PHILADELPHIA — Nick Sirianni isn’t counting Jalen Hurts out.
The Eagles coach confirmed Tuesday that his starting quarterback suffered a sprained right shoulder Sunday in the win over the Chicago Bears, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Hurts could be in the lineup for the Christmas Eve road game against the Dallas Cowboys.
“I don’t put anything past Jalen Hurts as far as his physical and mental toughness,” Sirianni said during his news conference. “There’s a chance he could play this week. He is one of the toughest guys I know and he heals fast. He’s a freak. ... I will not rule him out, I would not put a timetable on him. We’ll see what happens this week.”
Hurts spoke with reporters as well Tuesday and said he is “feeling fine.” The 24-year-old seemed more interested in discussing the Cowboys defense than the conversation surrounding his status for the game.
“It’s a week where we keep everything business as usual,” Hurts said. “We’re playing a really good team, a really good opponent. We’re doing everything we can on a short week to be at full health.”
“Definitely a chance,” Hurts added of whether he’ll play. “We’re taking it day by day, though. Everybody knows that I’m dealing with something, I think that’s pretty public, it’s out there. I’m not really wanting to talk about myself — obviously being the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, you can’t run from that.”
Although Hurts and Sirianni won’t close the door on his potential return, there’s a good chance their comments are a case of gamesmanship. The early indication is that Hurts could miss the next two games according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, and there’s an advantage in making the Cowboys coaching staff prepare for the dual-threat quarterback rather than simply announcing Gardner Minshew as the starter.
Sirianni said the Eagles staff would have two game plans in place: one for Hurts and one for Minshew.
“We’re going to have to plan for both guys to play,” Sirianni said. “... There will naturally be some difference. There’s going to be things that Gardner likes that Jalen might not like as much and vice versa.”
It’s worth noting that Minshew attended Mike Leach’s funeral service out of state to honor his former coach and missed Tuesday’s walk-through as a result. Sirianni would not say whether Hurts would participate in the session or if third-string quarterback Ian Book would get the lion’s share of the first-team reps.
Minshew started two games for the Eagles last season and played reasonably well, completing 68.3% of his passes for 439 yards with four touchdowns, and one interception for the season. The 26-year-old has aspirations of finding another starting opportunity in the league, which makes the chance to play in Hurts’ potential absence an important one.
“Just like all of us, we all think we can play and want to play,” Book said. “You’ve just got to be ready when your name is called. I think when he’s gone in and his name has been called, he’s done a really good job. He’s excited for it, I know he is, and it’s going to be big for him, too.”
Aside from obvious differences in the passing game, going from Hurts to Minshew will also impact the Eagles running game. Minshew isn’t a statue, but he doesn’t pose the same threat to keep the ball on shotgun runs that Hurts does and therefore won’t give unblocked backside defenders as much to account for.
Hurts’ ability to change games with his running ability has been a fixture of the Eagles offense this season, even though it can sometimes put him in harm’s way. Hurts tied his season-high 17 rushing attempts against the Bears and took a handful of big hits as a result.
Don’t expect things to change when Hurts returns, though.
“I get that’s going to be part of the scrutiny,” Sirianni said. “But we are who we are as an offense — explosively, scoring wise, all those different things — because Jalen can do so many things, both running the football and passing the football.”
Hurts’ return date will likely be influenced by the Eagles’ playoff scenarios. The team needs just one victory to secure the No. 1 seed in the conference and win the NFC East; there are also a handful of scenarios to clinch the top seed without a win.
Sirianni acknowledged there would be some “gray area” on the decision to play Hurts if he’s healthy enough to return, but the team has an effectively meaningless game coming up.
“There’s elements of gray that you have to live in,” Sirianni said. “We’d love for it to be completely black and white, but there might be some elements of gray in there.”
Eagles center Jason Kelce noted that the next three games do have some meaning, though, even if the seeding sorts itself out.
“We have a shot in the playoffs to do something special,” Kelce said. “I think you don’t want to waste any time or any effort or attention every single day you step in here. We still have three games left, we have one against the Cowboys this week. You just try to be the best player you can be this week. ... Ironing out mistakes, talking to your teammates. If you keep a short-term focus, the long-term stuff takes care of itself usually.”
Hurts suffered the shoulder sprain in the third quarter but managed to make a handful of deep throws late in the game. Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata, who helped Hurts up when he was slow to do so following the hit, said the way he played with the injury gives him some reason for optimism about a potential return.
“It was amazing,” Mailata said. “It makes you think, like, ‘It must not be that bad’ if he can go out there and do that.”
Mailata said that he was surprised when news of Hurts’ shoulder surfaced and that he checked on the quarterback when they crossed paths in the facility on Monday.
“I came in and saw him and was like, ‘Oh, [dang],’ ” Mailata said. “I asked if he was going to be all right and he said, ‘I’m going to be fine.’ I was like, ‘Great, I’m not going to worry about it.’ ”
