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Eagles Notebook: Eagles' Acho to face brother's team

Unfortunately, Arizona's Sam Acho is on injured reserve, so Emmanuel will be the only Acho on the field.

Linebacker Emmanuel Acho. (Ron Cortes/Staff file photo)
Linebacker Emmanuel Acho. (Ron Cortes/Staff file photo)Read more

EMMANUEL ACHO was able to both visit his brother and get a jump on preparation for this week's Eagles-Cardinals game during the bye week.

Sam Acho, 2 years older than Emmanuel, is an Arizona linebacker, on injured reserve after suffering a broken fibula. Emmanuel knows what that's like. He spent his first NFL season on injured reserve last year, for Cleveland. Now he's an Eagles linebacker who plays mainly on special teams, if the starters are healthy.

Emmanuel Acho attended the Cards' 40-11 victory over Indianapolis Sunday, and took notes. What did he see?

"A lot of what the coaches kind of told us today, except I saw it beforehand," Acho said after the Birds' first postbye practice. "They're a big, power, counter kind of team. Big receivers. And they repeat successful plays - that's one of the things I noticed. If it works, they'll run it again in the same series. And they have a very good defense."

Sam and Emmanuel played together at Texas until Sam was drafted in the fourth round by the Cards in 2011. Their parents, Sonny and Christie Acho, came to the United States as students from their native Nigeria. They founded Living Hope Ministries, and every summer they take a group of medical volunteers to southeastern Nigeria to provide free health care. Sam and Emmanuel have made the journey.

Sam decided to spend his IR year blogging about his experiences at www.samacho.com, where he touts the Living Hope project, describes his visit to the Phoenix Children's Hospital, and profiles one of Phoenix' "unsung heroes."

"I think that's one of his main priorities, especially in some of this idle time, is to be able to give back to the community," Emmanuel said.

Back in training camp, they knew this game was coming and they talked about what it would be like to play against one another, Emmanuel said. But he was cut by the Eagles just before the season started. Then, on Sept. 22, about a month before the Birds brought Emmanuel back, Sam went down in a loss to the Saints.

"That was going to be a very exciting time," Emmanuel said. "The family's still going to come up for Thanksgiving. He's going to come up a couple days before [Sunday's game] and fly back with the team. So it's still going to be a fun time, but not as exciting. Hopefully, in the future, we'll make it happen."

All hands on deck, almost

The bye week worked its wonders on several injured Eagles. Rookie safety Earl Wolff, still limping on a swollen knee, was the only player who didn't practice yesterday. Key defensive starters such as linebacker Mychal Kendricks (knee) and Bradley Fletcher (pectoral injury) should play this week, though Wolff will not, barring a miracle of healing.

Kendricks said his knee, injured early in the Green Bay game, is still a little sore. "I'm back in motion," he said. He said he "got a lot of attention and treatment, a lot of strength and conditioning work in" during the bye week.

"Najee [Goode] did a good job filling in, but Mychal was really coming on before he got hurt," Chip Kelly noted.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian