Eagles open Jordan Mailata’s 21-day practice window

The Philadelphia Eagles opened Jordan Mailata’s 21-day practice window to return from injured reserve on Monday afternoon, according to an official team announcement.

Mailata originally suffered a hamstring injury during the Eagles’ Week 6 win over the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles’ starting left tackle was seen walking on crutches after that game and he was later placed on injured reserve.

Now that Mailata has missed four games, he’s eligible to be activated from IR.

The big question is: will he be ready to play in a critical game against the Washington Commanders on Thursday night?

Given the nature of the short week, the Eagles won’t be holding normal practices (mostly just walkthrough action instead) leading up to their Week 11 game. And so they won’t be able to gauge Mailata’s recovery progress the way they would leading up to a typical Sunday game. The Eagles’ Week 12 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams might be a more realistic target for a return.

Until Mailata’s back, it’ll be big Fred Johnson playing at left tackle. He’s done a relatively nice job filling in but the Eagles are looking forward to getting their full-time starter back sooner than later.