “Vanilla Gorilla” could be more involved in the rotation on the defensive line.
