The Eagles will be without Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox on Sunday in Los Angeles, which means Beau Allen will get the start.
Allen came in for Cox during Sunday's game and ended up playing 50 snaps after entering the game with just 40 in the first two games.
"It's a good opportunity," Allen said this week. "I've started a handful of games here so it's not anything new, but it's always special when you start a football game. So it will be fun."
This will be the sixth start of Allen's career. The former seventh-round pick started three games in 2016 and two games in 2015.
How will Cox's absence change the Eagles' rotation along the defensive line?
"You think I'm going to give you all my secrets?" Allen said half-joking. "You're gonna have to wait and see. I'll be playing a lot. We'll see how everything kind of shakes out. I don't want to give away too much but we have a deep defensive line. I don't think people really realize that. We have guys that can kind of play all over. You'll see guys line up in different spots."
Without Cox and fellow DT Destiny Vaeao (wrist), the Eagles are down to four defensive tackles (the team promoted DT Justin Hamilton from the practice squad Saturday). While Allen and even head coach Doug Pederson were hesitant to divulge the plan, it's pretty clear the Eagles will use some of their defensive ends inside this week.
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Vinny Curry, Brandon Graham and even Steven Means, who has been inactive through the first three games, all have the ability as defensive ends to line up inside.
"Hopefully that's the idea," Means said about the possibility of playing this week. "I've been preparing the same way. I'm ready to go. Coaches know I'm ready to go. If my number gets called, I'm definitely going to be ready."
Ready for some futbol?
It'll be a little weird for the Eagles this week, playing at StubHub Center, a soccer stadium that has a maximum capacity of 27,000.
To put that in perspective, the paid attendance at Lincoln Financial Field last week was 69,596.
The Chiefs went into StubHub last week and came away with a 24-10 win over the Chargers. So this week, Pederson has reached out to some of his former colleagues in Kansas City to ask them about playing in a 27,000 seat venue.
"It's different," Pederson said. "It's obviously the smaller crowd, smaller venue. It's not what the actual norm is for a typical game day. You're looking at 27,000, 28,000 people. It's a smaller venue [StubHub Center], so it feels a little more of that intimate feeling when you're there. They really enjoyed the atmosphere. It is pretty exciting, though. But I think the biggest thing they mentioned was just the crowd size and the noise, just wasn't the same as playing in a 60- or 70,000-seat stadium."
The Eagles are trying something a little different this year for this West Coast trip. They are flying out Saturday morning and trying to stay completely on an East Coast schedule, which includes having an earlier curfew. The Eagles made the decision based on data they collected starting back during OTAs.
Anthem dilemma
As of Friday morning, Pederson wasn't sure what his team will do when the national anthem is played Sunday afternoon in L.A. Last week, the team locked arms on the sideline.
Malcolm Jenkins, who has been at the forefront of these protests from early last season, is clearly worried that what teams physically do during the anthem has distracted from the focus. Jenkins began his demonstration last year to not just show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick but to highlight racial injustice and systemic racism in America. Raising his fist was just a vehicle.
So what does he think is going to happen around the league this week?
"Not my concern," Jenkins said. "My biggest thing is drawing light to the actual issues and the work guys are doing in the league. What happens on Sunday is none of my concern."