Eagles Sign Nicholas Morrow to 53-Man Roster, Place Nakobe Dean On the IR

We have our answer for how the Eagles will replace Nakobe Dean while he recovers from a foot injury. They have signed Nicholas Morrow to the 53-man roster. To make space for him, they have placed Nakobe Dean on the Injured Reserve List, meaning he will miss at least 4 games. Ian Rapoport was the first to report.

When Nicholas Morrow signed with the Eagles, they intended him to be the other starter next to Dean. But the addition of Zach Cunningham, and the emergence of Christian Elliss, moved Morrow down the depth chart. He wound up not making the team at all. But the fact he was with them all camp, and already knows the scheme, makes him an ideal fill-in candidate on short notice. Elliss and Cunningham will still start, but Morrow will be there to fill in if Elliss or Cunningham have to come off the field.

The Eagles could also use one of their Safeties to step into the box if needed. Reed Blankenship, Sydney Brown, and Justin Evans have all shown to be strong against the run. Plus they are probably better in coverage than Morrow or even Cunningham would be anyway.

The move means they will no longer need to activate an LB off the practice squad on game day. Which is good, because both their Punter and their Return Man filled those game-day activation slots in game 1. For now, both Arryn Siposs and Britain Covey can remain on the practice squad. And while Eagles fans would prefer another punter, that move was not going to be made before Thursday. Brown in particular could make sense there, given he got no snaps in game 1, and playing him as a Nickel Linebacker would let him play to his strengths.

With a long layoff after Thursday's game, they don't play again until the following Monday, we do not know if this is a long-term solution or just something they are doing for now on a short week. But they will need to fill in for Dean for at least 4 weeks. And Nicholas Morrow will get the first shot at filling that role.

There is a rule I have when it comes to week 1 in the NFL. Try your best to not overreact to anything, whether it is positive or negative. Many teams have looked good in week 1 throughout NFL history, then struggled the rest of the year. Likewise, many teams have looked bad in week 1 but then bounced back. Last year the Bengals started the season 0-2, and then they finished 13-4 and made it to the AFC Championship game. The goal should usually be to survive, and make it to week 2, hopefully with a win. Which is what the Eagles did. It was ugly, but it was a win. 

And there is certainly a lot of teams that should be living by that going into week 2 this year. The Chiefs and Bengals had ugly week 1 losses. Does that mean they are not as good as we think they are? No. It just means they had a bad start. Are the Cowboys suddenly the best team in the league team just because they blew out the Giants? Also no.  

Take everything with a grain of salt. Your opinion of each team should not be changing wildly after just one game, especially the first game of the season. If your opinions are already different, clearly they were not very strong opinions to begin with.  

But of course, there are a lot of people in the National Media who do not follow that advice. In fact they will go into week 2 with wildly different opinions, and be hitting the panic button after just one loss, or be making Super Bowl plans for other teams who looked good. But how does that impact the Eagles? Are those writers hitting the panic button, or do they still think the Eagles are among the League's best?  

Let’s see where the Eagles fell in the week 2 power rankings: 

Jalen Carter was a positive in an otherwise underwhelming game. The same goes for Jordan Davis. It looks like the Eagles could have a pretty dominant DT going forward, courtesy of the two guys from Georgia. Thank you Falcons for taking an RB you will get into a contract dispute with 5 from now years over Jalen Carter.  

ESPN Power Rankings

The NFL Network drops the Eagles and the Chiefs a single spot to make room for the Niners at the top. Kind of weird that the Chiefs lose, and look worse, yet stay above the Eagles. If you are going to overreact to a good Niners game, why not also put the Eagles over the Chiefs since they actually won?  

NFL Network's Power Rankings

Fox Sports did what the NFL Network didn’t, which is keeping the Eagles at 2, but swapping the Niners and Chiefs. Which feels like the fair thing to do. Fox Sports also went on to praise the Eagles' young defenders, namely Davis and Carter, while also knocking the O-Line for Struggling in week 1. I wouldn’t be too concerned about the O-Line though, they have more than proven themselves over the years.  

Fox Sports Power Rankings

I can see a case for the Niners, Cowboys, and Dolphins being ahead of them. It's an overreaction to a single week, but they did look amazing and were also highly hyped coming into the season. Putting the Browns and Jaguars over them after one week is just silly though. If the Browns look bad in week 2, they will suddenly drop them outside the top 10 again. Because whoever is putting up these Power Rankings has the attention span of a squirrel. To be fair, the premise of their article is "Let's Overreact" so they may realize how silly it is. 

The Athletics Power Rankings 

Thank you for the analysis, Mike Florio. Riveting stuff. You mean the Eagles have to worry about their biggest competition in the NFC? Who knew? But can you expect anything more from the guy who co-hosts a show with Phil Simms’ far less successful son?  

PFT's Power Rankings

All fair. The Eagles will certainly need more from their new coordinators, and new RBs in week 2. There is no way Swift can get just two touches against the Vikings. And I suspect part of his lack of touches was to keep him fresh for the Vikings on a short week.

USA Today's Power Rankings

I don’t think Gainwell will get this much usage going forward. He may still be the guy with the most touches, but the difference in touches won’t be this crazy. Swift should see the field far more on Thursday night.  

Yahoo Sports Power Rankings

PFN separated the 1-0 teams from the 0-1 teams, and the Eagles were ranked 1 among the 1-0 teams. I don’t know if they would have kept the Chiefs above them. Going into week 1 they had the Chiefs ranked 1 overall. But they did not penalize the Eagles for an ugly win, or the Chiefs for an ugly loss, still keeping them as the top two teams. 

That should probably be the standard line for the Eagles after week 1. It was not pretty, but they survived. If they look bad again in weeks 2 and 3, then we can talk.  

CBS Power Rankings 

Once again, The Fanatic is a source of sanity among some weird power rankings. Though to be honest, there were fewer overreactions than I assumed. It's just one week. Yes, it was ugly, but lots of teams looked bad. It shouldn’t change what you think of the team yet.  

97.5 The Fanatic's Power Rankings