What they're saying: Can Jalen Hurts still win MVP? Will there be a Gardner Minshrew dropoff?

The calmness and optimism of Eagles fans, and more than a few fantasy football managers was shaken Monday afternoon, when it was revealed that MVP front-runner Jalen Hurts got shoulder X-Rays following the Birds' win in Chicago and that his status for a Week 16 showdown in Dallas is in doubt.

What does that mean for the Eagles' playoff chances? Can they rely on their backup against the Cowboys? Will this cost Hurts his MVP chance? Are the Eagles themselves to blame for his injury?

All of these questions will be asked on every sports radio show this week, and they're already being written about all across the internet.

Here's a look at some of the takes you should see, in our latest what they're saying about the Eagles:

It's wide open now

Larry Holder | The Athletic

After becoming a two-man race between Patrick Mahomes and Hurts for NFL MVP, a two-interception outing against the Bears paired with the reported shoulder injury has the field wide open for the coveted award right now.

Here's the latest odds via BetMGM:

Player	MVP odds
Patrick Mahomes	-275
Jalen Hurts	+450
Joe Burrow	+600
Josh Allen	+600

Here's what they said over at The Athletic about the field opening up on the MVP front:

Philadelphia’s quarterback produced his worst passer rating of the 2022 season against Chicago with a 64.6 rate with two interceptions and a 59.5 completion percentage. The Eagles quarterback has only thrown three interceptions in the first 13 games. But Hurts displayed his multi-faceted game as he rushed for three touchdowns (all of the team’s Week 15 TDs) as the Eagles moved to 13-1 with a 25-20 win over the Bears. After Hurts’ shoulder injury, he managed a 68-yard deep pass play to A.J. Brown and his third rushing TD on the next drive in the fourth quarter.
Hurts fell to fourth in overall passer rating after Week 15 at 104.6 after leading the league after Week 14. But Hurts has also jumped to second place with 13 rushing TDs. Only the Lions’ Jamaal Williams has more with 14 TDs.
The Eagles will head to Dallas to take on the Cowboys in Week 16. But if the Eagles park Hurts for the rest of the regular season, there’s zero doubt it moves Mahomes back as the favorite and could bring a couple of others into play.
Hurts started as a -145 favorite Monday morning. The odds shifted quickly once bettors caught wind of the injury. [The Athletic]

Still the MVP

Peter Schrager | NFL Network

For those hoping Hurts could end the Birds'... extremely long streak without an MVP, there is still a chance. And if you ask NFL Network's Peter Schrager, depending on what happens next, Hurts still could be the guy.

After all, the Eagles were going to in all likelihood rest their starters in some capacity over the next three games anyway, as they are one win, or one loss apiece from the Vikings, Niners and Cowboys away from clinching a first round bye.

Dream on...

Kyle Madson | Ninerswire

Let's go to San Francisco, where the Brock Purdy-led 49ers are gunning for a Super Bowl. Word of Hurts' relatively minor shoulder injury leaked out Monday night and hardcore fans of the NFC West champs couldn't help but ponder an extremely unlikely scenario:

However, this makes things at least a little bit interesting since the 49ers to this point have clinched at least the No. 3 seed and they hold the tiebreaker over the Vikings for the No. 2 seed if they manage to pick up a game on Minnesota over the final three weeks.
The No. 1 seed has been considered off the table with Hurts and the Eagles playing as well as they have all year. Now it’s on the table for at least a week, and will remain on the table as long as Minshew starts.
Philadelphia visits the Cowboys on Christmas Eve, then they host a pesky Saints club before closing their season with an NFC East showdown at home against the Giants.
In the event the Eagles do lose out, the 49ers would also need to win out and get at least one loss from the Vikings. It’s a tall task, but it’s just a little bit shorter for as long as Hurts is out. [Ninerswire]

Minshew's time to shine

Jori Epstein | Yahoo!

It's finally time to turn to Gardner Minshew, who'll be the man under center if Hurts sits out this coming Saturday. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy says Dallas will need to be prepared for both quarterbacks, but they are breathing a sigh of relief that their questionable run defense could get a bit of a respite in Week 16. After all, Hurts has 13 rushing touchdowns this season and he is the engine that makes the Eagles' high powered run game go. Will there be a big drop off with Minshew calling the shots?

...The 2019 sixth-round draft pick brings 30 games’ experience and 22 starts to the line. He has won eight of those, including one of two starts in two seasons with Philadelphia.

The Cowboys, McCarthy said, will “be ready for both quarterbacks.”
...
The divergence is highly relevant for a Cowboys team that just allowed 192 rushing yards in a 40-34 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Our run defense will be the first area that’s under attack each and every week,” McCarthy said. “You look at the games where things didn’t go as well as we’d like on defense, that’s been a consistent attacking point.”
Minshew is liable to use his legs occasionally, but his career high of 56 rushing yards (in 2019) and one career rushing touchdown don’t come anywhere near Hurts. [Yahoo!]

Passing drop off too?

EJ Smith | Inquirer.com

So the Eagles run game will look different without Hurts as a threat to rush the ball. But what about the pass game? With one of the best duos in the sport in DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown — plus the return of Dallas Goedert from his injury — the offense should have plenty of firepower to win on Christmas Eve, right?

Well, Minshew is a different kind of quarterback and there could be a dropoff in the pass game production too. The Inquirer's Smith broke it down this way:

How different will the Eagles offense look with Gardner Minshew at the controls? At least part of the story can be summed up by the tracking data.
Last season, Minshew’s average depth of target was just six yards on his 60 passing attempts, 3.5 yards shorter than Hurts’ that year. ADOT measures how far downfield a receiver is when a quarterback throws to them and can suggest how often a signal caller is settling for the short stuff rather than taking shots deep.
Among the 54 quarterbacks with at least 50 passing attempts, Minshew’s ADOT ranked 52nd. This is a small sample size, but the numbers track with Minshew’s time as a full-time starter with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019 and 2020. His 7.9-yard ADOT as a rookie ranked toward the bottom of the league. In 2020, he was middle-of-the-road with an 8.5-yard average.
In Layman’s terms: Minshew doesn’t throw deep as often as Hurts does. The 26-year-old is adept at hitting receivers on-time with accuracy on underneath routes and should be able to maintain a high completion percentage, but it might come at the expense of the one-on-one go balls Hurts has effectively thrown this season. [Inquirer.com]

The blame game

Nick Faria | Philly Sports Network

And finally, in a violent league like the NFL — one that has expanded its slate to 17 games per season — was Hurts' injury preventable?

Chicago was basically a frozen tundra last Sunday, and the Bears defense should have been easy prey for the Eagles running attack. But for whatever reason, Nick Sirianni and company elected to be pass happy. They won the game, but they put their quarterback in danger.

If you want to assign blame to someone for Hurts’ injury, all you have to do is look at the box score. Against one of the worst run defenses in all of football, the Eagles ran Miles Sanders just 11 times. Runningbacks in total carried the ball just 14 times.
Jalen Hurts is a very good running quarterback, but he’s also shown exceptional growth as a passer. In short, the Eagles coaching staff hasn’t honored their quarterback to let him simply throw and let their running backs go on their own.
...
Hurts is also a prideful quarterback. He wants the ball in his hands at times and is willing to do whatever is necessary. It falls on the coaching staff to realize the context of the game and understand that running their MVP wasn’t such a good idea.
Instead, the Eagles coaches have sacrificed not only an MVP-caliber season from their quarterback but also potential games if Gardner Minshew can’t win over the next couple of weeks. [phillysportsnetwork.com]

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