Kamu Grugier-Hill will finally get to start his season when the Eagles face the Packers

This was the year Kamu Grugier-Hill was going to make his case as a full-time starting Eagles linebacker after starting 10 games a year ago, many of those coming because Jordan Hicks was injured.

He can still do that, but Grugier-Hill knows he has some work to do. He plans to return to the field for Thursday’s game at Green Bay, but he isn’t sure what kind of load he’ll be able to to withstand in his first action since he suffered an MCL sprain in an Aug. 3 training-camp practice.

The Eagles thought enough of Grugier-Hill, their special teams captain, not to put him on injured reserve either in the preseason, which would have ended his season, or once the regular season began, which would have kept him out half the year.

“I’m just going to try to get worked into some things, let my body get right,” Grugier-Hill said Tuesday. “Get some plays in, just get acclimated. I missed all of training camp.”

Special teams coach Dave Fipp certainly can use Grugier-Hill, after his kickoff coverage unit allowed a 100-yard touchdown return to Detroit’s Jamal Agnew in a 27-24 Eagles home loss Sunday. T.J. Edwards, the rookie linebacker who might be the top candidate to be deactivated in favor of Grugier-Hill, was the first to miss Agnew. Edwards was a little to the left of the returner and was trying to change his angle when he was blocked out of the play, possibly in the back, replay wasn’t definitive.

“I got chipped a little bit, for sure. It’s one of those things where I tried to make a play, tried to slice back. It didn’t happen. ... There’s definitely some things I could have done better, in terms of getting lower, really just trying to force that guy to push me in the back, if anything," Edwards said.

A couple of special teams mainstays, safeties Andrew Sendejo and Rudy Ford, missed Agnew after Edwards flew past him, and Agnew had clear sailing when he got to the sideline.

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz explained why his unit only had 10 players on the field for what turned out to be a 44-yard run by Detroit’s J.D. McKissic in Sunday’s loss.

This was the first play after Miles Sanders fumbled, and the defense wasn’t gathered on the sideline, waiting to go in as it is during a punt or kickoff. Starting defensive end Derek Barnett was down with an ankle injury -- he later returned -- and there was confusion over filling Barnett’s spot.

“We were sort of in the middle of getting that settled, and all of a sudden we were on the field quick with a turnover,” Schwartz said. "We had miscommunication of who was going out there, and we paid a heavy price for it because even though they get the ball at midfield, we’ve still got a chance to keep them out of field goal range.

“We were able to get the stop out of that, but three points in a game like that is big. I’m sure there’s a million plays in that game that you say, ‘Look, hey, if we made that catch or we had made that tackle or we had got that sack,’ that’s one that we sort of look like, ‘Hey, if we had stopped that reverse’ -- and there’s no saying we would have stopped it if another guy had been there, but we’ve sure got a lot better chance, maybe we keep them off the board. Maybe we don’t, but maybe we keep them off the board there. We’ve got to do better than that.”

Schwartz confirmed that Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas will be the outside cornerbacks against Green Bay. He said the defense will be without Ronald Darby (hamstring) “for a little while.”