Jalen Hurts Continues to Heal and Grow
Healing is one thing.
Growing is another.
Jalen Hurts wants to do both during this downtime before beginning the Eagles' postseason journey.
Heal the shoulder and grow as a team.
Hurts’ shoulder was one topic of conversation when he spoke to reporters at his locker following Thursday’s first practice of the team’s playoff bye week.
Hurts made it painfully – pun intended – clear that he is battling through pain caused by his sprained throwing shoulder.
It was clear he wasn’t 100% in last week’s must-win game against the New York Giants.
It’s not clear quite yet if he will be 100% by the time the Eagles play again in the divisional round of the playoffs next weekend, or even for as long as their postseason fortunes continue.
“I’m feeling better, it’s a day-by-day thing,” he said. “I’m just taking it day by day. I think the whole world knows what I’m dealing with, that I’m dealing with something.
"I think the whole point of that game was coming back and getting done what we needed to get done. Obviously, I could use the time to rest, so here it is.”
Hurts didn’t do too much at practice on Thursday. He threw the ball lightly but didn’t participate in any ball security drills.
“It’s different,” he said when asked what it’s like to play at less than 100%. “It’s not the first time I’ve done it, though. It’s happened a number of times. I think this has been a very public venture, but I’ve been able to navigate that.
“I have no problem with doing that. That’s the thing I have to kind of get my mind right to do. It takes what it takes. At the end of the day, if you want something done, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.”
One of those times he played through injury was just last year, right around the same time of the season.
Last year, it was an ankle that Hurts managed his way through the final regular season games. He showed up in a walking boot after the wildcard playoff loss to Tampa then had surgery.
There’s no talk of surgery for the shoulder, but there wasn’t much talk about it with the ankle, either.
"That’s the point of the bye week, to kind of have some time off," he said, something that wasn't available last year after the Eagles slipped into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed.
"Obviously, we would have loved to have (clinched) it a little sooner, but we got it done last week, and it was what it was. And I think we got a lot of guys that need that time, so we can be ready to play our best ball when we need it."
Hurts said these next several days before another kickoff will also be spent getting better, and healthier, as a team.
“I think that’s a lot of time for us to grow as a team,” he said. “I think the challenges of different things thrown in front of you, and ultimately you have to find a way to overcome them. And so my mind is, regardless of how this ends, I think for us, we just want to get better as a team.
“I think we got a lot of good work in (Thursday). We’ve had a lot of good conversations. We really haven’t taken an off day since the game.”
Hurts asked head coach Nick Sirianni to come into the team facility and watch some tape on Monday’s day off. The coach and some of his staff obliged.
“We have the opportunity of a lifetime, and every year, we get to do this,” said Hurts. “I was talking about it to the team, to the offense. Obviously, this past week has been a very crazy week in the NFL and across the world in the circumstances that happened in the Monday night game (with Damar Hamlin).
“There’s so much that we have to be thankful for and grateful for, and the opportunities that we have. Why not give it your all while you can because you never know when you can be done. So much to be thankful for, so I want to give the game everything that I have.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
