The two-time defending NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles (2-3) will be without face-of-the-franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts for Week 6 against the Carolina Panthers and possibly beyond.
Philadelphia announced an ultrasound on Hurts' calf following a flight back from their London game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5 revealed a superficial blood clot had moved. The Eagles ruled him out and said in a statement they are determining "the appropriate course of treatment" and that Hurts' "health and safety are our highest priority." There's a chance Philadelphia might be without its Super Bowl MVP-winning quarterback for the foreseeable future.
Some teams might take that as a sign to trade away pieces at the trade deadline to reload for 2027, but the Eagles can't do that and shouldn't do that. Philadelphia needs to stay the course and fight to compete in 2026. Here is a look at why, how that could look for the Eagles, what QB they could seek via trade and more.
Why the Eagles need to stay the course
The short answer as to why the Eagles need to continue their push to contend in 2026 is that they've invested too much money into their top-end talent. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made the following significant investments this offseason along the defensive line:
- He inked two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter to a four-year, $152 million extension with $106.85 million guaranteed.
- He extended former first-round pick defensive tackle Jordan Davis on a three-year, $78 million contract with $64.4 million guaranteed.
- He traded a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings for Pro Bowl edge rusher Jonathan Greenard and a 2026 seventh-round pick. Roseman then signed Greenard to a four-year, $98 million extension with $50 million guaranteed.
After Hurts' five-year, $255 million contract, these three defensive linemen are the Eagles' next three highest-paid players in terms of total contract value. The Eagles still have one of the more talented rosters in football, especially on defense with those three, former first-round pick edge rusher Nolan Smith Jr., All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun, former first-round pick linebacker Jihaad Campbell, All-Pro cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, All-Pro cornerback Cooper DeJean and Super Bowl champion cornerback Riq Woolen. Even though former NFL Offensive Player of the Year running back Saquon Barkley (hamstring) and wide receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring/toe) are battling injuries, they're two high-level playmakers when on the field.
This defense is talented enough to keep the Eagles in almost every game. Yes, it's felt like the sky is falling after consecutive losses to the Los Angeles Rams and the Jaguars, in which they blew the lead in the final two minutes. There's a world where they're just a couple plays away from being 4-1 instead of 2-3.
NFC East still up for grabs
This isn't a situation like the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025, who went 6-11 amid an up-and-down year that saw quarterback Patrick Mahomes go down with a torn ACL. The 2026 Eagles are a much more talented roster than those Chiefs, and their division is much, much worse.
Last season, the AFC West division champion Denver Broncos were the AFC's No. 1 seed with a 14-3 record. The Los Angeles Chargers gutted out an 11-6 Wild Card campaign with quarterback Justin Herbert playing the role of miracle worker behind a battered offensive line.
This season, no one seems to want to win the NFC East. Week 5 was a prime example of that. The Dallas Cowboys (2-3) lost 24-16 at home on "Thursday Night Football" to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie quarterback, making his second career start. Dallas has the NFL's 31st-ranked total defense (395.4 total yards per game allowed), last-place run defense (168.4 rushing yards per game allowed), and last-place third-down defense (52.6% third-down conversion rate allowed). If Daniels can march up and down the field on the Cowboys, so can Philadelphia.
The Eagles had the least embarrassing loss of the week, a 19-17 defeat against the AFC South-leading Jaguars despite kicking a go-ahead field goal with eight seconds left. People fault coach Nick Sirianni for having the kickoff go in bounds to drain time off the clock. The Jaguars returned the kick 53 yards to the Eagles' 39, which set up the game-winning, 57-yard field goal for Jacksonville.
The NFC East-leading New York Giants (3-1-1) tied 27-27 against the last-place Washington Commanders (1-3-1) even though both teams reached field-goal range in the last two minutes of overtime. New York is without quarterback Jaxson Dart and All-Pro edge rusher Brian Burns for the year because of season-ending knee injuries.
A path toward a third straight division title and a home playoff game in the opening round of the postseason is still well within reach.
Sirianni's standard is too high, and he needs to show he can adapt the offense
Sirianni's 67-33 career record, including the playoffs, is tied for the fifth-best record in the first 100 games by an NFL head coach since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, per CBS Sports Research. Philadelphia has made the playoffs every year under his watch, including winning the NFC twice and winning Super Bowl LIX.
After the current three-game losing streak the Eagles are on, which began with a lifeless "Monday Night Football" defeat to the Case Keenum-led Chicago Bears, Sirianni is under fire. His background is on the offensive side of the ball, but the Eagles are bottom 10 in the entire league in the following metrics: scoring offense (18.4 points per game, 29th), total offense (262.2 total yards per game, 31st) and rushing offense (91.6, tied for 23rd).
The problem appears to be that Sirianni isn't letting new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion fully implement his scheme. Mannion came to Philadelphia after spending last season as the Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach under Matt LaFleur. He also played for Sean McVay and the Rams and Kevin O'Connell and the Minnesota Vikings across his nine-season playing career.
Mannion is a branch off the Shanahan-McVay coaching tree, which tends to have offenses that display heavy doses of motion, quarterbacks lining up under center and play-action passing. The scheme wants the looks for runs and passes to appear the same to defenses. That way, the quarterback should be able to easily run a given play as called and then take advantage of a defense that can't tell what's coming.
In Mannion's offense under Sirianni, the Eagles are just average in motion rate (57.8%, 13th in the NFL) while ranking bottom-five in under-center rate (31.1%, 28th) and dead last in play-action rate (16.7%). Running the Shanahan-McVay offense without its core staples is like trying to play video games without plugging the console's HDMI cord into the TV: It's not going to work.
As odd as it may sound, losing Hurts and having a three-game losing streak (tied for the longest under Sirianni), may create the desperation necessary for Sirianni to let Mannion open up his entire playbook.
Eagles should peruse the QB trade market and/or ride with Tanner McKee
It certainly makes sense for Roseman to pick up the phone and call around the league to see what top-flight backup quarterbacks are up for grabs. The problem is that many of the NFL's more experienced backup quarterbacks play for fellow NFC contenders.
The 5-0 San Francisco 49ers likely won't trade Mac Jones to the Eagles. The same goes for the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings and former Philadelphia starter Carson Wentz, and the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (3-2) aren't shipping Drew Lock out east either. No way the Green Bay Packers (3-2) part with Tyrod Taylor to help out Philadelphia.
A realistic one-season target could be Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback Joe Flacco, an alum of Audubon High School just over seven miles down the road from Lincoln Financial Field (the home of the Eagles). Flacco is 41 years old, but the ex-Super Bowl MVP proved he can be a steady stand-in when needed. He exploded for 342 yards passing and three touchdowns on 31-of-47 passing in a 33-31 "Thursday Night Football" victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 7 last season. He followed up that effort by going toe-to-toe with Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears in Week 9, throwing for a career-high 470 yards, four passing touchdowns and two interceptions in a narrow defeat. He is very comfortable simply getting the ball to his playmakers and letting them do the rest at this age.
If Cincinnati won't part with its Joe Burrow injury insurance plan, then it's worth seeing what backup quarterback Tanner McKee can do. The 26-year-old sixth-round pick from the 2023 NFL Draft was a four-star recruit coming out of high school before a mission trip paused his football career for two years.
McKee only has two career starts, both in Week 18 of the last two seasons. At the end of the 2024 regular season, he completed 27 of his 41 throws for 269 yards and two touchdowns in a 20-13 win over the New York Giants. Last season, he struggled against Washington, completing just 21 of 40 throws for 241 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a 24-17 defeat.
With McKee, Flacco, or potentially another veteran at quarterback, the Eagles have enough high-end, highly-paid talent — along with sky-high expectations — for Philadelphia to continue its pursuit of a third straight NFC East division title. The rest of the division is practically daring the Eagles to come seize their crown. Whenever Hurts can return is a scenario to address when the team has more information. Until then, Philadelphia should remain full steam ahead in 2026.
Add CBS Sports on Google Join the Conversation comments
