NBC Sports Philadelphia first carried some positive news regarding Reed Blankenship’s injury.

Not all of the injury news on Saturday morning was negative.

Although the Eagles’ top wide receiver, A.J. Brown, was ruled out of the team’s playoff game in Tampa, head coach Nick Sirianni expressed optimism on Reed Blankenship’s chances of playing on Monday night against the Bucs.

And given how small the Eagles’ safety margin is at the moment, that’s fantastic news.

After getting hurt in the groyne during the Giants game on Sunday, Blankenship missed practice on Thursday and Friday of the regular season.

“He’s progressing,” Sirianni said Saturday morning. “He’s got a chance. It’ll probably be a little bit more of a game time decision with him. But he’s going to go out there and work today (and) we’ll see how he feels.”

Despite not seeming to be involved during the brief media time on Saturday morning, Blankenship was there at practice in the Bubble. If wind and rain had forced practice inside, the Eagles might have decided against having Blankenship play. An individual session during or after practice could have served as such “work.”

The Eagles are hopeful that they will have the 24-year-old for Tampa in any case.

Before the game on Monday night, Sirianni stated, “We’ll work him again (Sunday) and probably work him out on the field.” So, although we’ll see, we’re hopeful that he can depart.

The Eagles’ lone healthy full-time safety is Kevin Byard, while rookie safety Sidney Jones is sidelined for the entire season due to an ACL tear.

Starting opposite Blankenship at the start of the season was a competition amongst Brown, Evans, Edmunds, and K’Von Wallace. Evans’ knee injury will keep him out of action for the entire season. Wallace, who started the season with the Cards, also ended up with the Titans after Edmunds was moved to them in the October transaction that sent Byard to the Eagles.

The Eagles would have two options if Blankenship was unable to play on Monday: either play a defensive back from the practice squad that isn’t often used, like Tristin McCollum or Mekhi Garner, or move slot corner Avonte Maddox to safety.

In East Rutherford on Sunday, McCollum played 17 snaps at safety and saw his first defensive action of his career. In addition, Garner has played 17 safety snaps so far this season, 13 against the Jets and 4 against the Dolphins. In the last ten games, he has not taken a defensive snap.

Blankenship suffered a rib injury in Week 2 of the Vikings game. This season, he led the Eagles in interceptions with three, the most for an undrafted player since Dimitrije Patterson had four in 2010.