The Eagles will once again be without edge rusher Jonathan Greenard for Sunday’s matchup against the Titans.
Philadelphia has ruled Greenard out with his pectoral injury. He was a limited participant in practice all week, but is not yet ready to play.
Additionally, safety Andrew Mukuba (knee) is questionable. He was limited on Friday after he did not participate on Thursday.
While Marquise Brown (hamstring) and Elijah Moore (neck) were both added to the injury report on Friday, they were both full participants and are expected to play.
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter (wrist) and defensive back Cooper DeJean (calf/abdomen) are also expected to play with no game status.
Titans Clips
Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter returned to practice on Thursday with a new look.
Carter missed Wednesday’s practice with a wrist injury and returned to the field wearing a cast on his right wrist. After practice, Carter declined to delve into the details of his injury while telling reporters that he’s planning to play against the Titans with the cast on as protection.
“I look fine out there wearing it,” Carter said. “Just minor adjustments and I’m still out there practicing and ready to play. . . . I’m still going to have to strike, grab and play the run and pass rush. That’s pretty much it. I can’t let it affect me.”
Carter said he suffered the injury while trying to punch the ball out late in last Sunday’s win over the Commanders, but he doesn’t plan on letting it interfere too much with the Eagles’ bid for a 2-0 start to the season.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward opened his second NFL season with a 23-10 loss to the Jets and head coach Robert Saleh said after the game that Ward “is at the floor of what it takes to be an NFL quarterback.”
That comment led to a question for Ward at his press conference ahead of this week’s game against the Eagles. Ward was asked if he agrees that he’s at the floor and he gave himself a slightly higher rating.
“I think I am a very good quarterback,” Ward said. “I think I do a lot of things different, that a lot of quarterbacks can’t do. And there’s also stuff I have to get better at, some things that I lack and that’s a process you take on each and every day. I have great coaches around me to keep pushing me to the level I want to play at, and when the tide turns I am pretty sure it’s going to be a different story.”
The Titans were 3-14 during Ward’s rookie season and that response led a reporter in Tennessee to ask if the team should be winning more often if he is actually a very good quarterback.
“I think it comes with the game,” Ward said. “It comes with the defense you’re playing. It comes with what the DC’s philosophy is and every game’s not gonna be a shootout. It could be a bad passer rating, a bad completion ratio, but it’s all about the win and loss. We haven’t done that and that’s something we only focus on.”
While that’s a composed answer to an aggressive question, it probably won’t sway anyone who doesn’t already agree with Ward’s assessment of his ability and this Sunday’s matchup with Vic Fangio’s Eagles defense probably isn’t going to be a golden opportunity to turn things around in Tennessee. Saleh called it a “long, long process” after the Jets game and Ward may need all the patience he can get based on how the Titans looked in the season opener.
A pair of Eagles defensive starters did not practice on Wednesday.
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter (wrist) and defensive back Cooper DeJean (calf, abdomen) were both out of practice. DeJean played every defensive snap against the Commanders in last Sunday’s 24-22 win and Carter only missed six snaps.
DeJean told reporters that he thinks he will be ready to go against the Titans on Sunday.
Linebacker Jonathan Greenard was the only other player on the injury report. Greenard returned to practice last week after missing all of camp with a pectoral injury, but did not play against Washington. He said he plans to see how the practice week plays out before making a call about this weekend.
The Eagles will be making a change on their offensive line for Week 2.
Left guard Landon Dickerson was placed on injured reserve on Monday and the team’s plans for moving forward without him were a topic of discussion at offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s press conference on Tuesday. Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin are the top backup options on the interior of the line and Mannion expressed belief in any direction the Eagles might take.
“We feel really confident with all of our guys,” Mannion said, via a transcript from the team. “It’s unfortunate with Landon, the guy’s a warrior, and we’ve got to get him healthy. In the meantime, we need guys to step up, but Drew’s had a really nice camp. Willie’s had a nice camp. Really, we have a lot of guys on our offensive line with a lot of position flexibility, versatility. We feel good about all of them. Obviously, Landon will be missed in the meantime, but we feel confident that guys are going to be able to step up and fill the void.”
Kendall played center in college and Lampkin has also worked there, which accounts for the versatility that Mannion talked about as an asset. He was asked if moving center Cam Jurgens to guard is on the table.
“We’re going to keep that in-house in terms of what our plan is for this week, just for competitive reasons,” Mannion said. “Like I said, we have a lot of guys up front that can play multiple spots. We’ve been training them at all spots, so gives us some flexibility there.”
Dickerson said Monday that he was “a complete liability” in Sunday’s win over the Commanders and the line was inconsistent as a whole in the opener. Dickerson’s health likely factored into that and the Eagles could wind up sounder if they pick the right alignment for the Titans.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward said he was disappointed with how he and the team played in Sunday’s 23-10 loss to the Jets and he’s sure to find plenty of people willing to co-sign that assessment of their first game under head coach Robert Saleh.
Some people might go a little further than disappointed when it comes to where the first overall pick of the 2025 draft is as he starts his second NFL season. Ward’s best moments of the game came on a drive with under five minutes to play and the Titans down big, which led to Saleh being asked at a Monday press conference if the quarterback is more of a work in progress than the staff thought when they got to Tennessee.
Saleh pointed out that Ward has had seven offensive coordinators in the last seven years and that they are “trying to build a foundation” for him to make the needed improvements.
“His growth will happen throughout the year,” Saleh said. “His growth is gonna happen next year and the year after. This young man is at the floor of what it takes to be an NFL quarterback, but he has all the tools, the mental makeup to get to where he needs to go. It’s time on task, it’s giving the kid stability, it’s giving the young man the chance to be repetitive in his day-to-day process with the right coaching to help him get better. . . . It’s a long process, long process to get these kids to get them where you need to get to, quarterback especially.”
Saleh said he’s not trying to “shield” Ward and noted both some “easy throws” that he thinks the quarterback would want to have back and improvements he’s seen in Ward’s pocket presence. Signs of those gains are going to have to start coming a little more often if Ward is going to continue looking like a worthwhile project in Tennessee.
The first game of the Robert Saleh era did not go the way the Titans would have drawn it up.
The Jets pushed the Titans around en route to a 23-10 win that wasn’t even as close as that sounds. The Titans only found the end zone with 2:42 left to play in the game and they only possessed the ball for 21 minutes across the entire afternoon.
Quarterback Cam Ward was pressured often while going 19-of-32 for 140 yards in his first game under Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. He said after the game that he felt the team had opportunities that they didn’t capitalize on and that they’ll do a better job of it in the future.
“Those are some big plays that we could have had, but we still got a lot of things to clean up for sure,” Ward said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com. “I’m very disappointed. We’re better than what we showed offensively. We trained a lot this offseason. We had some hard days. It didn’t pay off for us today, but it’s going to pay off for us eventually, whether it’s next week or the week after, but we’re going to get it rolling, and it’s exciting.”
Titans fans seemed unconvinced that better days are right around the corner. Loud booing could be heard during several portions of the game.
“It doesn’t make me feel any type of way,” Ward said. “The fans come here for a show. They spend their money to come see the Titans win games, and we want them out here each and every day.”
The Titans will be back at home to face the Eagles in Week 2 and a repeat of Sunday won’t have anyone buying that the Titans are on the right path in Ward’s second season.
Titans head coach Robert Saleh said he didn’t hold any grudges toward the Jets because they fired him during the 2024 season, but he might hold one for the beating they put on his team on Sunday.
The Jets scored a touchdown on their opening drive of the game and never trailed en route to a 23-10 road win that gave the team their first winning record since they opened 2-1 with Saleh in 2024. They lost their next two games and fired Saleh, who spent last season with the 49ers and joined the Titans in January.
Aaron Glenn replaced Saleh with the Jets and took over the defensive play-calling this season. The first look at that approach was an unqualified success as the Jets pressured Titans quarterback Cam Ward relentlessly and limited the Titans to 195 yards over the entire game. A good chunk of those yards and the only touchdown came in the final five minutes, so the full picture for Brian Daboll’s debut as the Titans’ offensive coordinator was not a pretty one.
It was also the first time Frank Reich called the offensive plays for the Jets and those results were just as good. The Jets’ offensive line was stellar in both phases, which led to a huge edge in time of possession — 38-plus minutes for the Jets — and total yards for the afternoon. Geno Smith went 19-of-24 for 215 yards with plenty of time to throw and Breece Hall picked up 102 yards on 22 carries to spearhead the rushing attack.
The Jets’ three first-round picks all contributed to the win. Tight end Kenyon Sadiq scored the first touchdown of the day and linebacker David Bailey was credited with a sack on one of several pressures. Wide receiver Omar Cooper had a 30-yard catch to set up Sadiq’s touchdown, but later left with an ankle injury.
Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick also suffered a groin injury, so the Jets will have some concerns on the health front heading into a Week 2 game against the Packers. That will be in front of a home crowd that will be fired up by what they saw on Sunday.
The Titans were showered with boos by their crowd and they may hear more of them next Sunday as the Eagles will be the next opponent on the slate in Nashville.
The Jets scored a touchdown on their first offensive possession in Tennessee on Sunday and they added another one on their first possession of the second half.
Running back Breece Hall sprinted around the left side of the line for a four-yard touchdown to extend the Jets’ lead to 17-7 with 9:41 left to play in the third quarter. Hall now has 14 carries for 49 yards and two catches for 16 yards on the day.
Hall’s touchdown came two plays after quarterback Geno Smith went deep to wide receiver Adonai Mitchell for a 40-yard gain. Smith and Garrett Wilson also connected for a 31-yard gain during the scoring drive and the quarterback is now 14-of-18 for 169 yards in his first start for the Jets since 2016.
The Jets have suffered a couple of injuries that will require monitoring as they move into Week 2. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (groin) and wide receiver Omar Cooper (ankle) have been ruled out.
The Jets dominated time of possession in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Titans and they have a halftime lead to show for their effort.
Rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq scored a rushing touchdown to cap the first Jets possession and they added three more points at the end of a 19-play drive that ran into the second quarter while eating up nearly 12 minutes of the clock.
Jason Sanders missed a 54-yard field goal later in the quarter, however, and the Jets’ final drive of the half ended without points, so it is a 10-3 lead for the road team.
The long scoring drive featured 15 rushing plays as the Jets leaned heavily on an offensive line that features a pair of former first-round picks in tackles Armand Membou and Olu Fashanu. Breece Hall ended the half with 13 carries for 45 yards while Braelon Allen picked up 31 yards on six opportunities.
All of the running meant that Geno Smith didn’t have to do much through the air to keep the chains moving, but he did find first-round wideout Omar Cooper for a 30-yard gain to set up Sadiq’s touchdown and finished the half 11-of-15 for 90 yards. Cooper later left the game with an ankle injury and the Jets have also seen defensive backs Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jarvis Brownlee depart with injuries.
The Titans had the game’s only turnover when kick returner Chimere Dike lost a fumble and that contributed to their lack of possession throughout the first 30 minutes of play. They’ll get the ball to start the second half and will need to find a better groove on both sides of the ball to come back in this one.
