Commanders Clips
The Eagles will have their top running back, but their top receiver will be out for Sunday night’s matchup against the Commanders.
Saquon Barkley (hamstring/back) has no game status and is set to play, according to Philadelphia’s injury report.
Barkley was limited on Friday after he did not participate on Wednesday and Thursday.
Having aggravated his hamstring against Dallas last week, Barkley was limited to just 62 yards on seven carries with a touchdown. He has 43 carries for 24 yards with a TD so far in 2026.
Smith (hamstring) will miss his second game in a row after he did not practice all week.
Receiver Dontayvion Wicks (ankle), linebacker Jihaad Campbell (hamstring/quad), receiver Britain Covey (knee), and cornerback Jonathan jones (hamstring) are also out for Week 8.
Cornerback Jakorian Bennett (knee) is questionable.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley’s chances of playing against the Commanders on Sunday night are looking better on Friday.
Reporters at the open portion of Friday’s practice said that Barkley was dressed and participating in the team’s final workout of the week. Barkley did not participate in practice on Wednesday or Thursday.
Barkley missed two games with a hamstring injury, but returned to action against the Cowboys in Week 7. He only played 10 snaps with a back injury given as the reason for his limited workload and the back issue was also part of this week’s injury report.
The Eagles will release injury designations for the Commanders game later on Friday.
The NFL, for reasons still neither known nor apparent, opted not to flex the game between the 2-5 Eagles and 1-4-1 Commanders out of prime time, despite multiple other compelling Sunday afternoon games.
The league did, however, flex the officiating crew out of the Sunday night game.
Via Football Zebras, Alex Moore’s crew has been moved from Eagles-Commanders to Patriots-Dolphins. Shawn Hochuli’s crew will work the Sunday night game.
The report, citing unnamed officiating sources, says that the change is “more about optics rather than a disciplinary action.”
Whatever the precise reason, it seems to be a reaction to the various bad calls Moore’s crew made in the Week 7 game between the Packers and Lions, including two questionable roughing the passer calls on the Packers and a phantom illegal hit on a defenseless player by Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes.
The optics-driven reason is simple. Moving Moore’s crew out of prime time, and relegating them to a secondary 4:25 p.m. ET broadcast on CBS, avoids Mike Tirico and/or Cris Collinsworth mentioning the rough day the crew had in Detroit.
Typically, the various crews are assigned without regard to the broadcast footprint of a given game. In this specific case, it shows that the league would rather avoid further talk about the multiple mistakes that Moore’s crew made.
Even though Raiders minority owner Tom Brady did an effective job of highlighting those mistakes to an audience of 24.67 million on Sunday.
The Commanders have quickly decided to give veteran defensive coach Steve Wilks more duties.
Via Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan in D.C., Wilks is expected to join the coaching staff during games as of Sunday night vs. the Eagles.
After the Week 6 loss to the 49ers, the Commanders hired Wilks to assist with game-planning during the week. Before even one game was played under that new arrangement, Wilks will be doing more.
Wilks currently serves as a special assistant to athletics at Appalachian State, where he played college football.
His lengthy coaching career includes one year as the Cardinals’ head coach, in 2018. He has worked as defensive coordinator for the Panthers in 2017, the Browns in 2019, the 49ers in 2023, and the Jets in 2025.
For the 2023 season, Wilks returned to the Panthers as defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach; after the abrupt firing of Frank Reich, Wilks went 6-6 as the interim head coach.
It’s another defensive mind, along with an experienced head coach, to help head coach Dan Quinn, whose background is on the defensive side of the ball. Quinn hired Daronte Jones earlier this year to serve as the team’s defensive coordinator.
The inescapable reality, as it relates to Wilks’s presence, is that he provides another option to serve as interim head coach, if Commanders owner Josh Harris decides to make an in-season change.
The Eagles remained without some key offensive players at practice on Thursday.
Running back Saquon Barkley missed practice for the second straight day. He returned from a hamstring injury last Monday night, but hurt his back and only played 10 snaps in the loss to the Cowboys.
Wide receivers DeVonta Smith (hamstring) and Dontayvion Wicks (ankle) did not play in that game and they have also been out of practice both days this week. Linebacker Jihaad Campbell (hamstring, back), wide receiver Britain Covey (knee), and cornerback Jonathan Jones (hamstring) missed practice as well.
Cornerback Michael Carter (abdomen), safety Marcus Epps (jaw, concussion evaluation), linebacker Jonathan Greenard (ankle), linebacker Jalyx Hunt (knee, ankle), defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (neck), and linebacker Nolan Smith (concussion) were limited participants. Linebacker Zack Baun (shoulder), cornerback Jakorian Bennett (knee), guard Landon Dickerson (pectoral), linebacker Arnold Ebiketie (shoulder), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), center Drew Kendall (knee), linebacker Smael Mondon (knee), and guard Tyler Steen (shoulder) were full participants.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley played with a hamstring injury on Monday night. He had nine touches on only 10 snaps as he tweaked his back.
The Eagles estimated Barkley as a non-participant, listing both injuries.
“The hamstring came out great,” Barkley said after the 38-21 loss to the Cowboys. “The back just locked up on me.”
The Eagles, who did not practice Wednesday, also listed linebacker Jihaad Campbell (hamstring/quad), wide receiver Britain Covey (knee), cornerback Jonathan Jones (hamstring), wide receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring) and wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks (ankle) as non-participants.
Defensive back Michael Carter (abdomen), outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard (ankle), outside linebacker Jalyx Hunt (knee/ankle), linebacker Smael Mondon (knee), defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (neck) and outside linebacker Nolan Smith (concussion) were limited on Wednesday’s report.
The Eagles listed linebacker Zack Baun (shoulder), cornerback Jakorian Bennett (knee), offensive guard Landon Dickerson (pectoral), outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie (shoulder), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), center Drew Kendall (knee) and offensive guard Tyler Steen (shoulder) as full participants.
The Eagles placed running back Dameon Pierce on injured reserve Wednesday, the team announced.
Pierce left in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game with an undisclosed injury. He will miss at least the next four games before returning.
He is the fourth running back the Eagles have placed on injured reserve this season.
In three games, Pierce had 37 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns.
In a corresponding move, the Eagles signed running back Jaydon Blue from the practice squad to the active roster.
This is Blue’s second stint on the active roster this season. He signed with the Eagles’ practice squad before the season and was signed to the active roster ahead of the Week 6 game against the Panthers. The Eagles waived him from the active roster the following week, and he rejoined the practice squad.
Blue, a fifth-round pick of the Cowboys in 2025, had 34 rushes for 129 yards and a touchdown in five games for Dallas.
The Eagles also announced they signed offensive guard Evan Beerntsen, wide receiver Quentin Skinner and defensive back Shaun Wade to the practice squad.
The Commanders announced that wide receiver Terry McLaurin will miss the rest of the season after their Week 6 loss to the 49ers, but they kept him on the roster during their bye week.
The team is back at work on Wednesday and they announced that McLaurin has been moved to the injured reserve list. McLaurin tore his patellar tendon against the Niners and will turn his attention toward a return to action in 2027.
McLaurin’s roster spot was filled by veteran wideout Van Jefferson. Jefferson was signed off of their practice squad and he has appeared in one game this season.
The Commanders also announced that defensive tackle Johnny Newton will return to practice. He tore his pectoral this summer and has been on injured reserve since just before the start of the regular season.
From time to time, former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III expresses interest in continuing his career. He’s now inteested in embarking on a new path entirely.
Earlier this week, Griffin said he’d like to become the next head coach at Baylor.
“Yes, 100 percent,” Griffin told Dan Patrick on Monday, via ESPN. “If Baylor wants to get back to winning and have a university that isn’t just respectable on the football field, but the fans can be proud of, they need people who know what it looks like to win at Baylor. So yeah, I would 100 percent be interested.”
Griffin won the Heisman Trophy at Baylor in 2011. In 2012, he became the second overall pick in the NFL draft. The NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, a knee injury derailed his career in Washington. By his fourth year, he was benched for Kirk Cousins.
In 2016, he played for the Browns. Out of football in 2017, he spent his final three seasons with the Ravens. He last played in 2020.
Baylor fired Dave Aranda on Sunday, after going 40-40 in six-plus seasons.
More than a few former players have become college football coaches in recent years. Typically, their careers start at a lower-level program. Especially when, like Griffin, they have no coaching experience.
Earlier this week, former NFL quarterback Philip Rivers, who has been a high-school football coach in Alabama since 2021, was named as a potential candidate at NC State, where he played before becoming the fourth overall pick in the 2004 draft.
Since his playing career ended, Griffin has worked for ESPN and Fox.
The Cowboys are not in first place in the NFC East, but they will be at the end of the season, if the betting odds are to be believed.
After Monday night’s win in Philadelphia, Dallas is a +115 favorite to win the NFC East. Just behind the Cowboys are the Giants at +125. The Commanders are long shots at +800 and the Eagles are the longest shots at +1500.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said after the game that the importance of winning on the road in the division wasn’t lost on him.
“I think it gets us right back into the hunt in the NFC East,” Schottenheimer said.
The 4-2-1 Giants have a 1.5-game lead over the 3-4 Cowboys, and the Giants beat the Cowboys in Week 1, so it might seem like the Giants should be favored. But the perception among bettors is that the Cowboys remain the better team, as they were expected to be before the season.
The Giants-Cowboys rematch is Week 17 in Dallas. The NFC East may be on the line when the two teams meet again.
