Jalen Hurts, Gardner Minshew to Continue Splitting Reps
PHILADELPHIA – Despite 10 days to heal during the Eagle bye week, quarterback Jalen Hurts may not start against Washington. Of course, he could start, too.
Nick Sirianni has no idea, yet, and the head coach said Hurts and backup Gardner Minshew will split reps during Wednesday’s walkthrough as the team prepares to host Washington on Sunday after having the last 10 days off.
Hurts suffered a sprained left ankle on Nov. 28 in a disappointing loss to the New York Giants in which the QB threw three picks and led the offense to only one touchdown in a 13-7 loss.
Minshew burst onto the New York scene a week later when the Eagles returned to MetLife Stadium and beat the New York Jets. He led the Eagles to points on their first seven possessions in a 33-18 win while completing his first 11 throws on his way to a 20-for-25 performance and a passer rating of 133.7.
“We’re going to do what we need to do in the walkthrough on how we divvy up the reps,” said Sirianni. “Like the last walkthrough (two weeks ago), both Gardner and Jalen got reps and we’ll do the same thing today and see how everything goes (Thursday).
“I don’t know what exactly is going to happen, just like I didn’t know (going into the Jets game) what was going to happen, so you want to make sure that you’re covered if one guy can’t play.”
In the days leading up to playing the Jets, Hurts said he would play. He was listed as questionable and was eventually ruled out on gameday.
Sirianni said that he was encouraged by Hurts’ progress toward rehabbing his ankle to 100 percent.
“Yeah, just the time difference and everything,” he said. “I was hopeful two weeks ago at this time that he was going to play, and he didn’t end up playing obviously as we know, but time is healing it and again we go back to our doctors, our trainers, and our strength staff. We have good people in there working on him getting him a little bit better each day.”
As for some of the other injuries the team is dealing with, Sirianni said running backs Miles Sanders (ankle) and Jordan Howard (knee) are trending upward.
Sanders ran a career-high 24 times against the Jets for 120 yards but was unable to finish the game after reaggravating an ankle injury suffered earlier in this season.
Howard has missed the last two games but was not placed on Injured Reserve, which would have required him to sit out one more game.
As for standout right guard Brandon Brooks, who suffered a strained pec in Week 2 and was put on IR, Sirianni had no new information on his return.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
