Jalen Hurts Has Shoulder Sprain, Expected to Return for Postseason if Not Sooner

The Eagles QB suffered the injury in the third quarter, but stayed in the game and played well after it happened

USA Today

The Cowboys played the Eagles earlier this season with a backup quarterback.

Now, the Eagles will likely have to do the same thing, after a league source confirmed that Jalen Hurts sprained his throwing shoulder during Sunday’s 25-20 win over the Chicago Bears.

The injury occurred after Trevis Gipson tackled him with just over a minute to play in the third quarter. Gipson brought his full weight, all 263 pounds, down on Hurts while making the tackle.

The quarterback's right shoulder was driven into the ground on the play and teammates helped him to his feet after he lay on his back for a few seconds.

He was asked about being slow to get up by SI Eagles Today in the postgame interview room.

“Wasn’t the first time I was slow (getting up), it won’t be the last," he said matter-of-factly.

Gardner Minshew will likely be the quarterback when the Eagles visit Dallas on Saturday (4:25 p.m./FOX).

Minshew started two games last year.

He went 20-for-25 with 242 yards and two touchdowns in beating the Jets while Hurts missed the game with an ankle injury then, in a meaningless regular-season finale against the Cowboys, he went 19-for-33 with 186 yards, two TDs, and one interception.

At 13-1, the Eagles are three games clear of the 10-4 Cowboys, who lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in overtime on a pick-six thrown by Dak Prescott.

The Eagles need to win only one more game, or the Cowboys have to lose one more time, for Philadelphia to win the NFC East and wrap up the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.

If the Eagles do it on Saturday, with Minshew at the helm, there’s a chance Hurts will not play again until the playoffs begin, which, after the bye, would be the weekend of Jan. 21.

At the very least, he may sit the next two games and only return if the Eagles need to beat the Giants in the regular-season finale. That would mean they will have to lose to Dallas and to the Saints on New Year’s Day while the Cowboys would have to follow up their win over Philadelphia with a win against the Titans.

Missing any kind of time could cost him the MVP award, but that would be a small price to pay in order to get him back fully healthy at some point.

Hurts has passed for 3,472 yards and 22 touchdowns to five interceptions with a 104.6 passer rating in 14 games this season. He has also run for 747 yards and 13 TDs bringing his total touchdown count to 35, which tied Randall Cunningham (1990) for the most in team history.

The Eagles QB took a number of hard hits against a very physical Bears defense. He ran the ball 17 times while lead back Miles Sanders had just 11 carries.

Some of that disparity is on Hurts’ decision-making in head coach Nick Sirianni’s RPO scheme, but some of Hurts’ heavy rush total has to fall on Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, too. The number was also inflated by QB sneaks and two plays in victory formation.

Calling more Sanders-specific runs, while mixing in Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell, certainly would help in the long run, especially this late in the season.

Scott didn’t have any carries against the Bears while Gainwell had three and WR Quez Watkins two.

This is the second straight year Hurts suffered a late-season injury,

Last year in Week 12, he hurt an ankle. The injury occurred in the pocket as opposed to this year's injury, which happened while he was running the ball.

He missed one game, with Minshew stepping in, but when Hurts returned he wasn’t the same and ended up having offseason surgery. He showed up in a walking boot to his postseason press conference after losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

This latest injury isn’t initially believed to be as severe, and a source said that rest and treatment are what is needed to get the shoulder back to 100%.

It’s encouraging that Hurts finished the game and, after the injury occurred, completed 7-of-10 passes for 160 yards, including a 68-yard throw deep down the right side to A.J. Brown that led to the Eagles’ final touchdown of the game.

Hurts also ran another four times, not counting two kneel-downs at the end of the game to run out the clock, for 12 yards and a 1-yard touchdown.

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.