PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts can only hope an extra week off will help his sore right shoulder.
The Pro Bowl quarterback returned on Sunday to lead the Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) to a win over the New York Giants after he missed two weeks with a sprained right shoulder. The victory gave the Eagles the top seed in the NFC, home-field advantage in the playoffs and a bye this weekend.
The Eagles used a conservative game plan with Hurts and didn’t ask the dynamic QB to do much that would put him at risk of taking a serious hit on the shoulder.
“We are fortunate that we have two weeks until the next time we play,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday. “He’s going to be a little bit healthier than what he was obviously the other day.”
Sirianni said Hurts “came out sore, as expected.”
The 24-year-old Hurts — who is 17-1 in his last 18 regular-season starts — finished with 3,701 yards passing and 22 touchdowns along with 760 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns in his second season as a starter.
The Eagles started Hurts after they lost two straight games without him because a loss could have cost them the NFC East title and the top seed in the conference.
“We didn’t feel like we were putting him at any more risk of getting more injured, but we knew it was going to hurt him like hell, he knew it was going to hurt him like hell,” Sirianni said. “That’s the kind of player he is, that’s the kind of teammate he is. He fought through it because it was important for him to be out there. He knew how important it was for him and his teammates to be out there.”
The Eagles will have a game the weekend of Jan. 21-22 against the lowest remaining seed out of Tampa Bay, Dallas, New York or Seattle in the divisional round.
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