When the Philadelphia Eagles drafted Jalen Hurts in the second round in 2020, a lot of fans were stunned. The team had given Carson Wentz a big contract the year before, and nobody saw a quarterback change coming. Hurts took the job and became one of the league’s top young passers, led the Eagles to a Super Bowl win, and signed a five-year, $255 million extension that runs through 2028.

So it looked like business as usual when he played all 62 offensive snaps in London on October 11 and completed 21 of 40 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown in a 19-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. What the crowd could not see was that doctors had found a superficial blood clot in his left calf the day before, and the NFL has now looked into that decision. 

“NFL won’t issue any punishment to Eagles for handling of Jalen Hurts’ superficial blood clot, per @jjones9,” shared Underdog NFL on X. 

The post pointed to a report from Jonathan Jones of The Athletic, in which an anonymous source said the process that cleared Hurts to play was “handled appropriately,” and the league found no violation of its injury-report policy either.

On Monday, nine days after the clot was discovered, the Eagles announced Hurts would miss the rest of the 2026 season.

To see how the Eagles got there, we need to go back to Week 4. Philadelphia lost 24-20 to the Los Angeles Rams, and Hurts was cleated in the calf. He told the medical staff on October 8 that he had been cleated during the Rams game. The next day, he practiced in full and was listed on the injury report as a full participant. Then the team flew to London as part of the 2026 NFL International Series. 

After a walkthrough on Saturday, an ultrasound found a superficial blood clot. The Eagles said the scan was done “out of an abundance of caution.” Their medical staff and doctors in London agreed that activity and mobility were important and that Hurts could safely play. But they asked for a follow-up scan within 72 hours of the game and the return flight.

That scan came on October 14 and showed movement in the clot, so Hurts was ruled out of the Carolina game and placed on injured reserve on October 17. The Panthers beat the Eagles 25-14 the very next day, without him. 

Later, the Eagles and his agent, Nicole Lynn, announced that he had deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli and would miss the rest of the season. That is why the clearance drew so much attention. 

As for why there was no penalty, The Athletic reported that the league decided the Eagles did not break injury-report rules by leaving Hurts without an injury designation before the Jaguars game. 

The reasoning was simple: Philadelphia expected him to take his normal workload as the starting quarterback, so the team saw no reason to change his status. The source added that the NFL stayed in regular contact with the Eagles and their medical staff.

In usual circumstances, however, the league does punish teams for getting these designations wrong. In October 2025, it fined the Baltimore Ravens $100,000 for incorrectly listing Lamar Jackson’s practice participation before a Week 8 game against the Chicago Bears. 

Jackson had a hamstring injury and worked as the scout-team quarterback, yet Baltimore first listed him as a full participant. League rules required a limited tag because the injury kept him from taking his normal starting-quarterback reps. The NFL called it negligence, and the Ravens did not appeal.

Jalen Hurts’ Recovery and What Comes Next

The October 19 statement from the Eagles and Lynn said Hurts is clinically stable with no significant functional limitations. He is on blood thinners and cannot take part in contact activities. The team and his agent expect a full recovery with no long-term effects. 

The statement said he should get the chance to resume contact football once he is off blood thinners, but it gave no return date. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that he is expected to miss the rest of the season.

During the Monday presser, when asked whether the team could have handled things differently, head coach Nick Sirianni leaned on the medical staff but did not say who made the final call to clear Hurts.

“I’m a football coach. I lean on our medical experts in every situation. I have full trust and full faith in them,” Sirianni told the reporters. “The health of our players is always at the forefront of our minds, and we leave that up to the medical experts, but we always, always care deeply about our players.”

One detail that spread was that Hurts had been told to stay awake for 36 hours because of the clot. The Athletic’s report says otherwise. Players and staff were told to try to stay awake to match Eastern Time, but the league source said Hurts was not told to do so because of his condition. 

He reportedly returned to the team hotel around 2:45 a.m. local time on Sunday, slept until about 10 a.m., and took a nap at the stadium before the game.

So, the NFL decided not to punish the Eagles, and Hurts is sidelined for the season. Next, the Eagles, now 2-4, host the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football on October 26.