The Philadelphia Eagles were dealt a major blow to a secondary that has performed better than expected in 2020. Eagles head coach Doug Pederson confirmed safety Rodney McLeod tore his ACL during the team's Week 14 win over the New Orleans Saints and is out for the season.
Pederson also said Avonte Maddox "will miss some time" after he left Sunday's game with a knee injury and Darius Slay is still in the concussion protocol. All three starters in the Eagles secondary left Sunday's game and did not return, leaving the Eagles with a defensive backfield of Kevon Seymour -- who last played an NFL game in 2017 -- and slot specialist Nickell Robey-Coleman at cornerback. K'Von Wallace replaced McLeod at safety, lining up next to Jalen Mills. The Eagles installed Marcus Epps into the defensive package, as he played 56% of the snaps with McLeod being out. Mills also moved to cornerback in certain packages.
The Eagles were without cornerback Michael Jacquet (hamstring) and defensive back Grayland Arnold (hamstring) for the Week 14 game against the Saints and further injury updates will be provided later in the week on those two when the team returns to practice Wednesday.
McLeod suffered a torn ACL for the second time in the past three years. He finished the season with 66 tackles, seven passes defensed and an interception as opposing quarterbacks had a 54.8 passer rating when targeting him -- the ninth-lowest in the NFL.
