Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (concussion) missed practice on Thursday and his status for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys is very much in question.
Meanwhile, backup quarterback Kenny Pickett (ribs) was practicing as a full participant with some extra padding around his midsection.
Here’s the full injury report from Thursday:
Eagles injury report today:
Did not participate: QB Jalen Hurts (concussion), RB Will Shipley (concussion)
Limited: LB Nakobe Dean (abdomen), DE Josh Sweat (ankle, rest), WR A.J. Brown (knee, rest)
Full: QB Kenny Pickett (ribs), WR Britain Covey (neck), DE Bryce Huff (wrist), RB Saquon Barkley (rest), G Mekhi Becton (rest), G Landon Dickerson (rest), T Lane Johnson (rest), CB Darius Slay (rest)
NFL
While the Eagles will probably be without their starting quarterback on Sunday, the Cowboys will be without their star receiver CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys on Thursday ruled out Lamb for the final two games of the 2024 season.
Thursday’s practice was the Eagles’ first practice of the week. They held a walkthrough on Tuesday and had a day off on Wednesday for Christmas. Despite the day off, the Eagles had to put out an estimated injury report Wednesday. On that estimated report, Hurts was listed as a non-participant, while Pickett was listed as limited.
Earlier in the day, Nick Sirianni was extremely evasive when asked multiple times about the status of his top two quarterbacks.
“We got a plan of what we want to do,” Sirianni said, “and we’ll see how today goes and how warmups go and how individual goes and then into 7-on-7 and team.”
The Eagles’ head coach allowed that some of the evasiveness was because they still don’t know enough information but some of it was in the name of competitive advantage.
Hurts suffered his concussion in the first quarter of the Eagles’ loss to the Commanders on Sunday in Washington. He tried to remain in the game but was checked out and then eventually ruled out. He remains in the concussion protocol.
Pickett after Thursday’s practice said he’ll be ready to play on Sunday. And the Eagles are clearly preparing for Pickett to start.
Against the Commanders, Pickett completed 14 of 24 passes for 143 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. The Eagles had to settle for four second-half field goals as the Commanders came back and won the game.
The last time a different quarterback other than Hurts started a regular season game for the Eagles was late in the 2022 regular season when Gardner Minshew lost back-to-back games to the Cowboys and Saints.
On Thursday morning, the Eagles brought back quarterback Ian Book to the practice squad as some insurance at the position. Book was with the Eagles in 2022. He will be behind Tanner McKee on the Eagles’ depth chart. McKee has been the Eagles’ third-stringer since he was drafted last year in the sixth round. While McKee has not played in a regular season game, he had a strong training camp this summer.
It was a good sign that Dean (abdomen) was a limited participant after starting the week as a DNP. Sweat (ankle) and A.J. Brown (knee) were on the report for rest on Wednesday but were both limited on Thursday with injuries. This happened with Brown last week as well.
