Jalen Hurts is expected to be the starting quarterback for the Eagles in 2022. Before setting his sights on offseason improvement, though, he is having surgery on his injured ankle, according NFL.com’s Kevin Patra.
Hurts initially wanted to avoid the procedure, but not long after he was seen in a walking boot following the team’s playoff loss, surgery was agreed upon as necessary. He injured his left ankle in the team’s Week 12 loss to the Giants, which caused him to miss the following game. While that was his only injury-related absence this season, it affected his mobility throughout the latter stages of the campaign.
As ESPN’s Tim McManus writes, Hurts was up-front in acknowledging the injury.
“Clearly, I’ve been battling little issues with my ankle” he said after the team’s 31-15 wild-card loss to the Buccaneers. “For the last part of the season whenever I came back after the injury, our offense kind of changed a bit. I wasn’t running as much. I wasn’t doing those things as much simply because I wasn’t able to get freaky like usual.”
The 23-year old finished the season with 3,144 yards and 16 touchdowns through the air, along with 784 yards and 10 TDs on the ground – both of which ranked first in the league among quarterbacks. His overall performance led the Eagles to publicly commit to him moving forward, though some feel they could still make a move (perhaps with some or all of the three first-round picks they currently own in the upcoming draft) for a more proven signal caller.
Hurts is expected to make a full recovery in time for the team’s training program in April, setting him up for a second season as the team’s starter.
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