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ITB: How Players Coming off IR Can Help the Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are making some changes to their roster construction coming off their bye week.
On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discussed the latest transaction and injury news.

GETTY IMAGES: WR Ainias Smith is moving towards a return after the Eagles opened his 21-day practice window.
Devin White
Geoff Mosher: “This was a very risky signing. There’s a lot to like about the athlete, but as Tampa Bay illustrated last year, there wasn’t a lot to love about the actual game itself and the ability to play that position fundamentally sound and do what a guy like Vic Fangio would want him to do and that’s why he got beat out. He was not one of their two or three best linebackers in training camp.”
Adam Caplan: “(Nakobe) Dean clearly beat him out and then (Oren) Burks got healthy from that knee injury. You don’t need any more than four ILBs active and VanSumeren is a special teams guy. You don’t keep a guy on the roster because you think he can be an edge rusher. White didn’t take any snaps as an edge rusher.”
Sydney Brown
Caplan: “I would be stunned if Brown was activated this week because he hasn’t practiced since January. But we have seen guys come back the first week that they’re eligible, so they don’t have to wait the 21 days. They have to make room on the roster. They cut Devin White, so is somebody going to be ready this week?”
Mosher: “Only one week is not good enough to get him in on defense, but I feel like he can help on special teams in a limited role, just to get his conditioning back. All throughout training camp, he was working a lot and looked like he was in good shape.”
Ainias Smith
Caplan: “Ainias Smith can return punts, he’s what they call a power slot. He’s really strong, not fast, has good short area quickness. He’s also a gadget player, there’s a lot you can do with him…he unfortunately had that drop issue in training camp which came out of the blue, we were told he never had a problem with drops in college.”
Mosher: “He can help the Eagles in two ways…as an inside receiver, which Smith has always been, he has an understanding of choice routes. He will play that interior slot receiver position and he doesn’t have to learn things on the fly. Smith not only gives them a more reliable interior presence, as long as he’s catching the ball, but that also allows them to work with (Johnny) Wilson a little bit more as an outside guy.”
– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.
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