Philadelphia's Season Ended in a Hospital Report: Hurts Out for the Year, and the 2-4 Eagles Still Have to Play On

The Eagles' Week 6 loss to Carolina was the kind of defeat that gets filed away as a bad afternoon. Monday's news made it irrelevant.

Philadelphia announced that Jalen Hurts has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli — blood clots in his leg and both lungs — and will not participate in football activities while being treated. Hurts was placed on injured reserve over the weekend. He is out for the remainder of the 2026 season. According to reporting, he is not expected to face long-term effects and should be able to return to football next season after rest and treatment.

That is the story of the week, and it is bigger than football. What's left behind is a 2-4 team that has lost four straight for the first time in Nick Sirianni's tenure, sits last in Earl's power rankings at a league-worst -13.9 rating, and now has to figure out what the next eleven weeks are even for.

How it got here, and how fast

The timeline moved quickly. Hurts was added to the injury report with a calf issue before Week 5 in London, played against Jacksonville anyway, and was ruled out for the Carolina game on Oct. 15 after a blood clot was discovered. By Monday, testing had revealed clots in his lungs. Reporting since has raised hard questions about whether he should have played — or flown — at all in Week 5, and an NFL Network analyst has already publicly apologized for comments made during the fallout. The Eagles' handling of the situation is going to be examined for a while, and appropriately so.

What's actually left on the field

Tanner McKee made his first meaningful NFL start Sunday and got a firsthand look at the problem. He completed 26 of 45 for 215 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, but The Athletic's account of the afternoon was blunt: he was under duress much of the day. The season-long numbers back that up. McKee has absorbed 16 sacks on 45 attempts — a 26.2 percent sack rate — and Philadelphia's offense is averaging 17.7 points and 273.5 yards per game with a -0.130 EPA per play.

The supporting cast is not coming to the rescue. Saquon Barkley, who has 182 rushing yards and no touchdowns on 36 carries this season, is out with a hamstring. Will Shipley (foot), Landon Dickerson (knee), Grant Calcaterra (back), Jalyx Hunt (knee) and Jakorian Bennett (knee) are all listed out. Earl's model already docks this roster 10.6 points for injuries, and that number was calculated before the quarterback situation became a season-long reality.

The depth chart tells the rest. The Eagles signed Joe Milton off Dallas' practice squad for insurance, with rookie Cole Payton behind him, after Andy Dalton — cut nine days earlier — declined an invitation to return. That is the quarterback room for a team that was in the Super Bowl conversation in August.

Dallas on Monday, and what it means

The Cowboys come to Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night at 2-4, but they arrive with the functioning offense: 25.2 points and 349.2 yards per game, against Philadelphia's 17.7 and 273.5. The market has opened with Dallas as a 4.5-point favorite and an implied win probability north of 68 percent, which is a fair reflection of a team with a quarterback versus a team without one.

For the Eagles, the questions are no longer about a division race they trail by a game and a half. They're about whether McKee can survive behind a line missing Dickerson, whether the run game exists without Barkley, and whether a defense allowing 22.8 points per game can hold up when the offense stops scoring. None of that is a comfortable place to be in Week 7 — and none of it is the most important thing that happened to this organization this week.