The Philadelphia Eagles officially announced two roster moves ahead of the team’s Week 8 Sunday night game against the Washington Commanders.
Note: teams are permitted to temporarily elevate up to two practice squad players per game. A player can be elevated up to three times in the regular season and an unlimited number of times in the postseason.
Let’s sort through this news on a player-by-player basis.
Saquon Barkley will play against the Commanders despite being listed under “did not participate” on Wednesday and Thursday before being upgraded to limited on Friday. It remains to be seen how much of a workload he can handle; Barkley was clearly playing through discomfort from his hamstring and back injuries in Week 7. He was ultimately limited to 10 snaps on Monday night.
Jaydon Blue, who was promoted from the practice squad earlier this week, is the only other Eagles running back on the roster. The Eagles previously had him active for Week 6 but did not play him at all despite injuries knocking them down to Dameon Pierce (who is now on injured reserve) as the only backfield option in that game.
By elevating Mitchell, the Eagles now have three running backs for Sunday’s game. He could also factor in as a kick returner with Britan Covey out.
This is Mitchell’s second temporary elevation this season. He only has one more remaining.
Reiger is set to make his Eagles debut after originally joining Philadelphia’s practice squad on August 31.
The Eagles are currently banged up at edge rusher, sort of. It’s not to the point where their edge rushers won’t suit up for Sunday’s game. But it is to the point where Jalyx Hunt and Jonathan Greenard saw way fewer snaps than normal in Week 7. Nolan Smith is also coming off a concussion while Arnold Ebiketie has been playing a lot due to the other injuries at his position.
Reiger likely won’t play much, if at all, on defense but he’s around for depth purposes in addition to contributing on special teams.