PHILADELPHIA >> Tight end Zach Ertz has been cleared for game action, and rookie second-round pick Sydney Jones gets his first official day of practice with the Eagles Wednesday.
That should be enough to scare the New York Giants, who host the Birds Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
The Eagles have defeated the Giants (2-11) in six of their last seven meetings, and are 8-point road favorites despite rolling with backup quarterback Nick Foles. Foles replaces franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, who tore an ACL a few snaps before throwing his single-season and franchise-record 33rd touchdown pass in a 43-35 win over the Los Angeles Rams Sunday.
Doug Pederson offered another nugget that makes Foles, 28, a guy the Eagles can rally around.
“A great example was that game the other day,” Pederson said. “He comes in and nobody blinks, nobody bats an eye. There was no hesitation and that was just the confidence the guys have in Nick.”
Pederson continued raving about Foles’ nine-yard first-down throw to Nelson Agholor, late in the game. It enabled the Eagles to kill all but one second off the game clock.
Pederson raved about the duo being on the same page despite minimal work in practice, especially considering that on the third play of the game, Wentz was intercepted throwing to Agholor on the identical pass route.
“Nelson learned from that,” Pederson said. “Nick learned from it. That’s the type of player that Nick is. And that’s the confidence that I have to be able to call that on third-and-eight. It helped us win the game.”
Ertz, who leads the Eagles with 57 receptions, sat out the Rams game.
Jones tore an Achilles’ tendon at his pre-draft pro day. The Eagles monitored the medical reports and with needs across the board, drafted him anyway. Now is a pretty good time to see if Jones can do what he did before the injury as the Eagles want to see him work “As much as he can, quite honestly.
“I’ll see him more on special teams and service teams,” Pederson said. “And see where he’s at. We’ve watched him through his progression and training these last few weeks. And now we just want to see him in football conditions, the true transition of stopping and starting and making a play on a ball and seeing his instincts and things like that, things we obviously haven’t been able to monitor this season. ... It’s definitely a win-win for both sides.” Pederson said the addition of Bryan Braman, a special teams terror, will reduce the special teams role of starting linebackers Nigel Bradham and Mychal Kendricks.
“This was a good opportunity at this time to shore that end of it up,” Pederson said.
Additionally, left guard Stefen Wisniewski, who exited with an ankle injury last Sunday, is expected to be OK for the Giants, per Pederson.
