Britain Covey, Jake Elliott, and the Eagles’ little men came up big against the Giants

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Britain Covey is listed on the Eagles’ official roster as being 5-foot-8 and 173 pounds, and to say those measures are generous takes generosity to a level that would have made Mother Teresa look like Gordon Gekko. All season, he has been trying to get Jordan Mailata — 6-foot-8, 365-pound Jordan Mailata — to pose with him for a photo. No luck yet. The right opportunity, so that the photo will say all that Covey wants it to say, just hasn’t presented itself.

“In what other sport do you have that big of a contrast in body types and skills?” Covey was saying Sunday in a MetLife Stadium locker room, minutes after the Eagles’ 48-22 wipeout of the Giants. “I think that’s what’s amazing about football. That’s why people love football. It shouldn’t work on paper, but you make it work.”

There’s no better description of what the Eagles’ three shortest players — Boston Scott, who is 5-6; Covey; and Jake Elliott, who is 5-9 — did here Sunday. The strangest sequence of the afternoon came in the second quarter, when the Eagles’ Arryn Siposs, punting out of his own end zone, had the kick blocked, picked up the loose ball, carried it for 13 yards, and injured his ankle. Siposs boarded a motorized cart that scooted him to the locker room, and he never returned to the game — a development that threatened to damage the Eagles more than it might have first seemed. He isn’t just the Eagles’ punter; he’s the holder for all of Elliott’s extra-point and field-goal attempts.

Without Siposs, Elliott had to punt, and Covey had to hold. But the two collaborated on two field goals and three extra points without incident, and on his only punt Sunday — and just the third of his pro career — Elliott dropped a 35-yarder that rolled to a stop at the Giants’ 25. For a special-teams unit that had been so wobbly for so much of the season, not only surviving Siposs’ absence but thriving in spite of it was a triumph.

“We didn’t panic whenever things were kind of shaky,” said Scott, who averaged 39 yards on his three kickoff returns. “We didn’t point the finger. We didn’t get frustrated or flustered. We just continued to show up to work, and we knew it was going to turn.”

It had turned last week in a victory over the Tennessee Titans, when Covey racked up 105 yards on six punt returns and the Eagles’ coverage units were stone-solid. He had, among his four returns Sunday, a 16-yarder, and Scott ripped off a 66-yard kickoff return, right after the Giants’ first touchdown, that set up one of Elliott’s field goals and blunted any momentum New York might have built. As bad as the Eagles’ special teams was for most of this season, as much as it was a hindrance to a team that otherwise appeared to be without a weakness, it has been that good and that important lately.

“When you have such a good offense and defense, there is an understanding that special teams is there just to not screw it up,” Covey said. “But we’ve been so close throughout the year on so many different things that we’re kind of sick of being so close. More than anything, it’s not like we were just playing out of our heads [the last two weeks]. We’re just finishing that one little bit. I could show you three different returns at the beginning of the year where we’re one block away from a big return, and now we’re just making that extra block. Feels good.”

If Siposs’ blocked punt was the one major mistake the Eagles made on special teams Sunday, a minor one that Elliott made, with the Eagles facing fourth-and-14 from their own 40 early in the fourth quarter, provided a little comic relief. Ten of the 11 members of the punt unit were on the field. Long snapper Rick Lovato was ready to go. But Elliott was still on the sideline until he came sprinting out.

“I thought it was third down,” he said. “I was a little confused by the package we were sending in there. I realized Rick was out there, and I was not.”

» READ MORE: What can be done to clean up things on special teams?

There was much less relative chaos whenever Elliott had to carry out his usual assignment. Covey had been Utah’s backup holder during his four years of college ball, and he spent a good portion of that time lobbying head coach Kyle Whittingham to put him in so that the Utes could run a fake field goal. There was no chance of the Eagles’ running any kind of trick play with him Sunday, especially given the rainy, chilly weather, but at least Covey made sure to catch and spot the football cleanly.

“We got laces not at me every time,” Elliott said. “That was the main concern.”

An undrafted rookie, Covey has the buoyant personality of a Labrador retriever and the self-awareness to know that he can’t be picky about his assignments. “The more you can do,” he said, “the more valuable you are.” If the Eagles need a gunner on special teams, he’ll do it. If they need a blocker on special teams, he’ll do it. Hell, if Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew happen to go down in the same game, he’ll be ready.

“I played quarterback in high school,” he said. “Probably won’t see over the line, but still.”