Eagles head coach Doug Pederson on Wednesday morning said Jason Peters’ knee injury is “a little more extensive” and Peters is now “week to week.”
That means rookie Andre Dillard will start Sunday night in Dallas.
“It’s why we drafted him,” Pederson said. “We’ve got total confidence in Andre. I go back and think about what Big V (Halapoulivaati Vaitai) did in his first start. It wasn’t perfect, but I think about what Andre did last week in Minneapolis. It wasn’t perfect, but he’ll learn from it and he’ll get better.
“Tremendous athlete, he’s smart, got a lot of confidence in Andre.”
After playing just 16 total offensive snaps through the first five weeks of the season, Dillard got his first extensive playing time at left tackle on Sunday in Minnesota. With Peters’ knee injury, Dillard played 47 snaps (72 percent).
Like Pederson said, it wasn’t a great performance from the first-round pick, but a look at the tape found plenty of encouraging signs.
At least this week, Dillard will get a chance to prepare to be the starter instead of coming in as the backup like he did last week.
NFL
Against the Cowboys, Dillard will likely see a lot of Robert Quinn, but he might see some DeMarcus Lawrence too.
A few other injury updates:
• DeSean Jackson (abdomen) is now “day to day” but won’t practice on Wednesday. He’ll be working on a side field, but that’s progress that he’s running on land after running in the pool.
“He’s another one that’s getting close,” Pederson said. “I feel comfortable and confident. He’s right on track, obviously, to being healthy. He becomes more day to day.”
• Ronald Darby (hamstring) and Jalen Mills (foot) will both practice this week. Pederson said they’ll see how both corners get through the week of practice.
• It’s now been a month since Tim Jernigan suffered his foot injury in Week 2. Apparently, he’s doing better, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll return this Sunday.
“Doing well. He’s close,” Pederson said. “No specifics, no timetable, but he’s close.”
• And down in Dallas:
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