Eagles Injury Updates: Doug Pederson Confident Brandon Brooks Will Be Available

Brandon Brooks. (Jeff Fusco)

No one knows what’s going on with Brandon Brooks. The right guard missed his second game in three weeks on Sunday due to a mysterious game day illness, and neither Brooks nor the Eagles’ medical team understand why.

It’s a problem he’s had in the past as he sat out of a contest in each of his two previous seasons for similar reasons, but Doug Pederson said he’s still confident Brooks will be available to play against the Ravens this week.

“We talked again yesterday and the only thing I know is we’re helping him and getting him ready. I have full confidence in him that he’ll be ready. Now that we’re on the right track, hopefully this doesn’t happen again,” Pederson said. “It is a weird thing, and that’s why our medical team is on it.”

While Brooks will practice on Wednesday, Allen Barbre (hamstring), Jordan Matthews (ankle), Darren Sproles (concussion) and Halapoulivaati Vaitai (knee) won’t participate. It’s unclear whether Sproles or Vaitai will be available to play Baltimore, but Barbre and Matthews are expected to play.

With Barbre potentially out and Matt Tobin (knee) placed on the injured reserve list, rookie third-round pick Isaac Seumalo will practice at right tackle this week with the first-team offense. The Eagles drafted Seumalo to play guard and center, but Seumalo played both left and right tackle at Oregon State. He also practiced right tackle for the Eagles some during the spring and on the scout team more recently.

Still, Pederson is already looking forward to the return of Lane Johnson, who is currently in the final week of his 10-game suspension.

“It can definitely affect you — the cohesiveness — especially with those five guys up front, because that’s such a close unit. They have to communicate on every play — run or pass. That’s a close group, and any time it’s disrupted it takes a little bit out of them,” Pederson said.

“The glaring thing is we’re on our fifth right tackle. With Lane, we weren’t going through this. You’re asking guys to play out of position. Allen’s been a guard and ‘Big V’ — a young, rookie player — gets hurt and Matt Tobin gets hurt. … (Lane) is a veteran player and he is a tackle and we’re just looking forward to next week and getting him back.”