By PFW staff
Aug. 20, 2008

The Eagles suffered a blow Wednesday when it was announced that WR Kevin Curtis, the team’s leading receiver last season, will undergo surgery tomorrow for a sports hernia.

Though Curtis still is expected to play in 2008, head coach Andy Reid said his wideout would be out “for a while.” He is expected to miss the season opener against the Rams on Sept. 7.

Typically, sports hernias are not season-ending injuries, at least not this early in the year, and Reid said the team wasn’t likely to pursue another receiver for now. That likely means Curtis could miss a couple of months but won’t be placed on injured reserve, at least not initially.

“[The injury] happened in … our last game,” Reid said. “He tried to work through it, but he’s unable to function very well with it during practice.”

There had been talk before the Curtis injury that the Eagles could be interested in acquiring disgruntled Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin, but Reid would not address that in his daily press conference on Tuesday.

Rookie DeSean Jackson has played very well in the preseason thus far and will see an expanded role. Reid could opt to promote Hank Baskett into the starting lineup initially, or perhaps Greg Lewis. But expect Jackson’s role to expand in some way. Reggie Brown, the other starting wideout, is healing from a hamstring injury and is expected to miss Friday’s preseason game against the Patriots.

QB Donovan McNabb missed the final seven games of the ’05 season with a sports hernia, and TE L.J. Smith was slowed badly by one last offseason.