Lane Johnson and Avonte Maddox were both full participants in practice Friday, which is great news for the Eagles going into the NFC Championship Game.
Both were listed as limited on both Wednesday and Thursday, but neither one carries an injury designation, which means they are expected to play with no restrictions.
The Eagles face the 49ers at the Linc Sunday afternoon, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12.
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Johnson, who made his second All-Pro team this year, has been dealing with a torn adductor muscle in his groin since the Cowboys game. The injury will require surgery after the season. He sat out the last two regular-season games but returned to play – at a very high level – in the playoff win over the Giants last weekend.
The Eagles certainly need Johnson playing at a high level Sunday, when both he and left tackle Jordan Mailata will line up against NFL sack leader Nick Bosa.
Maddox, the Eagles’ highly regarded slot corner, also got hurt in the Dallas game, but he hasn’t played since. It’s his third significant injury this year, costing him a total of nine games. He first returned to practice Wednesday and appears on track to play for the first time since Christmas Eve.
With Maddox back, the Eagles will be entirely healthy in the secondary for the first time since the Colts game in Week 11. Safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, the NFL interception co-leader with six, got hurt early in the Packers game the next week and missed the next five games.
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During that stretch, Reed Blankenship emerged as a solid safety, and it will be interesting to see how Jonathan Gannon deploys Blankenship, Maddox and Gardner-Johnson or if Maddox’s reps are limited.
One minor concern arose when linebacker T.J. Edwards popped up on the injury report Friday with an ankle injury. But he doesn’t carry a designation so he too is expected to play Sunday.
However, Edwards and linebacker Kyzir White are critical to the Eagles’ defensive efforts Sunday because the 49ers love to use the middle of the field and rely on missed tackles or broken tackles to turn low-risk passes into big plays. If Edwards is compromised even a little bit and his tackling suffers, it could be an issue.
But in the big picture, everybody on the Eagles’ 53-man roster is healthy enough to play Sunday, and the only significant players on Injured Reserve are edge rusher Derek Barnett, special teamer Shaun Bradley and punter Arryn Siposs.
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