The Philadelphia Eagles may not have Jalen Hurts available for Sunday's game against the New York Jets, as the starting quarterback is battling a sore ankle suffered in a Week 12 loss to the New York Giants. Coach Nick Sirianni said he'll provide an update on Hurts later in the week, but offensive coordinator Shane Steichen revealed Tuesday the team is preparing Gardner Minshew to start in case Hurts is unable to go.
"That's stuff we talk about," Steichen said. "Obviously, we're going through that process right now with Jalen. We're working through that right now."
Philadelphia does have its bye coming up next week, so giving Hurts a week to heal up that ankle for the stretch run is an option. Of course, Hurts is coming off his worst game of the year as he finished 14 of 31 for 129 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions for a 17.1 passer rating in a 13-7 loss to the Giants.
Hurts also had eight carries for 77 yards in the loss, but the injured ankle could affect his ability to run the football -- which is where putting Minshew in comes into effect.
"We're going to run what we run, and I think we've got to 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."
The Eagles have struggled throwing the ball over the past month, yet have rushed for 175-plus yards in five consecutive games and 200-plus yards in the last three games. Philadelphia is first in the NFL in rushing (157.9 yards per game) and second in the league with 18 rushing touchdowns. Hurts has been a major factor in the success of the run game, leading the Eagles with 695 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns.
Throwing the ball? Hurts has completed 60.1% of his passes for 2,435 yards with 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions (83.9 rating). Of 34 qualified quarterbacks, Hurts is 28th in completion percentage, 23rd in touchdown percentage (3.7%), 18th in interception percentage (2.3%), 23rd in yards per attempt (6.9), and 28th in passer rating.
The coaching staff still remains committed to Hurts, even if the outside noise wants a quarterback competition to brew.
"He's been playing really good football. Obviously, last week wasn't his best, and he knows that,' Steichen said. "We've got to do a better job as coaches helping him there. We get those corrections made yesterday, and then we go from there and get it corrected this week going forward."
