Jalen Hurts or Gardner Minshew? That’s the question Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni must answer ahead of his team’s pivotal Week 17 game with the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Hurts is dealing with a sprained throwing shoulder, which put Minshew in the lineup last week against the Dallas Cowboys — a game the Eagles lost, just their second defeat all season. So who is it going to be on Sunday?
“We’re still sorting through that,” Sirianni told Philadelphia media before their Friday practice session, declining to name a starter. He went on, “Obviously Jalen had a good practice yesterday and went out and looked like he did some things really well. So still going to sort through all those things. Haven’t decided anything yet.”
We probably shouldn’t expect him to share big news like that until he has to. There’s a strategic advantage in making the Saints wait until the last minute to know which passer they’ll be playing against. And, frankly, the Eagles could probably beat New Orleans with either of them.
Philadelphia scored 34 points on the Cowboys last week, though they were helped by an interception returned for a touchdown by Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat. So even the 27 points scored by their Minshew-led offense outperforms the 20.2 points per game New Orleans is averaging this year — and that’s a points total the Saints have met or exceed just once in their last eight games. Odds are either Minshew or Hurts could put more points on the board than Andy Dalton and his motley crew can match.
But we’ll see. Maybe the Saints catch a break for once. Hurts practiced on a limited basis Thursday and was active again on Friday, but that’s not enough to glean anything for his status on Sunday. It was reported last week that the Eagles would have rested him for this game had they knocked off the Cowboys, securing the NFC’s top playoff seed, so maybe they’ll get him out there with so much on the line. Stay tuned.
