Eagles' Jalen Hurts ‘Good Enough' Playing Through Pain With Bigger Goals in Mind

Hurts ‘good enough’ playing through pain with bigger goals in mind originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

In the wake of the Eagles’ narrow victory over the Giants in Week 18, head coach Nick Sirianni let it be known that Jalen Hurts played through pain on Sunday.

When asked about playing through his injury, Hurts stuck with the same refrain.

“Good enough,” he said.

Yeah, that’s true. But barely.

The Eagles (14-3) beat the Giants 22-16 on Sunday to win the NFC East and clinch the top seed in the NFC. With that No. 1 seed comes a bye in the wild card round and an extra week for Hurts to rest that sprained right shoulder. That rest will be important.

In two weeks, the Eagles will host either the Bucs, Cowboys, Giants or Seahawks in the divisional round and they’ll need a healthy (healthier?) Hurts.

Because Hurts was OK on Sunday but he wasn’t anywhere near his best. He didn’t look like the guy who played at an MVP level for most of the 2022 season. The Eagles clearly altered the game plan and Hurts clearly altered his play style to protect that ailing right shoulder, which makes a ton of sense.

Still, it meant a ton to the Eagles that Hurts was out there at all.

“We didn't feel like there was more risk (of re-injury),” Sirianni said. “But I know he was hurting. He was hurting bad. But that's the kind of competitor that he is. That is the kind of person that he is and the kind of teammate and leader that he is that he was able to go out there and tough through it.”

After the game, Sirianni said Hurts was “still sore” on Sunday.

“Coming into this game, [I have] been really pushing myself beyond measures to try and be available,” Hurts said. “We do what we have to do. We’re the No. 1 seed and we are the NFC champs and that’s the goal we set out to do. Now I can continue to recover and be ready for playoffs.”

Hurts against the Giants’ backups completed 20 of 35 passes for 229 yards with an interception and had just 5 rushing attempts for 9 yards (minus kneel-downs).

The Eagles didn’t have any designed runs (aside from one QB sneak) for Hurts. They scrapped the read-option game. And even when Hurts did scramble or when he faced pressure in the pocket, he did his best to avoid contact.

“I’m just playing the game, playing the game and protecting myself,” Hurts said. “I think that’s what you all want to hear. I’m protecting myself.”

Hurts was then asked if the game plan was altered for the same reason.

“They were protecting me too,” Hurts said. “Is that what you want to hear? I was protecting myself.”

That was fine for Sunday. In fact, it was a wise plan. Because the Eagles did enough to win and Hurts was able to escape, presumably, without making the injury any worse.

But in the playoffs? That obviously won’t be enough. And the Eagles will need Hurts much closer to 100 percent.

“He’s not just a zone-read quarterback,” Sirianni said. “This guy is up for MVP. Why? Because he's done everything, right?”

That’s true, of course. But the way Hurts changes the numbers in the run game has been a major weapon for the Eagles all season. Even when he doesn’t keep the ball on those plays, the threat of his legs is enough to be a game-changer. And the lack of that element of his game was noticeable on Sunday afternoon, especially when the field shrank.

The Eagles entered Week 18 as the NFL’s best red zone offense but scored touchdowns on just 1 of 5 trips inside the 20 on Sunday. Sirianni after the game said his focus following that game would be on their inefficiencies in the red zone, but it seems pretty clear those things, at least in part, go hand-in-hand.

Hurts sprained his right shoulder in Chicago back on Dec. 18 and admitted to the CBS broadcast crew that he probably should have exited that game. Instead, he finished it, leading the Eagles to a win.

But in the next two games without Hurts, the Eagles went 0-2 with Gardner Minshew at quarterback. That set up an important Week 18 game with the No. 1 seed on the line. And even though the Eagles listed Hurts as questionable going into the weekend, it felt like Hurts was going to play all week.

Of course, we also knew the Eagles had to coach him differently and that played out on Sunday.

“I won’t get into too much of that, but sure you didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Sirianni said. “We needed to win the game however we needed to win the game. You saw he made some plays with his feet. They were doing a lot of different things on defense, just throwing some stuff out there. We obviously did some different things because we’ll always take into account the health of our players.”

The Eagles on Sunday afternoon before the game introduced their starters on offense, saving Hurts for last. The Linc erupted. And then when Hurts got on the field for the Eagles’ first offensive possession of the game, the crowd broke out in “M-V-P!” chants.

It’s hard to overstate how much Hurts means to the Eagles. He’s the heartbeat of this team.

“I think Jalen is a very good presence,” center Jason Kelce said. “He’s a great leader. I mean, we’ve known that for a long time with him. He was excited to be back out there, we were excited to go back out with him. We’ve got some things to fix up offensively. But I feel good. I’m not going to lie. I think we’ve got a lot of talent, I think we’ve got all the pieces, I think we’ve got great coaches. So I look forward to having a playoff game here in a couple weeks. I think it was probably good for Jalen and all of us to be out there and knocking some rust off.”

What version of Hurts will show up in a couple weeks in the divisional round?

Will he be closer to 100 percent? Closer to the guy we watched dazzle all season?

We’ll find out in a couple weeks.

On Sunday, Hurts was "good enough" to accomplish the task at hand. But that won't be enough for Hurts.

"It’s been a great ride this year," he said. "The job isn’t finished.”

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