Jalen Hurts' Shoulder Still Bears Monitoring

The Eagles QB didn't risk any further injury by playing in Week 18, but his coach said he was "hurting bad" and wasn't sure if he would be sore throughout the playoffs

Nobody outside the Eagles’ organization really knew just how serious Jalen Hurts’ ankle injury was last year until he showed up wearing a walking boot for his postgame press conference in Tampa shortly after the Bucs ended Philly’s season in the wildcard round.

It wasn’t long after that, that Hurts had surgery on the ankle.

Now, he has a sprained throwing shoulder.

Nobody outside the Eagles’ organization really knows just how serious it is, only that it is sore and, per head coach Nick Sirianni on Sunday, “was hurting bad.”

On Tuesday, Sirianni didn’t shed much more light on the injury.

“He came out of that game sore because it's still healing, right?” said the coach. “Like, we didn't feel like we were putting him at any more risk of getting more injured, but we knew it was going to hurt him like hell, he knew it was going to hurt him like hell.”

That doesn’t sound encouraging.

Nor did it sound promising when Sirianni addressed a question about having to potentially play through the pain for however long the Eagles’ playoff run lasts.

“I'm not sure I can answer that question,” he said. “We are fortunate that we have two weeks till the next time we play, depending on if it's Saturday or Sunday. We're fortunate there.

“Again, he's going to be a little bit healthier than what he was obviously the other day.”

Hurts is scheduled to talk to the media on Thursday morning, so maybe he will break from his usual stance of not saying much about himself and, well, say something about himself, or, more specifically, his shoulder.

Probably not.

There’s no question Hurts wanted to play against the Giants, and it’s probably good he did.

There was some rust that perhaps he was able to work through, but mostly the game plan was designed to keep him safe and prevent him from taking a hit on that shoulder knowing the Eagles would be able to handle the Giants’ backups that day.

No matter how close the game appeared, the Eagles weren’t going to lose.

Hurts played and that was an inspirational sight for his teammates.

“That's the kind of player he is, that’s the kind of teammate he is,” said Sirianni two days after the win. “He fought through (the shoulder injury) because it was important for him to be out there, he knew how important it was for him and his teammates to be out there.”

You don’t need to drink X’s and O’s to understand why the Eagles’ offense bogged down in the red zone against the Giants.

It was based on the game plan.

Hurts simply was not going to be used in the run game if it could be helped, so he presented no real threat to run because the Eagles and even Hurts wanted to protect a shoulder that was still sore despite three weeks of rest and treatment from the day he injured it on Dec. 18.

So, the Eagles settled for five Jake Elliott field goals to slide past New York to win the NFC East and earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.

If the running element of Hurts’ game doesn’t return because of his shoulder, however, the Eagles’ long-term survival in the postseason could be in jeopardy.

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.