Nick Sirianni: Jalen Hurts’ shoulder ‘hurt like hell’ after Giants game; Josh Sweat could return for playoffs

Jalen Hurts began his playoff preparation still nursing a sore right shoulder, according to Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.

The Eagles quarterback returned for the team’s 22-16 win over the New York Giants on Sunday after missing two games with a sprained sternoclavicular joint in his throwing shoulder. Hurts’ throwing motion wasn’t noticeably impacted by the injury, but his aversion to taking hits or putting himself at risk was apparent.

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During his Tuesday news conference, Sirianni said Hurts left the game “sore,” but noted that the quarterback wasn’t at great risk of aggravating the injury.

“He came out of that game sore because it’s still healing,” Sirianni said. “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 and he knew it was going to hurt him like hell. But that’s the kind of player he is, it’s the kind of teammate he is: He fought through it because it was important to him to be out there.”

Hurts went 20-for-35 for 229 yards and an interception against a Giants team resting a handful of key defensive starters. He had nine rushing attempts for just 13 yards, but he finished most of them by either running out of bounds or sliding to avoid hits.

When asked about the condition of his shoulder postgame, Hurts said it was “good enough” to beat the Giants. Doing so clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a first-round bye for this weekend’s wild-card round, which will give Hurts even more time to recover from the sprain he suffered on Dec. 18 against the Chicago Bears.

It’s important to clarify that Sirianni declined to say whether Hurts is expected to experience discomfort in his shoulder for the rest of the playoffs, just that the extra time off will be helpful for the 24-year-old’s recovery.

“I’m not sure I can answer that question,” Sirianni said. “We are fortunate that we have two weeks until the next time we play. He’s going to be a little bit more healthy than he was.”

Edge rusher Josh Sweat has a good chance of returning for the divisional round of the playoffs.

Sweat missed the Giants game with a neck injury suffered the weekend before that led to him being carted off the field on a stretcher. Sirianni said that Sweat was held out Sunday for precautionary reasons, but that he is “trending in the right direction.”

“We felt like it wasn’t in his best interest to play last week, health-wise,” Sirianni said. “Are we hopeful that he’ll play in two weeks? Yeah. I don’t want to say, ‘Yes, he’s going to play.’ We’re really hopeful and we really feel good that he will, but anything can happen. We know he’s trending in the right direction of getting healthy.”