Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Not Throwing Ahead of Buccaneers Game
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers come into Wild Card Weekend hosting a playoff game thanks to winning their third-straight NFC South Division Championship.
For their first postseason opponent, the Buccaneers are hosting the Philadelphia Eagles who beat them in Week 3 but have had much different endings to their season losing the NFC East Division to the Dallas Cowboys thanks to a misery-filled final six games of the year.
In their latest loss, the Eagles also experienced an injury to the throwing hand of starting quarterback Jalen Hurts who dislocated his right middle finger. To make matters worse, just five days from playing Tampa Bay, he hasn't even thrown a football since suffering the injury.
"I have not," Hurts said when asked if he's thrown yet. "Obviously, leaving that game, and attempting to go back in that game, probably wasn't physically the best idea. Not having much control over the things that I wanted to do, but time will tell with that, and I can assure you everything's progressing in the right way."
New York Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke (58) goes after Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) just before sacking him in the second quarter, Sunday, January 7, 2024.
© Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK
Hurts was at practice on Thursday with a glove on the injured hand, and beyond a throw that no NFL quarterback would call a pass to backup Marcus Mariota during a ball security drill, was not seen making any pass attempts during the portion open to media.
Not seen at practice Thursday was receiver A.J. Brown who suffered a knee injury in last week's loss to the New York Giants.
In another development, it appears Philadelphia originally planned on holding a walkthrough on Thursday but instead opted to go through a fully padded practice instead.
While we haven't heard from Eagles coach Nick Sirianni yet about the motivation behind the change we may learn it was either used to try and shake the spiraling feeling surrounding the team these past weeks, or to help get Mariota ready in case he has to step in for Hurts on Monday night.
Either way, a limited or absent Hurts certainly damage Philadelphia's chances of coming in and competing to the same level it did when the Bucs dropped that Monday Night Football matchup in Week 3.
Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are preparing to continue overcoming the odds as home underdogs in this weekend's Wild Card finale.
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