To say the 2026 NFL season has been unkind to the Philadelphia Eagles would be the understatement of the year.
The Eagles are currently one of the most injured teams in the NFL, down to their fourth-string running back after losing Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby and Will Shipley. Carson Steele, their fourth-string, in a cruel twist of fate, suffered an injury to his right shoulder in their most recent game against the Carolina Panthers. It is further compounded by six-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion right tackle Lane Johnson announcing his retirement from the NFL on October 6th, and two-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion center Cam Jurgens being traded away to the Baltimore Ravens. Left tackle Jordon Mailata called it the “week from hell” following their loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars, hosted in London, England, on October 11. It was about to get so much worse.
On Oct. 15, the Eagles released a statement saying that their 28-year-old quarterback and 2025 Super Bowl MVP, Jalen Hurts, would be placed on injured reserve (IR), requiring him not to play the next four games, including the next one against the Panthers. The reason? A superficial blood clot.
For some context, a blood clot is a mass of platelets and fibrin that forms to stop bleeding after an injury, and if it fails to dissolve, they block blood vessels. In turn, this causes conditions like deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE) and can also lead to strokes or heart attacks. Hurts, according to a statement released on Oct. 19, was diagnosed with DVT and PE and the clot had moved into both of his lungs after initially being found in his leg. In the same statement, it was announced he would miss the rest of the 2026 season while on blood-thinning medication.
Now here’s where I find this story to get crazy. The blood clot was not found after the team flew home from London, but on Oct. 10, according to Netflix football reporter Tom Pelissero, which was the day before the game against Jacksonville. Movement while having a blood clot is important to keep the blood flowing, and I think it was very important in Hurts’ case since he was on a nearly seven-hour flight to London.
From ESPN, Hurts was also up until 3:00 a.m. at the hospital and slept until around 10:30 a.m. when they headed to the stadium, where he napped further before pre-game warmup. I don’t know when Hurts actually went to sleep, but regardless, seven hours is not enough for an NFL quarterback. It gets worse, just from two seconds of thinking. The Eagles let him get back on the plane back to the United States, an almost seven-hour flight. Even worse, the medical staff allowed him to play in the actual football game, something a quick Google search would tell you not to do if you have a blood clot. The latter is something I find egregious and hope something will be done about it.
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I myself feel like there are a lot of unanswered questions that come with this whole event, especially the decision to keep him in the hospital with the game in the morning and putting him on the immediate flight back to the United States. As of Oct. 20, according to The Athletic, the NFL found that the situation was “handled appropriately,” and it’s clear the league won’t be handing out punishments.
News is still coming out; most recently, the NFL Players Association issued a statement calling for an investigation into the medical care that was provided to Hurts, a sentiment I agree with since the Eagles and NFL seem happy enough to let it all go away.
As for Hurts himself, he is stable and the previously mentioned blood-thinners treatment will likely keep him from playing the rest of the season, which I find unfortunate considering the other injuries the Eagles (2-3) are currently dealing with. Tanner McKee will be the starter in his place, with their next game being Oct. 26 on Monday Night Football against the divisional rival Dallas Cowboys.
For the game against Dallas, which ended in a 38-21 loss, injuries hampered the offense as a whole. Both starting wide receivers Devonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks were out. The good news was that Saquon Barkley was activated for the game and had a solid opening drive that led to his first rushing touchdown of the season. Even so, it was very obvious he was playing through pain, as he spent time in the medical tent and hobbled a lot. He still led the team with 62 rushing yards, but did not return in the fourth quarter with a back injury.
For the backup quarterback, Tanner McKee had 211 yards and a touchdown, a serviceable job that kept Philadelphia in the game up until the end of the fourth, when he threw an interception and failed to convert a 4th and 9 on their own 17-yard line with less than five minutes left in the game. I personally don’t see this team making the playoffs this year, considering the injuries and Hurts not coming back until at least 2027, but the best case would be improving their record to something more respectable before the end of the season.
Nathan Eliopoulos can be contacted at
neliopoulos@kscequinox.com
