Published October 18, 2026 09:14 AM
Saturday morning arrived with an ESPN report from its top two insiders regarding the Eagles having no intent to place quarterback Jalen Hurts on IR. Per the article from Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport (who in recent months have morphed from Batman and the Joker into Batman and Robin), the Eagles have “not even discussed the possibility of injured reserve.”
Then came 4:00 p.m. ET and the deadline for locking the roster for Week 6. Hurts was placed on injured reserve.
It’s unclear what happened between Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. One more-than-plausible explanation is that the Eagles and Hurts received more medical information, and a possibility that supposedly wasn’t even on the radar screen suddenly became the obviously correct destination. The Saturday morning report, however, points to a possible disconnect within the organization as to how the Hurts situation should be handled.
Beyond the odd notion that the Eagles hadn’t even considered the possibility of placing a player taking blood thinners to resolve a blood clot on IR, the original article carried hints that the Eagles and Hurts weren’t on the same page.
“The ultimate decision about when Hurts returns to play will come from his medical team, and the Eagles are ready to follow his lead,” the Saturday morning ESPN report explained. The article also suggested that “some around the team might consider Hurts week-to-week,” hours before Hurts was shelved for at least four weeks.
Perhaps the team was still tiptoeing around acknowledging the severity of the situation, given that it allowed him to play last Sunday in London with a blood clot in his leg — and in light of the barest of bare bones disclosure to the public about Hurts’s true health condition. Indeed, it’s fair to wonder whether the Eagles (and the league) allowed Hurts to play with a blood clot in order to avoid the P.R. mess that would have unfolded if a player who had fully participated in practice all week, who had no injury designation for the game, and who was never downgraded to questionable once the clot was discovered was suddenly scratched from the active roster.
Regardless, the Saturday morning report from ESPN conflicts so sharply with the Saturday afternoon roster move that it invites outsiders to conclude that the team wants everyone to know that the decision to not play Hurts was made by Hurts and his doctors and not by the team.
Either way, Hurts is out for at least the next four games. And possibly longer. The full extent of the absence depends on how long it takes for the clot to be cleared by blood thinners, and whether the situation further deteriorates.
The overriding point is that Hurts has a potentially serious health condition. He was nevertheless permitted to play an entire game with it one week ago. More recently, the team (per the ESPN report) hadn’t even entertained the idea of giving him four games to heal.
Whether intended or not, the reporting and the ensuing about-face will make some think the Eagles and Hurts had different ideas on how to best proceed.