The Philadelphia Eagles opened the 21-day practice window for Azeez Ojulari to return from injured reserve, according to an official team announcement.
The guess here is that an Ojulari activation isn’t imminent. He wasn’t playing all that much prior to going on IR; he was a healthy scratch for the first four weeks before injuries pushed him into playing time. Ojulari logged 67 defensive snaps and one special teams snap in the three games he played before suffering a hamstring injury in Week 7.
The Eagles have been riding with a four-player edge rusher rotation:
- Jaelan Phillips
- Nolan Smith
- Jalyx Hunt
- Brandon Graham
Joshua Uche is the fifth edge rusher on the roster and he’s played relatively well in limited opportunities. But he hadn’t logged a defensive snap since Week 8 prior to the Eagles mostly resting their starters in Week 18. With the exception of the regular season finale, Uche’s been a healthy scratch since Week 12.
And so it’d be weird if the Eagles are in a rush to activate Ojulari.
The thinking here is that the Eagles are opening Ojulari’s window just in case there’s an edge rusher injury or two during their potential playoff run. They’ll hope not to have to activate him but he can gear up to play during this practice window in the event that he is needed.
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