Eagles preparing Minshew in case Hurts can’t play originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Eagles backup quarterback Gardner Minshew was at the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday as the Eagles began preparations to face the Jets this weekend.
They have to get Minshew ready just in case.
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Because starting quarterback Jalen Hurts injured his ankle against the Giants on Sunday and while he returned to the game, he was sore to begin this week.
“[Minshew is] in here today so we’ll talk to him today,” offensive coordinator Shane Steichen said on Tuesday. “But really we’re getting ready for Jalen (to play) and we’ll go from there.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni on Monday said he didn’t want to put a timetable on Hurts’ injury but said they’d see how rehab went the next two days before hopefully having a better update on Wednesday, the first day of practice this week. So the Eagles are going through that process now.
With the bye week looming after the Jets game, there’s a case to be made for sitting a hobbled Hurts on Sunday.
Even if Hurts is able to play, Steichen conceded that an ankle injury could limit Hurts’ effectiveness on Sunday.
“Yeah. He’s an explosive runner,” Steichen said. “Obviously, he runs the football really well so we’ve got to work through those things.”
Minshew, 25, has been with the Eagles since late August, when he was traded from Jacksonville. He became the team’s backup quarterback on Oct. 25, when Joe Flacco was traded to the Jets. Minshew has been active for five games but his only game action came late in the blowout in Detroit.
Against the Lions in the fourth quarter, Minshew played 14 snaps. He completed both his passes for a total of 11 yards.
While Minshew and Hurts are very different quarterbacks, Steichen (as hard as it is to believe) intimated that the offense wouldn’t look much different with Minshew in the lineup.
“We’re going to run what we run and I think we gotta continue to do that,” Steichen said. “We’ve been pretty efficient running the football. And obviously we’ve got to get our pass game to where we want it to be and that’s the bottom line.”
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