Jalen Hurts' Season Is Over After Blood Clots Are Found in His Lungs

Jalen Hurts' season is over — not because of a hit he took, but because of what doctors found in his lungs. The Philadelphia Eagles and Hurts' agent, Nicole Lynn, announced Monday that further testing on the quarterback's calf injury has produced a far more serious diagnosis: deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli — blood clots in both lungs. Hurts is clinically stable and, in the statement's words, has "no significant functional limitations." His prognosis is "very good," a full recovery is expected, and no long-term effects are anticipated. But the treatment — blood thinners — makes football impossible for as long as it lasts, and ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Monday that Hurts will miss the rest of the season.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the treatment is expected to take at least three months, which would carry Hurts into mid-January — past any realistic point in the Eagles' season. "During this time, he will not be allowed to participate in any contact activities, including football," the joint statement said. "We anticipate that he will have the opportunity to resume contact football activities when off the blood thinners. In the meantime, he will remain active around the team and continue to condition. More importantly, we anticipate that he will have no long-term effects."

How a calf injury became a season-ending diagnosis

The road here began on Oct. 4, when Hurts was cleated in the calf during a home loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He practiced in full the following week and first asked for treatment on Oct. 8. Out of what the team called "an abundance of caution," an ultrasound was performed in London on Oct. 10, after the Eagles' flight and walkthrough, and it revealed a superficial blood clot in his left calf. Specialists there and the Eagles' own medical staff concluded that activity and mobility were important and that Hurts could safely play, with a follow-up ultrasound recommended within 72 hours of the game and the flight home.

What happened next is the part of this story that will stay with people. According to Rapoport's reporting, Hurts spent the night before the Oct. 11 game against Jacksonville in a London hospital — until about 4 a.m. — and was advised not to sleep, because sleep itself was considered a risk. He played anyway, the entire game, in a 19–17 loss. "It was a very unique experience, to say the least," Hurts told reporters the following Wednesday. "I don't want to get into the details of kind of leading up to the game and whatnot, but got nicked up in the Rams game."

That Wednesday night, Oct. 14, the follow-up ultrasound showed movement in the clot. The Eagles ruled Hurts out against Carolina on Thursday and placed him on injured reserve on Saturday. Over the following days, what the team described as comprehensive medical evaluations by physician experts produced Monday's upgraded diagnosis, Reuters reported — the superficial calf clot was now understood to be something deeper and far more dangerous.

The football fallout: McKee, a 2–4 team, and no margin left

Tanner McKee is the Eagles' quarterback now. The backup made his first start of the season on Sunday against Carolina, and the Eagles lost 25–14 at home — their fourth straight defeat, dropping them to 2–4. NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that McKee will remain the starter going forward, and his next test is a large one: Dallas visits Philadelphia for a Monday night game in Week 7. Behind McKee, the Eagles have already added Joe Milton, signed off the Cowboys' practice squad as the depth chart thinned.

What Philadelphia loses is not easily replaced. Hurts, 28, had started the Eagles' first five games, throwing for 933 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions and rushing for 107 yards and a score in an offense that never quite found its rhythm. The larger record is the point: a 59–28 mark as a starter, 18,824 career passing yards, 3,661 rushing yards and 64 rushing touchdowns, three Pro Bowl selections and the MVP award from Super Bowl LIX, when he led the Eagles to a championship. Durability had been one of his defining traits — he appeared in 48 of a possible 51 games from 2023 to 2025 — which makes an absence measured in months, for a condition that has nothing to do with a tackle, all the harder to process.

The Eagles entered this season defending a Super Bowl title and chasing a sixth straight playoff appearance. Instead they sit at 2–4 in an NFC East that will not wait for them, with ten weeks to climb out behind a backup quarterback. None of that, the team has been careful to say all week, is the priority. "His health and safety are our highest priority," the Eagles said in their earlier statement, and Monday's update closed the same way: "We are thinking of Jalen and looking forward to a strong recovery."

For now, Hurts remains around the team at the NovaCare Complex, conditioning as his treatment allows. The football questions — McKee, the division, a season tilting sideways — will sort themselves out over the coming weeks. The only date that matters for Hurts is one his doctors control: the day the blood thinners end. Everything the Eagles said Monday suggests they expect him back on the other side of it, whole.

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