Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has already been ruled out for Christmas Eve. Head coach Nick Sirianni announced the promotion of backup Gardner Minshew until Hurts’ sprained throwing shoulder is healed. The Eagles are scheduled to take on the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday at 4:25 p.m.
The Eagles have a chance to clinch the NFC’s top seed with a victory. But, before the game even kicks off, there is already speculation about Hurts’ playing status for Week 17. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hurts is “recovering from what doctors are calling a SC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder – an injury to the joint where the collarbone meets the breastbone.”
Sirianni confirmed it’s a day-to-day issue as the team waits to see how he responds to rest and treatment. Hopefully, Philadelphia takes care of business against Dallas which would allow them to shut down all their starters for the rest of the regular season. If not, well, things might change drastically.
“If the Eagles can win Saturday in Dallas, they would not need to risk Hurts next week against the Saints,” Schefter reported. “But if they lose Saturday, Hurts will push to play against New Orleans even if he is not fully healthy, as is expected to be the case, according to sources.”
Eagles’ quarterback Jalen Hurts, who will miss Saturday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys because of a sprained shoulder, also is uncertain to play against the New Orleans Saints in Week 17, per sources.
Remember, the Eagles will have three opportunities to secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason. All they have to do is win one of their three remaining games: at Dallas (December 24), or vs. New Orleans (January 1), or vs. NY Giants (January 8). Philadelphia can also achieve the same goal with a Vikings loss and a tie against the Cowboys this week.
Sirianni Refuses to Provide Timeline for Hurts
Sirianni routinely reminds reporters that he’ll never put a timetable on a player returning from injury. He doesn’t want to put any added pressure on a guy going through rehab by overestimating the person’s ability to recover. Vice versa, he doesn’t want to insult the player by underestimating it.
So, when Sirianni was asked whether Hurts would be back for the New Orleans game, he supplied a very predictable answer.
“You know I’m not going to go there yet. We’ll take it one day at a time, one game at a time obviously,” Sirianni said. “Again, like I said, he’s worked his butt off to try to get himself back. We’ll see day by day of where he is.”
Sports Talker Defends Hurts: ‘Let’s Be Honest’
FS1 sports talker Joy Taylor, sitting a few seats down from known Cowboys hater LeSean McCoy, delivered a fiery defense of Jalen Hurts and why the league seems determined to rob him of the MVP award he deserves. She believes that if Gardner Minshew goes out and lights it up, then the “system quarterback” argument will be thrown back in Hurts’ face.
“Can we just say what it is? They don’t want to give Jalen Hurts this MVP,” Taylor said on Speak. “So, if Gardner Minshew goes out, with a great team around him, and has a nice performance and wins because the Eagles are better than the Cowboys right now … they are going to use that as an excuse for why it’s the team around him, which is a conversation that has already been started, we were having it all last week, and it’s not really Jalen.”
.@JoyTaylorTalks: Let’s be real, they don’t want to give Jalen Hurts this MVP.
Taylor got even more animated and stared into the camera to say: “Let’s be honest about this, any other team that was 13-1 at this point in the season, we would not be discussing if the quarterback of that team was a legitimate MVP.”
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NFL Insider Drops New Update on Eagles QB Jalen Hurts