The Philadelphia Eagles experienced tremendous success on the defensive side of the ball last season, en route to an NFC championship. That did not mean they were injury-free, but particularly in the secondary, they stayed healthy for most of the season.

But heading into Thursday night’s Week 2 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, the Eagles will get a sense of just how effectively they have built their Plan B for covering Justin Jefferson and the Vikings’ passing attack.

A year after Darius Slay and James Bradberry both started all 17 regular season games at the corners, Bradberry was out again on Wednesday, remaining in concussion protocol. Safety Reed Blankenship, who started last week and was the choice to replace the departed CJ Gardner-Johnson, missed Wednesday practice with an injury to his ribs.

Bradberry’s replacement, Josh Jobe, played sparingly last season, but impressed the coaching staff this summer, one of the undrafted free agents the Eagles have developed into some lower-cost depth on defense.

“Oh, yeah, I'm extremely confident and comfortable, really all the guys that we've prepared out there, and Josh being one of them,” Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai told reporters on Tuesday. “He's had a really good camp. We're looking forward to him doing well. He did a great job in the situation he was put in in the game. Really, he showed kind of his mentality and his approach, which is a thing we really like about him.”

Philadelphia, fortunately, has Slay to cover Jefferson, something he did to great effect last season. The Minnesota star receiver caught just six passes for 48 yards in Week 2 a year ago against the Eagles, and Philadelphia kept him out of the end zone.

“Really the whole Eagles defense and the whole team played really well in that game,” Desai said. “It's a credit to all those guys that were on that field. They really took to dominating their matchups and their one-on-one situations, and winning in rush and coverage.

“A lot of that stuff is going to carry over in terms of our philosophy, what we want to do from a front perspective and disrupt things, and from a coverage perspective win. We always talk about owning that hard hat. To Slay's credit, he's done a bunch of that grunt work in the back. That always helps when you have a guy that wants that hard hat.”

In the secondary, with Blankenship’s absence, expect more focus on safety Justin Evans, signed as a free agent this winter from Tampa Bay, who started in Week 1.

“He set himself apart a little bit with his physicalness at the point of attack sometimes,” Desai said of Evans. “That we saw obviously in practice and in some games. His length and his ability to cover guys was good. He did a good job in the game. He took a lot of command to his side of the coverage, the things that we require those safeties to do. He did a good job communicating out there and stepping into that role.”

The Eagles will be without Nakobe Dean for at leadt four weeks, having placed him on injured reserve with a foot injury, and will replace his snaps by committee. But there is depth at the position, too, with Nicholas Morrow up from the practice squad. Morrow is a veteran who started all 17 games for the Chicago Bears last season, accumulating 116 tackles.

“Really confident in him,” head coach Nick Sirianni said of Morrow on Monday. “That's why he's on our 69-man roster. It's because we believe in him. We believe in the things that he can do. We believe in his style of play, his physicality, being able to line up the defense. A lot of confidence in Nick, and if he has to go in that role, we're excited, I'm excited to watch him roll and for his opportunity.”