Eagles injury update: Jalen Hurts returns to practice ahead of playoffs originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The news you’ve all been waiting to hear: Jalen Hurts returned to practice on Wednesday.
“He’ll be out there today,” Sirianni said just after noon on Wednesday. “We’ll get you the injury report after practice. We’ll see how it goes. But we’ll get you the injury report after practice today.”
A few hours later, Hurts took the field at the Linc. Hurts was officially a limited participant.
This was Hurts’ first time back on the practice field since suffering a concussion on Dec. 22. Hurts missed two full weeks of practice and two games with his concussion. Sirianni would not say if there will be any restrictions on Hurts to start the week.
Here’s the full injury report from practice today:
Did not practice: G Trevor Keegan (illness)
Limited: WR AJ Brown (knee/rest), QB Jalen Hurts (concussion/left finger), QB Kenny Pickett (ribs), RB Will Shipley (ankle)
Full: TE Grant Calcaterra (shoulder), LB Nakobe Dean (abdomen), TE Dallas Goedert (knee), DE Bryce Huff (wrist), DT Byron Young (hamstring)
The Eagles practiced on Wednesday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field because the fields at the NovaCare Complex are frozen. They will host the Packers at the Linc on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. in the wild card round.
The Eagles were without Hurts for the final two regular season games after he suffered a concussion against the Commanders back on Dec. 22. Hurts was forced out of the game after just 12 snaps and has been in the concussion protocol ever since.
Despite Hurts’ missing the last few weeks, Sirianni claimed he isn’t worried about rust.
“This is why you practice,” Sirianni said. “This is why you got through the process of practicing and all the things that you do in practice to get on the same page to do everything there. We feel like we practice at a very high intensity level. This is why you go out there and do these things.”
While Hurts’ return to practice doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll clear the concussion protocol in time for Sunday’s game, all indications are that Hurts will make his return for the playoffs. The Eagles on Tuesday even waived reserve quarterback Ian Book, which was another strong sign about Hurts’ availability.
The game before suffering his concussion, Hurts had one of his best games of the season. Against the Steelers, he completed 78% of his passes for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns. That performance came after a tight win over the Carolina Panthers that brought up a lot of questions about the passing offense.
In 15 starts this year, Hurts has a 12-3 record but he was knocked out of the Washington loss in the first quarter. He completed 68.7% of his passes for 2,903 yards with 18 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in the regular season. He also rushed for 630 yards and 14 touchdowns.
In the first 4 games of the season, Hurts turned the ball over 7 times, but in the final 11 games he had just 3.
With Hurts’ return to practice on Wednesday, it’s looking likely that the Eagles will have all 22 of their offensive and defensive starters healthy for the first round of the playoffs.
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