Bleeding Green Nation
Hmmm.
Interesting moment from Nick Sirianni’s Friday morning press conference: the Philadelphia Eagles head coach was asked why Jalen Hurts was listed as limited with a “rest” designation on the injury report earlier this week since that’s not the norm for him.
Here’s the entire exchange in text form:
Q: We haven’t really seen Jalen be held back for load management before. What was behind that on Wednesday?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he was dealing with— it was on the injury report. Dealing with the ankle. And, you know, making sure we’re cautious with everything.
Q: He wasn’t on the injury report with an ankle.
Q: I’m sorry, Jalen Hurts, it was an ankle injury?
NICK SIRIANNI: What’s that?
EAGLES PR: It was a “rest.”
NICK SIRIANNI: It was a rest, yeah. Sorry. I thought you were talking about something else.
Q: Is Jalen dealing with an ankle problem, then?
NICK SIRIANNI: No. Rest.
And here’s a video version of the exchange:
If we’re to take Sirianni at his word, he misspoke. It happens!
But it’s not easy to understand what caused his confusion if that’s truly the case.
Did Sirianni think he was being asked about Jalen Carter since the reporter only used the first name “Jalen”? The problem with that is Carter isn’t even on the injury report this week. He was on it last week ... but that was with a shoulder issue.
Did Sirianni confuse Hurts for another player dealing with an ankle injury? The problem with that is Mekhi Becton and Ainias Smith are the only others listed with an “ankle” designation on this week’s injury report. Hard to believe Sirianni is confusing Hurts with either or those two guys.
And so one can only wonder if Sirianni spilled the beans on Hurts dealing with an ankle injury.
It’s probably worth noting that Hurts spent some time on the ground before getting up wincing after taking a sack in the Eagles’ win over the Jacksonville Jaguars:
Hurts was not limited as a runner after this play, however. Case in point: he had an 18-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Two drives later, he took off for 21 yards — his longest run of the game — to convert a 3rd-and-9.
Still, it’s never comforting for fans to know that their starting quarterback might be banged up. Which ... might contribute to why the team might not have been totally transparent about his status?
Perhaps Hurts’ ankle injury — assuming he has one — isn’t considered to be super serious and that’s why the Eagles went with the “rest” designation. All NFL players are likely dealing with bumps and bruises, especially by this point in this season. Even so, if his practice workload is limited due to his ankle, the public messaging should probably reflect as much ... especially when there are penalties for teams not being forthcoming with...
