Eagles: Sigh of Relief on Sudfeld

PHILADELPHIA — Sometimes it's tough to take the more emotional wing of the Philadelphia fan base seriously.

Take the Eagles' 27-10 preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans on Thursday. In less than 30 minutes of meaningless football Nate Sudfeld went from being a human heart palpitation to those who light candles every morning for Carson Wentz's health to the most accomplished backup quarterback, dare I say, since Nick Foles.

At least until Sudfeld was driven into the Lincoln Financial Field turf by Titans backup defensive end Isaiah Mack with under 30 seconds to go before halftime, resulting in a broken left wrist for the Indiana University product.

Another 30 minutes of watching Cody Kessler and rookie Clayton Thorson try to play QB against the Titans had many fans clamoring for Josh McCown to come out of retirement or Colin Kaepernick to end 950 days of exile. Even Sam Bradford was broached.

Surgery Friday for Sudfeld was deemed a success, however, with ESPN's Adam Schefter reporting that Sudfeld would only be out six weeks, the lower range of the six- to eight-week injury timetable most had surmised.

A six-week recuperation would have Sudfeld as Wentz's backup by Week 3 of the regular season, meaning the Eagles could cobble things together for a couple of weeks with Kessler, who has 12 NFL starts on his resume.

Sudfeld finished 10-for-18 for 177 yards and a 75-yard TD to Marken Michel with a 107.9 passer rating against the Titans, passing his first test until the dark turn.

"I thought he was playing well," coach Doug Pederson said. "He was seeing the field well, had a great touchdown throw. Had a couple opportunities -- missed a little bit wide on a couple throws early but I thought he really showed great poise going in against their No. 1 defense out there and was doing some really good things, kind of getting into a rhythm, too, right there before the half and felt like we had an opportunity to get some points there in the half."