Everyone is “trending upward” on the injury report, according to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. That includes starting quarterback Jalen Hurts and his injured ankle.
Will he play in Week 15 against the Washington Football Team? Hurts didn’t want to guarantee his status, not after he gave himself a clean bill of health prior to the bye week and then sat on the bench. He wasn’t making that mistake again.
“It’s been a day-by-day thing,” Hurts said. “Coming in here every day and doing everything in my power to make myself available for my team. So that’s been my mindset and that’s still my mindset. Trying to be available for the team.”
“I think we’re still growing and I think our best football has yet to be played.” – @JalenHurts
Hurts declined to say what exactly was bothering him or how he hurt it. FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer previously reported that it was a Grade 1 high ankle sprain. Instead, Hurts wanted to focus on overcoming adversity.
“I think the reality of it is – I knew, everyone knew, we were always in it, the dog was never out of the fight,” Hurts said. “And I think that’s the mentality that we’ve always had regardless of what was said outside, the rat poison we had out there, and anything like that. We just kept our head high and focused on the things we could control, and just tried to get better every day.”
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Eagles QBs Splitting Reps at Practice
The Eagles held a walk-through on Wednesday, December 15 in favor of a traditional practice. Sirianni has made that the new normal late in the season in an effort to keep guys fresh. But those mental reps count just as much as the physical ones. And the head coach split them up between Hurts and backup Gardner Minshew.
Nick Sirianni says “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen” with Jalen Hurts’ ankle and status for Sunday. Needs to split the reps in practice as a fallback plan. #Eagles #FlyEaglesFly
“We’re going to do what we need to do in walk-through today with how we divvy up the reps,” Sirianni said. “Like last walk-through, both Gardner and Jalen got reps and we’ll do the same thing today and we’ll see how everything goes tomorrow.”
While the exact number of reps wasn’t revealed, it’s obvious the quarterback situation remains very much up in the air. Minshew started in Week 13 against the New York Jets and thrived. Hurts had a front-row seat and loved seeing it.
“It was great,” Hurts said. “It was great seeing everybody compete, seeing everybody bounce back from the week before [versus NY Giants], obviously seeing him go out there and take advantage of the opportunity he had. I’m so happy to see him step in and go out there and get a win for us which we needed.”
Other Injured Players Trending Upward
Injured running backs Miles Sanders (ankle) and Jordan Howard (knee) may not know their game-day status until Friday, according to Sirianni. Sanders said he felt “confident” about suiting up, but Howard didn’t meet with reporters.
Meanwhile, center Jason Kelce has endured three different ailments – knee, ankle, foot – over the course of the 2021 campaign. He re-aggravated the ankle injury against the New York Jets. Not to worry, Kelce plans to play.
“Bye week came at a really good time,” Kelce said. “I feel really good right now.”
Jason Kelce on his sense of responsibility to be on the field
#WPMOYChallenge Kelce
Finally, there was no real update on injured right guard Brandon Brooks who suffered a pectoral strain in Week 2. Sirianni offered no timetable on Brooks: “no change there.”
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Eagles Update Injury Report, Including Jalen Hurts’ Status