The Eagles’ injury problems only got worse on Sunday, and this time it came on the defensive side.
Nolan Smith was forced into concussion protocol during Philadelphia’s Week 6 matchup with the Panthers, and reports say the 25-year-old linebacker will not return. He left after taking a hard shot to the head while trying to sack Bryce Young.
“Eagles ruled out LB Nolan Smith with a concussion. He took a shot on a pass rush and went down immediately,” Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported.
Smith had already stepped into the starting lineup for Philadelphia with Jalyx Hunt sidelined by an injury of his own. With Smith out, the Eagles will turn to seventh-round rookie Keyshawn James-Newby at outside linebacker.
The former first-round pick has played in six games this season and has put together 12 combined tackles, including five solo stops, along with three sacks and one pass deflection. Before he can return, he’ll need to clear concussion protocol.
Philadelphia entered halftime trailing Carolina 10-7, but the score has hardly told the full story of a messy afternoon for the Eagles. The roster has been hit hard since the start of the 2026-27 season, and the quarterback and backfield situations are already stretched thin.
Tanner McKee is starting at quarterback with Jalen Hurts out after being diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf. At running back, Dameon Pierce is carrying the load because Saquon Barkley, Will Shipley and Tank Bigsby are all unavailable with injuries.
For a team already scrambling across multiple spots, Smith’s exit was just the latest blow in a run of bad breaks that has defined the early part of the season.
In Other News...
Jordan Mailata Just Put Eagles Offense On Notice
The Eagles are trying to steady themselves after a 25-14 loss to the Panthers, a game that underscored how thin the margin gets when key pieces are unavailable. Without Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia has had to lean harder on the rest of the roster, and Jordan Mailata made clear the offense cannot afford to let the details slip while both players work through injuries and their return timelines stay unclear.
Mailata framed the fix in simple terms: the Eagles need better focus and effort to clean up the kind of mistakes that stall drives and pile up pressure on everyone else. With Dallas next on the schedule on October 26, Philadelphia does not have much time to sort out its rhythm, especially with Hurts calf issue and Barkleys hamstring injury still hanging over the offense. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Mailata Just Put The Eagles Biggest Problem On Blast
The Eagles defense spent too much time chasing the Panthers in the 25-14 loss, and the imbalance showed up in a way that has become hard to ignore. With the offense sputtering on the ground and piling up penalties, Philadelphias front seven wound up absorbing the kind of workload that wears a team down long before the fourth quarter arrives.
Jordan Mailata did not shy away from saying the quiet part out loud after the game. The left tackle pointed to the offenses lack of discipline and accountability as a major reason the defense was left in that spot, underscoring how much the Eagles need the unit on the other side of the ball to clean up its act before the strain starts showing up in even bigger ways. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Have An Under Center Problem They Cant Ignore
The Eagles work from under center has become hard to ignore after the loss to Carolina, where the offense leaned on play-action and got almost nothing out of it. The game plan included five under-center dropbacks, and none of those throws turned into completions as the pocket got squeezed and the rhythm never really showed up. It fit a larger pattern for Philadelphia this season, one that has made the most traditional part of the playbook look far less dependable than the shotgun looks this offense usually prefers.
Jalen Hurts has been part of the issue, too, with the numbers showing far less success when he is asked to operate from under center instead of in shotgun. Tanner McKee has had similar trouble in those situations, which leaves the Eagles with an uncomfortable question about how much of the offense can still live in that space. For a team trying to stay balanced and keep defenses honest, the under-center package is starting to look like a problem that cannot just be brushed aside. [Read more 🡒]