As the Eagles began their week preparing for the Saints, quarterback Jalen Hurts was listed as out of action on the first injury report of the week.
While the Eagles had a walkthrough on Wednesday, the injury report is an estimate of availability at normal practice.
Not a great sign of his preparation this Sunday against the Saints.
Eagles coach Nick Siriani was intentionally elusive on Wednesday when asked how prepared Hurts was for the upcoming game. He wants to force New Orleans to prepare their quarterbacks for as long as possible. The Eagles did this last week in the lead-up to the Cowboys game until Hurts was finally taken out two days before kickoff.
Here’s the Eagles’ full injury report as of Wednesday:
not practiced: Jalen Hurts (shoulder), Lynn Johnson (thigh), Avonte Maddox (toe), Miles Sanders (knee)
Limited: AJ Brown (knee), Jordan Davis (concussion)
Hurts wasn’t able to practice at all last week either before the Cowboys game.
While Siriani said Hurtz feels better now than he did last week, he didn’t give many other details.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Siriani said of Hurts’ availability this week. “We’ll keep seeing how he progresses all week. Does he stand a chance? Of course he does, because his body just knows how to heal. It’s weird. We’ll see what happens as the week progresses.”
Hurts, 24, suffered a shoulder sprain (reportedly a sprained SC joint) in the Eagles’ Week 15 win over the Bears and missed the game against the Cowboys on Christmas Eve. While the Eagles lost that game 40-34, backup quarterback Gardner Minshaw played well and the Eagles caught 422 yards on offense.
The biggest problem on offense in that game against the Cowboys was turnovers. Mincio threw two pickaxes and the Eagles also lost two moves. But aside from those blunders, the Eagles offense swung and didn’t hop once.
If the Eagles are able to win this Sunday afternoon against the Saints, they will get the top seed in the NFC and will give Hurts shoulder two more weeks to heal. Because not only would the Eagles get a first-round NFC, it would also make Week 18 meaningless for the Eagles’ game picture.
The biggest surprise in the injury report was that Miles Sanders suffered a knee injury. Sanders has been a huge part of the Eagles’ offense this year, running for over 1,000 yards. If he can’t play this weekend, the Eagles will have Boston Scott, Kenny Ginwill and Trey Sermon.
Brown’s injury is also a new addition. The injury report wasn’t released until after the Eagles passed, but the Browns were in the locker room Wednesday beforehand and spoke to reporters.
We know both Johnson and Maddox will be out for some time with injuries sustained in Saturday’s loss. Johnson suffered a ruptured tendon in his abdomen and planned to skip surgery to return to the playoffs. Maddox has a toe injury and is said to be leaving indefinitely.
On Wednesday, the Eagles did not start the CJ Gardner-Johnson coaching window. The safety/nickel cornerback missed the minimum of four games on IR with a torn kidney but didn’t seem ready for a comeback.
“Just because he’s eligible to come back doesn’t mean he’ll do it, though I know he’ll want to,” Siriani said on Monday. “Again, all the guys want it, so we’ll see. It’ll be something we’re just waiting to get some results back in when he gets those tests.”
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