Without having all the facts at our disposal, the impression left by the fiasco surrounding Jalen Hurts’ blood clots, his ill-fated trip to London, and the confusing and ever-changing circumstances surrounding it all certainly suggests that the Eagles may have blown it.
While the narrative about how much sleep Jalen Hurts received before taking the field in England changes by the hour (he didn’t play in the game No sleep, but would have had a few hours just before the match), the situation still seems far from ideal. Hurts obviously wasn’t at peak rest and, in my mind, the decision to play him in this game remains very questionable.
Plus, these international matches are horrible. They have to stop. Playing soccer is dangerous and exhausting enough without having to force players to fly over an ocean for 5-6 hours, re-acclimatize their body clocks, and then risk their health. If a player suffers an injury serious enough that requires hospitalization, he must do so in a foreign country where it may not be safe for him to fly transcontinentally for a few days.
That’s probably what should have happened with Hurts, but that will be a matter for the league and NFLPA to resolve.
Nonetheless, here we all are, six weeks into a disastrous 2026 season that is over. There will be no playoffs and, even if the Eagles somehow win the NFC East with a losing record, another title is out of the question. Fans watch the remains of a Super Bowl champion roster crumble before their eyes, and it’s like we’re witnessing the end of an era.
The offensive line as we know it is gone. The wide receiver room is missing this game-changing superstar, even with DeVonta Smith in the lineup. Saquon Barkley can’t run behind that line and can’t stay healthy. Only RB4 remains. There is a tight end. The offensive coordinator seems overwhelmed. The defensive side of the ball is healthier, but not healthy. Vic Fangio will likely retire after this season, and who could blame him? What happens to the defense after he leaves?
It would be hard to imagine any head coach being able to maintain a winning record with all those injuries and an incomplete roster, and maybe that bought Nick Sirianni some time. Or maybe this will be an excuse for Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie to tear everything down and hire a head coach who can also be the team’s offensive coordinator and play-caller.
These are all fascinating questions that will be revealed in due time, but the most important of all is that of Jalen Hurts. And after that incident with the blood clots, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to envision a future with him under center in 2027.
It’s not because Hurts is a bad quarterback, because he clearly isn’t. But even when things looked most optimistic, there were questions about whether the Eagles would hitch their wagons to Hurts long-term after this season. Hurts’ contract extension only guarantees him $22 million after the 2026 season and serves as an off-ramp for the team to change direction at the position if it chooses.
The 2026 season was supposed to determine whether Hurts would be able to play well enough to continue in Sean Mannion’s offense. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen five weeks of inconsistent play, with Hurts struggling at times to string together practices with a roster plagued by injuries and a new offensive coordinator who’s still getting his feet wet.
And Hurts also played one of those games on four hours of sleep in another country after spending the previous night in the hospital due to blood clot issues.
It’s virtually impossible to judge anything about Hurts’ future based on what happened on the field, so Roseman and Lurie will have to make a decision on Hurts’ future based on the circumstances the team is facing as well as the money involved.
With Tanner McKee at center for the rest of the game, it’s likely the Eagles finish with a top-10 pick. Roseman is likely to start trading veterans at the NFL trade deadline to accumulate more picks. In some ways, Hurts’ situation will make Roseman’s decision at the trade deadline much easier than it otherwise would have been.
Saquon Barkley, Riq Woolen, Dallas Goedert, Landon Dickerson and Nolan Smith should all be dealt. The Eagles could accumulate enough draft capital in this year’s and next year’s drafts to do whatever they want next April. He is also seen as a solid draft class at the quarterback position.
The opportunity for Roseman to grab a cost-controlled signal-caller who can function better in the type of offense the Eagles want to run may be too good an opportunity to pass up.
But first, the Eagles must decide what they want to be. Do they want their offense to look like a Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan type offense? If so, do they think Mannion and Sirianni are a good combination to build an offense like that? Is it too hard to convince someone to create and run an offense with Sirianni as the CEO’s head coach? This certainly seemed to be an issue last offseason, as several experienced offensive coordinators turned down the Eagles job.
Perhaps the easiest, cleanest way to get the Eagles back on track would be to get rid of everyone, cut the coaching staff and roster, and retool. With a ton of draft picks, the Eagles could rebuild their lines and get a new QB fairly quickly. A new head coach/offensive coordinator would be able to identify the QB he believes would be best suited to lead his offense and work to build a new program, starting in 2027.
Unfortunately, that would mean Jalen Hurts would be traded this offseason. Make no mistake, Hurts is the best quarterback in franchise history. It would be very interesting to see how things would go if Sirianni was gone and an offensive-minded head coach was brought in who would tailor an offense around Hurts’ strengths. But it would also force Hurts to run the ball more often than he has, and if he decides he’s no longer a running QB, then Hurts’ value as a franchise player drops significantly.
We also have to wonder if Hurts has lost faith in the organization. and how they handled things in London. Sirianni was left in the lurch by Roseman and Lurie during his Monday press conference, forced to dance around questions regarding the process that took place. This was bad public relations and made Sirianni feel like the team was withholding information, although one could assume that the ambiguity was created to avoid making statements that could be used against the team in a potential lawsuit and also to protect Hurts’ rights to medical privacy.
So we’re left to speculate and guess, and from the outside it looks like this was handled very poorly. This makes it seem like the team is prioritizing getting Hurts back on the field rather than being conservative and making his personal health the No. 1 priority.
Again, this is just speculation, but it’s only an appearance. And if all of this is true, does Hurts even want to become an Eagle moving forward?
There are so many decisions that will have to be made after these next 11 games are over.
Do the Eagles get rid of all the coaches and start over with a coaching structure that makes more sense? Is Fangio coming back, and if not, what does that mean for the defense? Which players will be dealt at the trade deadline?
But the most important thing will be… Is Jalen Hurts still the Philadelphia Eagles franchise quarterback?
Right now, it’s increasingly difficult to see how this will play out in the first week of 2027.
Gn sports
