Julian Love on Jalen Hurts' shoulder: 'We’re definitely going to test him out'

[time2rock]

Julian Love on Jalen Hurts' shoulder: 'We’re definitely going to test him out'

There’s plenty of trepidation around Jalen Hurts' health, and it appears the Giants’ defensive gameplan, unsurprisingly, could be tailored around that.

The Eagles quarterback dealt with a sprained SC joint in his shoulder susatained in Week 15. He missed two games with that injury, but did play in the regular season finale against New York. He'll play in the divisional round tilt against the Giants on Saturday, but there remains plenty of doubt about how close he is to 100 percent.

A quarterback with a banged up shoulder who rushes with the ball often is a potentially dangerous combination – one that any defensive coordinator would key in on. Giants safety Julian Love was asked Thursday in his weekly appearance on "Tiki and Tierney” if he is convinced Hurts is fully healthy.

"You never know with stuff like that," Love said. "Obviously, we’re all competitors and no matter how dinged up we are, in this situation, you want to be the guy to go. But we’re definitely going to test him out and see how good he’s actually feeling. He makes their offense go, he’s a talented player, like you said he’s been playing at an MVP pace all year, and he’s gonna have to earn it. That’s as simple as I can put it.

"Whether he’s hurt or not, whether he’s feeling it or not, he’s going to have to earn everything he gets because that’s our approach going into this week.”

Love made sure to clarify that they weren’t intending to do anything reckless. Although hitting the shoulder might be the objective at times, it’s certainly not something worth forcing – especially with someone who can be as elusive with the ball as Hurts.

"I’ve got to preface this, of course. You know me. We’re not trying to intentionally target or injure him or hurt him or anything like that, but you’ve got to play a physical game,” Love said. "The best way to put it is he runs like a running back. When he has the ball in his hands, he’s a running back at that point, so we’ve got to tackle him like a running back.

"Take that for what it is, once he takes off he’s not a quarterback anymore, he’s a ball-carrier, and we have to tackle him as such. That’s how we have to play.”

Hurts -- who has said he's not worried about his shoulder getting targeted -- was removed from the injury report Tuesday.

https://www.audacy.com/national/sports/love-on-hurts-shoulder-were-going-to-test-him-out

[Portyansky]

I can see a few late hit penalties on Hurts future tonight. I just hope he gets up and shrugs it off like he did in Chic. And obviously doesn't further injur it.

[time2rock]

Hurts responds:

Quote

Hurts not concerned Giants will target shoulder

 

Just because the Eagles removed Jalen Hurts from the injury report this week — an undoubtedly good sign — it doesn’t mean that his right shoulder will be 100 percent on Saturday night.

The Giants will know that too.

But Hurts isn’t too concerned by the thought that the Giants might target that shoulder either.

"It’s football,” Hurts said on Tuesday. "I got a bounty on me every week I go out there on the field. So I’m going to go out there and play my game. Whatever happens, happens.”

Hurts, 24, spoke to reporters a couple hours before the Eagles’ first injury report of the week was released. Hurts was omitted from that report, meaning he’ll be a full participant in practice.

But even before Tuesday’s walkthrough, Hurts was clearly over talking about the SC joint sprain that kept him out two weeks and limited his ability and the Eagles’ game plan in the Week 18 win over the Giants to earn the No. 1 seed.

How was Hurts feeling on Tuesday?

"Feeling good,” he said.

Did he have a sense of how much the week of rest would help the shoulder?

"I don’t,” he answered.

What does it take from a mental standpoint to play through an injury?

"Get it done,” he declared.

That’s the way most of the injury questions with Hurts went on Tuesday and you can certainly understand why. He’s about to play in his second NFL playoff game and he’d rather the focus be on the Giants, the obstacle in front of his first trip to the NFC Championship Game.

But Hurts did elaborate on the "bounty” comment, saying, "Obviously the quarterback gets a lot of attention. I think every quarterback in the league has a bounty on him in a sense to stop him.”

In the Week 18 game between the Eagles and Giants, the Eagles had a pretty vanilla game plan that was clearly in place to protect Hurts out of precaution. That can’t be their game plan in the playoffs. And Hurts also went to great lengths to protect himself in that game, getting down, getting the ball out of his hands and going out of bounds. Hurts should still protect himself on Saturday but in a win-or-go-home game, he likely won’t hold back.

Hurts on Tuesday spoke with intense focus warranted by the situation but claimed he’s trying to keep the preparation the same. The Eagles won 14 games in the regular season doing what they do.

"I think regardless of the magnitude of the game publicly, we know what we worked for,” Hurts said. "We know that we put ourselves in this position by what we did all season, the consistency we had all season, the focus we had all season, the preparation and the work we put in all season and before the season started in the offseason. I don’t think anything changes in terms of the process. The process remains the same throughout everything but the standard rises.”

Hurts is obviously a different player than he was in the playoffs last season when the Eagles were bounced in the Wild Card round by the Buccaneers.

The Bucs blitzed the heck out of Hurts in that game a little over a year ago and the young quarterback didn’t handle it well. That loss left a bad taste in his mouth that fueled his offseason.

This season, Hurts has been tremendous and put himself on a list of legitimate MVP candidates. He missed two games and still managed to throw for 3,701 yards, rush for another 760 and finished with 35 total touchdowns.

The loss last year and the experience of going through it with his teammates means a lot to the Eagles’ quarterback.

"We have everything in front of us and we’re just taking it day by day, like I said,” Hurts aid. "But there’s a ton that we’ve endured and experienced and have gone through to be here to have this opportunity now. So we’re going to do what we’ve been doing, trying to stay true to ourselves and our process and our grind and the hustle that we put in day and day out. Go leave it all out there on the field and see what result comes.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-jalen-hurts-not-concerned-giants-will-target-shoulder

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I'm definitely a little worried that they go after that shoulder. One dirty hit could put him out and that may be a price the Giants are happy to pay...