Jalen Hurts Will Participate in Wednesday Walkthrough, Progress will be Monitored
PHILADELPHIA – In Nick Sirianni’s mind, Jalen Hurts is playing Sunday against the New York Jets.
“He’s tough, as tough as they get,” said the Eagles head coach about his quarterback on Wednesday morning. “Obviously, you want that out of your quarterback. In my mind, he’s playing. Like I said we’re hopeful. In his and my mind we’re both saying, he’s going.”
Of course, Hurts’ sprained left ankle might have other ideas, and Sirianni understands that, too, so Gardner Minshew will be ready just in case Hurts’ ankle isn’t.
“Every week you have a contingency, every week you go in there with a backup plan, what’s the backup quarterback like (but) you don’t want to think about those scenarios, but you have to,” he said. “…Will Jalen take every rep this week? I don’t know how that’s going to play itself out, yet. We’ll see how that goes throughout the week when he’s not in there, Gardner will be in there.”
Sirianni said that Hurts would participate in Wednesday’s walkthrough practice.
“We’re hopeful,” said Sirianni. “We’re feeling good. He’s feeling better every day. We’re excited that we’re going to have him out there at walkthrough, so really hopeful for him.
He’ll be out there at walkthrough and taking reps at walkthrough.”
Typically, the QB speaks to reporters between the morning and afternoon practices.
Hurts is coming off one of the worst games of his career, throwing three interceptions, completing just 45 percent of his throw, and finishing with a passer rating just above 17.
“I think he’s hungry to get back out there again and redeem himself off a performance that wasn’t up to his standard,” said Sirianni.
The coach said the front office does not dictate which quarterback should play, that GM Howie Roseman or anybody else tell him they want to see what Minshew can do with this offense and to let Hurts take the week off, which would actually be two weeks since the Eagles will have their bye after playing the Jets.
“Anything we’re doing is to win that football game,” said Sirianni. “Period. As far as long term, I think I’ve said this before, I’m completely focused on one week at a time. I can’t focus on what’s going to happen in the future. Whatever we’re doing in a week is solely to win that football game, really not focus on anything else.”
Sirianni added that the message from the front office is simple, and that is, “do what you have to do to win each week.”
“That’s what I was brought here for,” he continued, “and I have great support from everybody in this building. That’s all that matters is winning and losing and I know that’s my job is to win as many games as we possibly can.”
In other injury news, the coach said that Nate Herbig would take first-team reps at right guard on Wednesday as the Eagles look for a replacement for Jack Driscoll, whose season ended with a high ankle sprain in Sunday’s 13-7 loss to the New York Giants.
Sirianni didn’t want to commit to Herbig starting against the Jets, however, saying that the team “has some good options” at that position.
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.
