Doug Pederson confirms Eagles’ Rodney McLeod had MCL surgery, says Darren Sproles won’t play vs. Titans

Eagles coach Doug Pederson Friday confirmed an NBC Sports report that said safety Rodney McLeod underwent MCL surgery in the wake of his knee injury, suffered last Sunday against the Colts.

Pederson would not confirm that McLeod is out for the season or that McLeod will go on IR, though that move seems unavoidable. He kept open the possibility of bringing in safety help, but said the team will play this Sunday at Tennessee "with the players we have." Corey Graham presumably will step into McLeod's role and Deiondre' Hall should get Graham's normal snaps. Tre Sullivan, who played special teams in the season opener,  is on the practice squad, and the Eagles could reconfigure some special packages to use a sub corner instead of a safety.

Pederson said 35-year-old running back/returner Darren Sproles is close to returning but is "not there yet," after suffering a hamstring injury in practice Week 2. He confirmed that running back Jay Ajayi has a fracture in his back, but also confirmed what Ajayi said — that he can play with the injury, and can't make it worse, but will have to tolerate some pain. Pederson said he had a more serious version of the same injury when he was an NFL quarterback.

He said wideout Alshon Jeffery is still suffering with the illness that caused Jeffery to miss Thursday's practice, but Pederson indicated that the team expects Jeffery to be better by the time the Eagles fly to Nashville Saturday, and that they expect Jeffery to make his 2018 debut against the Titans. Jeffery underwent offseason rotator cuff surgery.