The Eagles have lost safety Marlin Jackson to a ruptured right Achilles tendon in practice.  He will miss the whole 2010 season for the Eagles.  In the Eagles’ initial depth chart Jackson was #2 at free safety behind rookie 2nd round pick Nate Allen.  This injury will hurt the Eagles because it will pretty much force them to start Allen with no fall back option.  Look for the Eagles to be scouring the rest of the free agent market for a veteran safety to bring in to back up Allen.

The Eagles have picked OLB/DE Ricky Sapp out of Clemson with the 134th pick of the NFL Draft (5th round).  Sapp is 6′4″, 245 pounds and he runs a 4.5 40 showing freakish athletic ability.  The Eagles will likely try to convert him to OLB but they might use him some at end in passing situations.  Sapp played in 14 games (all starts) for Clemson last season and he had 60 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, 5 sacks, he forced 1 fumble and he recovered 1 fumble.  In his four years at Clemson, Sapp played in 47 games (36 starts) in which he finished up with 147 tackles, 39 tackles for a loss, 17.5 sacks, 5 batted down passes, 3 forced fumbles and 1 fumble recovery.  Sapp was supposed to be picked in the 2nd or 3rd round according to most draft experts so the Eagles got outstanding value with this pick.

UPDATE:  (8/31/2010) - The Eagles have placed Sapp on the Injured Reserve List with a knee injury.

The Eagles have lost 29-year old starting center Jamaal Jackson for the rest of the year due to a torn ACL.  This will hurt the Eagles as Jackson has started all 15 games this season and he has played in 71 games (all starts) for the Eagles the last five years.  Jackson’s injury will cause the Eagles to shuffle the line a bit.  25-year old Nick Cole will shift from RG to center the rest of the year.  He has started all 15 games for the Eagles this season.  He is bigger than Jackson at 6′0″, 350 pounds and Max Jean-Gilles will replace Cole at guard and he is also huge at 6′3″, 358 pounds.  Jean-Gilles has played in 12 games (4 starts) for the Eagles this season.  Jackson is a great center so the Eagles will miss him but Nick Cole is a good player and he should do a decent job replacing him.  The bigger issue is at guard where the Eagles will need Max Jean-Gilles to step up.

The Eagles will be without WR Jeremy Maclin for a couple of weeks due to a torn plantar fascia.  Maclin has caught 46 passes for 623 yards (13.5 avg) with 4 TD grabs this season.  His injury will force the Eagles to get Reggie Brown out of the mothballs and that is a silver lining to this injury because he still is a good player.  For some reason Brown got into the Dog House for the Eagles.  He has caught 7 passes for 135 yards (19.3 avg) this season.

The Eagles lost veteran running back Brian Westbrook for the second time in three weeks due to a concussion.  This time the Eagles will likely shut down Westbrook for a while to ensure his health.  Westbrook has played in 6 games for the Eagles this season and he has carried the ball 47 times for 225 yards (4.8 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also has caught 19 passes for 156 yards (8.2 avg) with 1 TD grab this year.  In other years the loss of Westbrook would have been huge but rookie Lesean McCoy will be able to replace Westbrook without the team losing much if at all.  McCoy has played in 9 games this year for the Eagles and he has carried the ball 86 times for 353 yards (4.1 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  McCoy also has caught 23 passes for 181 yards (7.9 avg) this year for the Eagles.  Look for McCoy to do a good job for the Eagles the rest of the way as the team’s main running back.