Solving C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s Absence Is Philadelphia Eagles’ Latest Challenge

The Philadelphia Eagles, despite their 10-1 record, have not been immune to challenges this season. Their latest is finding ways to navigate the loss of safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who missed practice Friday and is expected to miss several weeks with a lacerated kidney, including Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans in Philadelphia at 1 PM ET.

Head coach Nick Sirianni said the organization had not yet decided whether to put Gardner-Johnson on the Injured Reserve list, which would rule him out for a minimum of four games, when he met with the media on Friday.

“I talked to him last night,” Sirianni said. “He’s in fine spirits. Obviously, he’s upset that he’s not – I’ll obviously keep his conversations private. But obviously anybody in this scenario is going to be upset that they are potentially not going to be able to play for a couple weeks or this and that. But you know what, he was still himself on the phone. He was still Chauncey, right, and he was still bringing energy to the conversation. Making me laugh. Making me get excited to go again, and I really appreciate him being on this football team because obviously he makes a lot of plays. That’s first and foremost and then secondly, he just brings a lot of juice to the team, and he’s always ready to go. He’s always excited to be there. We’ll miss that while he’s gone.”

But just as Philadelphia found ways to reinvigorate the offense after losing Dallas Goedert to injury several weeks ago, putting up 40 points against the Green Bay Packers last weekend, Sirianni isn’t fatalistic about what this means for him at the safety position.

“I really like our room,” Sirianni said. “I think [Defensive Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs coach] Dennard [Wilson] is a great coach and has those guys ready to go, a lot like what [Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Jonathan] Gannon talked about in his interview, how good of a job that Dennard and [Assistant Defensive Backs coach] D.K. [McDonald] did getting them ready and having them be able to step in there.

“Obviously, [S] Reed [Blankenship] had to go out there and do it, so Reed was ready to go because of his mental preparation and his ability to get ready through the week.

“So, we like the room. We like the guys on the practice squad. We like the guys that we have in the room. We’re always doing anything we can do to help make the team to be successful, but I really love that room. I have a lot of confidence in that room.”

From a schematic standpoint, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said he views his safeties as largely interchangeable, and by design — that the Eagles bring in safeties as capable of run-stopping as dropping back into coverage.

“I want to say this: Reed had a very good game,” Gannon told the media on Tuesday. “He came in there and that’s a tough spot. But our guys, like they’re psychologically prepped for that to happen. What I mean by that is everyone that has a jersey on game day, the head coach talks about roles, everyone has a role, but that can change like that [snapping fingers].

“So those guys that are backups right now, they prepare like they’re going to be in and starting, so it’s really a feather in Reed’s hat. He prepared the correct way. It’s also really good coaches. Talk about D-Will [Defensive Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach Dennard Wilson] and DK [Assistant Defensive Backs Coach D.K. McDonald]. For a guy to come in the game like that and play winning football, plus the trickle-down effect of the different packages you have. Going into the two minute we were saying, who is playing this spot, who is playing this spot. You always have a pair and a spare for each shot.

“Obviously, you saw they did a really good job with him because he played well and then we could solve problems with other groups that we needed to have up. And then even then he got nicked I think, and [S] K’Von [Wallace] comes in has a PBU on third down in the red zone, which was a huge play.”

But the run game will be the particular challenge, given the presence of Derrick Henry, and the Eagles know they can learn from what the Cincinnati Bengals did to Henry, limiting him to 39 yards last week.

“You look at everybody’s game plan and look at what everybody’s doing and that’s what happens to our offense, too,” Sirianni said. “You’ll have to be ready to get answers fixed that you didn’t have for the last game. We know that.

“Again, you still have to play. Again yes, it’s about putting the players in the best position, but it can’t just always be a copy-and-paste, that’s not how — because you don’t have the same players as Cincinnati, you have different strengths and weaknesses than the guys of Cincinnati. You look at it. You look at different things, but there’s a happy medium in there of you putting the guys in the right spot; you knowing how to coach those guys in that spot and then also what your guys can do.”