Jalen Reagor and Alshon Jeffery will not play Sunday against the Bengals.

That means the Birds are gonna have to rely on DeSean Jackson, 12-personnel, and maybe Greg Ward if they give him more than 13 snaps this weekend. The other guy who needs to step up is J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, who hasn’t done much of anything this season.

“I’ve always been confident in J.J.,” said Doug Pederson at Friday’s press briefing. “What I like is that he’s a player we can use in multiple positions. He knows inside, knows outside, a smart guy who we’re going to have to lean on a little bit here in these next couple of games.”

You might have seen the photos on social media of Pederson trying out a Andy Reid-esque face shield at practice. He wore a standard mask in the first two games but is experimenting this week and provided an important update:

“I did want to try a couple of face shields this week in practice. The first one I had on Wednesday was good, it kind of contours to the face a little bit but wasn’t strong enough in the wind. The one I had on in the walkthrough Thursday morning, which you didn’t see, was a little more of a wind face shield, a little more stable in the wind. The only issue I had with both of them is that they get warm. They’re closer to your face so a lot of – whether the temperature is warm, there was some humidity Wednesday and on Thursday, so it got warm on the face and I went back to the mask Thursday afternoon to get the air back on my face. Haven’t made a decision yet and still kind of working through a couple of face shields and masks right now.”

Could this be the difference? Is the mask restricting Doug and inhibiting his play calling? We’ll find out Sunday! (thick sarcasm)

Other notes:

  • Nate Herbig is going over to left guard because Matt Pryor has played right guard for the team over the years. Doug noted that Herbig can also play center, so they feel more comfortable moving him around as a flexible piece and allowing Pryor to play his natural position.
  • RE: Jalen Hurts being active over Nate Sudfeld – it’s just going to be a week-to-week thing in determining who the backup QB is.
  • He agrees with Miles Sanders, who thinks conditioning was an issue in week two but will be in better shape for Sunday.
  • Team has “responded extremely well” and practiced well this week.

No Alshon Sunday, despite him practicing on Thursday. He needs more reps and needs more time to work his way back from the Lisfranc surgery.

Full video here: