Reuben Frank and Dave Zangaro concur that the Eagles’ game against the Buccaneers in the NFL Playoffs wild card round is the most crucial one.
It was a bit terrifying on Thursday.
Hurts Jalen did not throw. And when there are four days before a playoff game and the QB doesn’t throw? Yes. That is undoubtedly frightening.
The Eagles team as a whole exhaled a collective sigh of relief as Jalen Hurts unleashed a spectacular pass on the practice field on Friday.
“For not throwing yesterday, we were all pretty concerned,” receiver and returner Britain Covey said Friday. “I think everyone was concerned. And then for him to go out there today and do it the way he did it, it was kind of a sigh of relief from everyone. Including himself I think.”
Hurts was not a full participant on Friday, although he was labeled as a limited participant during practice on Thursday.
Hurts, who suffered a horrific injury to his right middle finger during the Giants game, was said to have thrown the ball well five days later, despite the media only having access to 30 minutes of warmups and individual exercises.
At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Monday night, the Eagles take on the Buccaneers.
“He wasn’t just throwing, he was throwing deep balls, he was throwing lasers,” Covey said. “I don’t think it will be something that affects him. I haven’t asked him, but just seeing him in person doing it, it was a sigh of relief for all of us.”
With an injured throwing hand, how difficult is it to throw a football?
On Miami’s opening day in 2018, Marcus Mariota, who was still a member of the Titans, had an injury to his ulnar nerve, which caused numbness in his throwing hand. He was absent from two starts.
“It kind of trickled all the way down so I couldn’t feel these two fingers – the pinky and ring finger,” he said. “Nike actually made me a glove where I was able to cover these fingers and it kind of helped. You just kind of manage it. … Just like Jalen does, you just kind of find a way.
“Any time you’ve got anything with your hand, it’s tough for a quarterback. But Jalen did a great job. He looked really good today. I was very impressed with how he threw.
“That guy’s so mentally strong nothing like that’s going to bother him and he’ll be ready to go.”
Hurts has struggled with ailments throughout his career, missing games for the first time since he became a starter in 2021 due to an ankle injury in 2021, a shoulder injury last year, and a knee injury this year. In the last 40 years, he became only the fourth quarterback in Eagles history to start every game throughout a season, behind Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, and Carson Wentz.
Returning to Tampa, where he was obviously affected by his ankle during the 31-15 wild-card defeat to the Bucs (which was 31-0 early in the fourth quarter), is rather ironic. He underwent surgery immediately after the game.
Here we are again, with a wild-card game in Tampa and another injury.
“Jalen’s a resilient dude and whatever he wants, he’s going to go get, regardless,” Jack Stoll said. “Nothing surprises me with Jalen. I think to him, I’m not even sure an injury is really a roadblock. It’s just something you just fight through as part of the game. It’s cool having a guy like that that you know is going to go out there and fight.
“He’s a tough dude and he’s not going to be out there bitching and moaning. That’s one reason everybody respects him. He just goes out there and plays regardless of what’s going on and you won’t hear him complain.”
It must have shocked everyone who seen the close-up of his finger on Sunday at MetLife Stadium to hear how he was twirling it on Friday.
He ought to at least give the Eagles a shot to win if he can accomplish that on Monday night.
“Guys like him and A.J. (Brown), once you get to this level of athletes – and I don’t consider myself to be that, I just work hard and I try to be smart – they can just do things that other people can’t do,” Covey said.
“They can heal a hamstring in a week. They can eat McDonald’s every day and have 5 percent body fat. It just doesn’t make sense what some of these guys can do. I’m sure Jalen’s healing properties are incredible.”