Eagles Place Jalen Hurts on Injured Reserve With a Blood Clot: What It Means for Philadelphia
The Eagles placed Jalen Hurts on injured reserve on Saturday with what the team calls a superficial blood clot in his calf, two days after saying he would miss a single game and one day after reports that Philadelphia had no plans to use injured reserve at all.
The move costs him at least four games. Under the current rules, a player placed on injured reserve during the regular season cannot practice and must sit four games, and a bye does not count toward them. For Hurts that covers Carolina, Dallas, Washington and the Giants, with Philadelphia’s bye in Week 10 behind it. The earliest he is eligible to return is Week 11 against Pittsburgh, and eligible is not the same as expected. Sources have described him as out indefinitely.
The timeline the Eagles put in writing
Philadelphia’s own statement lays out an uncomfortable sequence. Hurts was cleated in the October 4 loss to the Rams. He asked for calf treatment after practice on October 8. The team landed in London on October 10, performed an ultrasound after a walkthrough, and found the clot.
Eagles and London doctors, per that statement, “reviewed the results and concluded that activity and mobility were important and that Jalen could safely play.” He played the next day against Jacksonville “without limitation,” going 21-of-40 for 220 yards in a two-point loss. A follow-up ultrasound on the night of October 14 “revealed movement in the small blood clot.” He was ruled out for Week 6 on the 15th and placed on injured reserve on the 17th.
No league or union objection to the London clearance has been reported, and the team says it stayed in contact with the NFL office throughout. The decision is on the record because the Eagles put it there themselves.
Why the reversal happened
Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter both reported midweek that the Eagles did not plan to use injured reserve, while noting it was still possible if Hurts needed blood thinners. Jeremy Fowler reported Friday that the team was hopeful it could avoid the move. Then new information arrived inside 24 hours and Philadelphia made it after consulting a long list of doctors.
The medicine explains the caution. Clots of this kind are commonly treated with anticoagulants, and a player cannot play while on them. A team doctor told ESPN the range is wide: “It is a broad range and nuance based on size and location and hematology evaluation, but could be six weeks.” No source has reported which treatment Hurts is actually receiving.
What Philadelphia has left
Tanner McKee takes over. He has 597 career passing yards, five touchdowns and a 1-1 record as a starter. Rookie Cole Payton moved up behind him, and the Eagles signed Joe Milton III off the Cowboys’ practice squad on Friday as insurance.
McKee inherits a mess. The Eagles were 2-3 on a three-game losing streak entering Sunday, their offense ranks 29th in points and 30th in yards, Saquon Barkley is out with a hamstring injury, two other running backs are already on injured reserve, Lane Johnson retired on October 6 and Cam Jurgens was traded to Houston the next day. The Giants lead the NFC East at 3-1.
Nick Sirianni would not go into the medicine on Friday. “Jalen’s health is the utmost important to all of us in this building, care deeply about Jalen,” he said. DeVonta Smith kept it shorter. “He’s fine,” he said, before adding that this is bigger than football.
Hurts, 28, has not spoken publicly about the clot. He signed for five years and $255 million in 2023 with reported guarantees of $180 million, won Super Bowl LIX and its MVP award, and had completed 57.8 percent of his passes this season, the worst rate of his career outside his rookie year. Philadelphia’s season now belongs to a quarterback with six career appearances.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
