The Philadelphia Eagles began their defense of the NFC Championship when they opened up training camp last week. While every team has different things they are looking to achieve during camp, the No. 1 goal that every team in the NFL has during training is to stay healthy.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, that wasn’t a goal they were able to achieve. On Friday, linebacker Patrick Johnson went down with an injury. During a drill, he crumbled to the ground and grabbed his left leg, per ProFootballTalk.
Johnson was unable to leave the field under his own power, as he needed assistance getting to the cart to wheel him off. He was taken off the field for further evaluation, and early returns are not positive.
According to Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Johnson suffered a knee injury. To make matters worse, McLane added that the injury could be of the season-ending variety, but more testing will have to be done before an official determination is made.
Johnson was preparing for his third season with the Eagles. They had selected him in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Tulane and he quickly assumed a major role as a special teams contributor.
As a rookie, he played 54 percent of the Eagles’ special teams snaps, 254 total plays. In 2022, that number jumped up to 315 snaps and 74 percent of the plays despite appearing in one fewer game. The Eagles also used him more defensively, as his snaps went from 111 to 213.
Losing Johnson would be a tough blow to the Eagles’ depth chart. He was not only taking on a larger role in the defense but is a core special teams contributor. They are going to have to find someone else to fill that pivotal role should his knee injury be deemed as serious as McLane is reporting it to be.
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