Eagles Notes: Marcus Smith Smith Out 2-3 Weeks

Marcus Smith told reporters that he will be out for two-to-three weeks after suffering a hamstring injury during Thursday’s practice.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it was,” he said. “Three weeks [out] is probably the most.”

There’s a chance, then, that Smith will miss the remainder of the preseason, but he’ll try to get ready for the finale against the Jets and is confident that he’ll be ready for the regular-season opener in Atlanta.

“I don’t think it sets me back at all,” he said. “I just think it’s something unfortunate that happened. I’m going to just rest and get the proper recovery protocol and just do what I gotta do to get back.”

Smith suffered a hamstring injury that forced him to leave practice early and receive an MRI.

“He really was taking some steps and coming on, but now he has had a setback,” added Billy Davis. That’s all it is, a setback. We don’t know how long the setback is, but we’ll know once we get some more information.”

• As for the void left by Smith’s absence, Davis said they are continuing to cross train Brad Jones at outside linebacker, but they are letting Emmanuel Acho focus on playing just inside linebacker due to the injuries they suffered there the last few weeks.

Another name that was brought up is Vinny Curry. In the spring, Davis announced they had Curry working in at OLB and he got a lot of reps there yesterday after the injury to Smith.

“Vinny’s excited and I’m excited about seeing him out there in that role,” Davis said. “It’s a process, the more reps we give him, the better he’ll get at it. Vinny’s bright-eyed, very excited about the project and he’s diving into it and attacking it, so he’ll probably get it quicker than [most].”

• When asked if the inside linebacking trio of DeMeco Ryans, Kiko Alonso and Mychal Kendricks will play tomorrow, Davis said that he is unsure if they will play or not, but if they do it will be in a very limited role.

“I’m not positive about that yet, that meeting we will have this afternoon,” Davis explained. “I don’t know if any of them or all of them [will play]. We will have that meeting this afternoon where we decides who plays. The majority of the game will probably be played by the same guys [who played last week].”

• Davis also said that he expects Nolan Carroll to get some reps at the nickel next week. With those reps, Davis claimed all the corners will be well-versed in the slot.
• One last quick injury note: WR Miles Austin did not practice today.