Rookie safety Drew Mukuba returned to practice on Sunday afternoon as the Eagles began their week of prep ahead of Thursday night’s opener against the Cowboys.
Mukuba, 22, pulled his left hamstring on the penultimate day of training camp on Aug. 19. Late last week, the rookie was working on a side field with trainers.
The day before Mukuba got hurt in training camp, he took almost all of the first-team reps with the starting defense and it looked like he might be overtaking Sydney Brown for that starting job. But then he missed time and Brown has overall gotten many more snaps with the first-team defense this summer.
There are at least a couple of positions that might seem unsettled to fans but head coach Nick Sirianni on Sunday afternoon said that isn’t the case.
“I think it’s unsettled to the outside world,” Sirianni said. “We got it pretty much settled in here. Just like injury information … I’m just not sharing that information quite yet.”
In addition to Mukuba, plenty of other key Eagles players who have been on the injury report recently were also able to practice on Sunday. That includes Landon Dickerson (knee), A.J. Brown (hamstring), DeVonta Smith (groin), Kelee Ringo (quad) and Josh Uche (groin).
Not only was Dickerson practicing during O-line drills but he was also participating in special teams drills on the field goal unit. It seems increasingly likely that Dickerson, who had surgery on his right meniscus on Aug. 13, will be able to play against the Cowboys in the season opener. Dickerson on Sunday wore a compression sleeve on his right leg.
While all of those players participated in practice, backup quarterback Tanner McKee (thumb) did not. McKee was on the field with the other quarterbacks but was not in full uniform. If McKee can’t play on Thursday night, newcomer Sam Howell would be Jalen Hurts’ backup.
The Eagles on Sunday filled their last spot on the 53-man roster when they promoted guard Kenyon Green from the practice squad. The former Texans first-round pick did not make the team out of training camp but lands on the 53 ahead of the opener. To replace him on the practice squad, the Eagles brought back veteran receiver Terrace Marshall.
And in all-important jersey number news, cornerback Jakorian Bennett has taken over No. 23 from Eli Ricks, who was recently released from the practice squad. When Bennett arrived, he received No. 49 and last week switched to 41. His move to 23 feels more permanent.
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