Fletcher Cox aims to be back for training camp after foot surgery

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Fletcher Cox on Tuesday afternoon confirmed he had offseason foot surgery for an injury he suffered in the Eagles’ playoff loss to the Saints in January. 

It doesn’t sound like Cox will do much this spring. 

“The goal is to be ready for training camp,” Cox said. “Just take it day by day. The doctors and everyone have a schedule and I’m following what they’re doing and everything is going good so far. Training camp is the goal.” 

You’ll remember in that loss to the Saints that Cox had to come out of the game, but kept coming back in after trips to the locker room. He said he would have preferred to stay out there, but the injury was too serious. 

Despite the injury, Cox still played 42 of 77 defensive snaps in that game. 

“My main thing was to finish that game,” he said. “For those guys out there, I always said, I’d give up a limb for those guys.”

Here are a few other nuggets from Cox’s brief press conference as the Eagles are back at the NovaCare Complex for their offseason program: 

While he hasn’t gotten a chance to really talk too much about football with Malik Jackson, Cox seems pretty happy to have the former Pro Bowler in Philly. Jackson will line up next to Cox along the starting defensive line. Cox mentioned that teams can’t choose to slide protection too much one way or the other. 

Another piece of this is that Jackson will likely stay out on the field for third downs instead of moving a defensive end inside. Cox admitted it will be a little different to have the bigger-bodied Jackson inside on those downs. 

Cox also said it’ll take some time for him and Jackson to learn to work together and it won’t just happen in training camp. They’ll need to develop rapport as the season goes on. But after a rotating cast in 2018, having Jackson should really help Cox’s game in 2019 and he was already and All-Pro. 

While Cox said Chris Long is an important piece to the Eagles’ locker room, he isn’t going to try to sway Long’s decision about retirement. He said the two are friends and he wouldn’t want to push him away by trying to force him to make a choice one way or the other. 

This offseason, the Eagles moved on from defensive line coach Chris Wilson, who also coached Cox in college. Cox clearly has admiration for Wilson, but thinks the transition to new DL coach and former assistant DL coach Phillip Daniels will be seamless. Daniels has been with the Eagles for three years as an assistant, so maybe a few drills change, but nothing too drastic. 

Cox understands why Mississippi State’s Jeffery Simmons has been compared to him. Obviously, they’re from the same school, but Simmons is a first-round talent in this draft class with a lot of ability. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL, but still might go in the first round. Cox has chatted with Simmons on occasion and thinks he has a bright future ahead of him. 

When asked about the changes to the defensive tackle position in the last few years, Cox definitely sees it. Guys like him and Aaron Donald have taken over the position. For many teams, interior defensive linemen aren’t just run-stuffers anymore. Those guys need to get after the quarterback. Cox said that the shift in offensive philosophy has led to the rise of interior pass rushers. 

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