Eagles lose key member of secondary for rest of 2020 season

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Eagles safety Rodney McLeod suffered a torn ACL on Sunday and will miss the rest of the 2020 season, according to head coach Doug Pederson.

This is a big loss for the Eagles.

McLeod, 30, had played all 872 snaps on defense this season before suffering his knee injury in the third quarter of the 24-21 win over the Saints. Aside from playing every snap, McLeod is second on the team in tackles and has taken over a key leadership role this season.

In fact, it is McLeod who breaks down the team after warmups before every game.

“Rodney was a big vocal leader on this team,” said Pederson, who expects guys like Jalen Mills, Fletcher Cox and others to step up their leadership roles with McLeod out.

A couple years ago, McLeod tore his other ACL and missed most of the 2018 season. Aside from these two knee injuries, McLeod has been very healthy in his career. The veteran safety has one more year under contract with the Eagles.

A few other injury notes from Pederson on Monday:

  • Darius Slay is in the NFL’s concussion protocol. He’ll need to be cleared before he can return.
  • Avonte Maddox’s knee injury will force him to “miss some time here in the next couple of weeks.” So the Eagles are really light in their secondary right now.
  • The good news is that Pederson said he’s “hopeful” to have either Michael Jacquet or Grayland Arnold back for the upcoming game. They both missed Sunday with hamstring injuries. 
  • Josh Sweat (shoulder) should be OK. He got chipped on his right side but is expected to play next week.

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