The LB Shuffle

A foot sprain to starting linebacker Nakobe Dean has forced the Birds to make a series of transactions.

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles announced a trio of linebacker moves: the signing of Nicholas Morrow to the active 53-man roster, the placing of Dean on injured reserve, and signing Rashaan Evans to the practice squad.

Dean, who entered the season as the team’s starting Mike linebacker, will now have to miss the next four games, which is in-line with what was previously reported to ITB. Dean left Week 1’s 25-20 win over the New England Patriots after making seven tackles.

After signing a one-year deal in the offseason, Morrow entered training camp with a starting job to lose, but ended up on the practice squad after being outperformed by Zach Cunningham and Christian Elliss.

Morrow is coming off a career season with the Chicago Bears in 2022 where he made 116 tackles.

Evans arrives to the Eagles practice squad with 79 career games and 67 starts to his name.

As a former 2018 first round pick out of Alabama, Evans spent his first four years with the Tennessee Titans, before signing with the Atlanta Falcons in 2022, where he recorded a career-high 159 tackles.

The 27-year-old Evans also has experience lining up next to Cunningham with both playing for the Titans in 2021.

With only three off-ball linebackers on the current active roster, one can expect each of them to receive a decent amount of playing time with Evans waiting in the wings if another injury were to occur.

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

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