Eagles’ linebacker Shaun Bradley will miss Sunday’s game for precautionary reasons after car accident

Eagles linebacker Shaun Bradley was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Washington Football Team after suffering a shoulder injury in a car accident Saturday morning, the team said.

Bradley was driving to the NovaCare Complex Saturday when he got into the accident and the indication was he avoided any serious injuries. The nature of him being held out for the hurt shoulder is more precautionary, according to a team spokesperson.

Bradley, a New Jersey native and former Temple standout, has been a special teams ace for the team in his second season. He’s played 76% of the Eagles’ special teams snaps and has 11 special-teams tackles, which ranks second in the league.

Bradley’s absence will leave the Eagles thin on punt and kickoff coverages, especially considering Andre Chachere, another main fixture of the team’s special teams units, is still on the COVID list. Bradley was also on the COVID list earlier this week, but came off on Thursday.

When special teams coordinator Michael Clay spoke with reporters on Tuesday, he was asked about the potential of Bradley and Chachere missing the game because of COVID. At the time, he sounded confident in whoever replaced the two if they weren’t available.

“Obviously, with Andre and Shaun, they’ve put a high standard up,” Clay said. “So everybody else, the next guys up, [has] really got to elevate themselves and they’ve been doing a fairly good job with that.”

The Eagles also activated starting defensive end Derek Barnett off the COVID list Saturday and elevated linebacker JaCoby Stevens and defensive end Cameron Malveaux from the practice squad for the game. Malveaux played 34 defensive snaps for the Eagles in his first game with the team last Sunday against the New York Giants.