Eagles health check: No big injuries to open training camp

The Eagles started the 2023 season the same way they finished the previous one: notably healthy.

Haason Reddick was the only major contributor from last year’s roster who didn’t participate in the Eagles’ opening practice of the summer on Wednesday. The edge rusher is dealing with groin soreness, according to the Eagles, but they expect him to return early next week.

Aside from Reddick, the team that had all 22 of its Week 1 starters available for Super Bowl LVII last February had a similarly concise injury list leading into practice, paling in comparison to previous summers when several key players started the year on the Physically Unable to Perform list or the Non-Football Injury list.

» READ MORE: Four position battles to watch

A handful of players, including Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson, and DeVonta Smith, had offseason surgery but were full participants in the first practice. Avonte Maddox and Derek Barnett were held out of the team portion of practice because of lingering injuries from last year — Maddox is dealing with a toe injury while Barnett is still recovering from a torn ACL. The team also placed wide receiver Devon Allen on the Non-Football Injury list; the two-sport athlete has a calf injury suffered during his offseason spent on the track and field circuit.

Maddox took reps during seven-on-seven drills but was replaced by Zech McPhearson in the slot during team drills. Allen and Reddick each watched practice off to the side.

Johnson, who had surgery to repair torn adductors in his groin suffered just before the team’s playoff run last January, cleared the hurdle of his first practice without issue.

The 33-year-old said earlier this offseason that the recovery process post-operation emphasized staying active to avoid building scar tissue, no matter how painful the early days may have been. Johnson took all of his normal first-team reps Wednesday without any noticeable issues.

“I feel awesome,” Johnson said. “I rehabbed pretty early, had the surgery in February on both groins. After the first initial weeks, I was up working out and got cleared a couple months later. I’m really feeling good.”

The Eagles were one of the league’s luckiest teams in terms of avoiding injuries last season. They had the third-fewest adjusted games lost to injury, a metric tracked by Football Outsiders that measures injuries to each team’s starters and key situational players. The Eagles had a three-year stretch from 2018 to 2020 in which they finished 30th, 21st, and then 32nd in the metric before turning things around two years ago, finishing 12th.

Luck aside, a handful of organizational changes are contributing factors. The team has incorporated more days off into the training-camp schedule and practices are shorter under Nick Sirianni than they were under previous coach Doug Pederson. This year’s camp typically has walk-throughs or off days sandwiched between full practices. The first three weeks of practice feature just two back-to-back full sessions.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman also pointed to roster building with injury prevention in mind. Still, there’s a certain level of good fortune assigned to any team avoiding injuries the way the Eagles have so far.

“It’s very important that we balance our team with younger players and also bring in guys here who have a history of being healthy,” Roseman said. “Health is a huge part of what we do. Obviously we had tremendous success with that last year, but last year doesn’t guarantee any success this year. For us, when we’re looking at guys and we’re looking at injury history, we know the best indicator of future success is the past.”

» READ MORE: Eagles training camp: The five biggest questions

Jason Kelce, whose 139 consecutive starts is the longest active streak among NFL centers, has said that the Eagles’ lighter practice schedule has been beneficial for veteran players trying to prolong their careers.

“Injuries are going to happen,” Kelce said. “You can’t avoid them. The league has 100% injury rates, you’re going to be hurt at some point. But there are things you can do to try and mitigate them and I think we do as good if not better than anybody at trying to stay healthy. With that, you have to make sure you’re getting the reps in and find a way to get good work. I think we do a nice job of toeing that line.”