Eagles’ Backfield in Crisis: Tank Bigsby to IR as Saquon Barkley’s Status Clouds London Trip

PHILADELPHIA, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 — The Philadelphia Eagles' running back room took its worst hit yet on Tuesday, when the team placed Tank Bigsby on injured reserve — sidelining a back who had only just begun to earn a real role, and leaving a backfield with serious depth questions as the Eagles prepare to fly to London.

Reports indicate Bigsby suffered a core muscle injury that will require surgery. Under injured-reserve rules, the designation sidelines him for at least four games, though core muscle procedures typically demand recoveries well beyond the minimum — meaning Philadelphia is planning a backfield without him for a significant stretch of the season.

Bigsby went down late in Sunday's 24-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, a game that already turned the Eagles' ground game upside down. He had stepped into an expanded role after Saquon Barkley exited with a hamstring injury, and he was running with real purpose: 55 yards on 14 carries, including a 19-yard burst, before he needed assistance leaving the field late in the fourth quarter. It was exactly the kind of physical, early-down work that had earned Bigsby a bigger share in the first place — and exactly the kind of running Philadelphia needs right now.

There is a bitter twist. Bigsby spent his first two NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars — the team the Eagles face Sunday in London. The reunion game he surely had circled will now pass without him.

NFLBarkley's status clouds the London trip

And Barkley himself remains a question mark. The superstar's availability for the London game remains uncertain after he left Sunday's game with the hamstring injury. The Eagles have said little, but the math is unforgiving: a hamstring in Week 5, a transatlantic flight in Week 6, and no appetite for turning a short-term problem into a long-term one. Philadelphia could arrive in London without both halves of its running back rotation.

That would be a significant blow to the offense. Barkley is the engine of everything the Eagles do on the ground — the home-run threat who forces safeties deep and opens the short-yardage machinery the offense has built its identity around. When he is right, Philadelphia's play-action game hums and the entire field tilts. The backfield was already dealing with uncertainty around him before Bigsby's season effectively derailed; now the uncertainty has doubled.

NFLShipley stands alone — for now

Will Shipley is now the only healthy running back on Philadelphia's active roster, and the Eagles cannot reasonably ask one player to carry an entire game plan. Behind him, the practice squad offers options: Dameon Pierce, Jaydon Blue and Carson Steele are all in the building and could be elevated or promoted before the team leaves for London. League rules allow teams to temporarily elevate up to two practice-squad players per game without a corresponding roster move, which gives Philadelphia a clean mechanism to fill out the travel roster.

The travel logistics make the timing even tighter. The Eagles fly to London this week ahead of Sunday’s game against the Jaguars, and a transatlantic trip compresses the preparation window — which is why the practice squad is the likeliest source of help: Pierce, Blue and Steele are already in the building, and league rules let teams temporarily elevate up to two practice-squad players per game without a corresponding roster move. The cost of losing both Bigsby and possibly Barkley in the same week is structural, not just numerical. Bigsby was the physical early-down option who absorbed the punishment between the tackles; Barkley is the home-run threat whose presence forces safeties deep and powers the play-action game. Without either, defenses can sit on the pass — and that is a formula Philadelphia does not want to give anyone.

The Eagles also cleared a path on Tuesday by releasing linebacker Anfernee Orji from the practice squad, opening a practice-squad spot — flexibility Philly can use to audition another back or keep its options open through the travel week. With the trade deadline still weeks away, the front office will be watching the waiver wire and the veteran market closely; every contending team with a backfield need is doing the same math, and prices only go up the longer Barkley's hamstring lingers.

NFLA plan on ice, five thousand miles from home

The context makes it all worse. Bigsby had begun earning a larger workload as the physical early-down option — the back who could take the punishment between the tackles and keep Barkley fresh for the big-play role. That plan is now on ice for at least a month.

London games are already awkward: compressed preparation, long travel, unfamiliar routine. The Eagles may walk into one with a backfield held together by Shipley, a practice-squad elevation and whatever the travel week brings. Expect heavy doses of the Eagles' short-yardage machinery and Jalen Hurts's legs as a release valve, but defenses that can sit on the pass without fearing the run have a formula the Eagles do not want to give anyone. The coaching staff's week now revolves around contingency planning — how much to load onto Shipley, which practice-squad back fits the game plan, and whether Barkley's hamstring responds to treatment across a long flight and a short work week.

For a player who finally earned a real role in a new city, the cruelest part is the calendar: the four-game minimum is just the beginning, the reunion with the Jaguars is lost, and the backfield situation is now Philadelphia's problem to solve in real time, five thousand miles from home. Follow the NFL page and the Eagles for updates through the travel week.