Jordan Matthews iffy for Cincy; Agholor seems likely to play

Earlier in the week, Eagles coach Doug Pederson said top receiver Jordan Matthews would be fine for Sunday's game at Cincinnati, but Matthews' ankle was sore after he ran some patterns in Thursday's practice. Pederson said Friday before practice that Matthews will be listed as questionable, and Pederson hopes to get a better grasp on the situation during the practice, the first outdoor action of a soggy week at NovaCare.

UPDATE: Matthews was not on the field during the portion of practice open to reporters.

This brings us to wideout Nelson Agholor, the 2015 first-round pick who was inactive for Monday's game against the Packers as Pederson tried to refresh Agholor's outlook. Pederson's message when asked Friday about Agholor was confusing. At one point, he seemed to tie Agholor's chances of being active Sunday to Matthews' participation. But when reporters tried to clarify, he seemed to hint that Agholor will probably play, but that Pederson doesn't want to make that official until he has to, 90 minutes before gametime.

Because the Bengals are totally basing their defensive plans on the status of Nelson Agholor, presumably.

"I plan on keeping him in the mix because of Jordan's situation right now, I'm going to definitely keep him alive. He's had a good week of practice," Pederson said. Pederson said when Matthews is out, rookie Paul Turner is really his only slot option, so he went more to the tight ends for those patterns in the second half of the Green Bay game.

"His mind has been really great, his attitude's been really good, he's been working hard," Pederson said of Agholor. "Right now, nothing says not keeping him up, keeping him out. Everything's leaning toward keeping him active."

Soooo, why not just say, "Yeah, we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish with Nelson, he's back in the lineup"?

"I still got two days," Pederson said. "I don't want to rush into anything. When you put that (inactive) list in, and guys are down, that's it, it's set in stone, so if I can wait until the last second, I'm going to wait until the last second and just see ... If something were to happen today or tomorrow" with illness or injury at another position, it might affect the wideout mix.

The two MCL victims, right tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai and running back Ryan Mathews, will not play, Pederson said.