In 2021 it was a sprained ankle late in the season that carried over into the Tampa playoff loss.
In 2022 a shoulder injury was the issue late in the season and into the playoffs, although the bye week before the Super Bowl did help.
And last year, it was … something lower leg-ish that the Eagles never revealed, but the eye test made it clear something was significantly affecting Hurts.
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Hurts has never been healthy going into the playoffs, and that’s why the team’s coaches and trainers devised a week-long lower-body strengthening program for Hurts during the mini-bye. And that’s why he was listed as limited at practice on Wednesday with a lingering ankle injury.
You can never eliminate the chance of an injury, but by getting Hurts in a better place physically now, maybe you can help his odds of being healthy - or close to it - going into the stretch run and postseason.
“Yeah, that's the goal always,” Hurts said. “Really, throughout the course of a year, just really making sure you're doing the things you need to do to stay on top of stuff and that's kind of what we're doing.
“A lot of other players are doing it as well, so just taking it a day at a time like everything.”
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Hurts missed two games near the end of 2022 and two more late in 2023, but he’s started 32 consecutive games since late in 2022, tied for the 4th-longest current streak by a quarterback, behind Josh Allen (110), Jared Goff (48) and Baker Mayfield (33).
When he’s healthy, the Eagles win nearly 70 percent of the time. They just have to keep him to the finish line of the regular season healthy.
“Yeah, I mean, I think everything is about that,” he said after practice Wednesday. “I think that's for all of us, too – the entire team - and being ready to go.
“At this point of the year, I think it's not about, I think it's necessarily about me, I think it's the mentality where we are. We're in a phase of the year where things could very easily (go bad). Well, it did (last year), it didn't end the way we wanted to. And so that's at the top of my (list) as we enter this phase and putting the emphasis on finishing strong, putting ourself in a good place.”
Hurts didn’t get into detail on the strengthening routine he was given over the past week, but the Eagles were off from last Friday – the day after the Washington game – until they returned to the NovaCare Complex for practice on Wednesday.
Hurts used the bye week to focus on the mental side of the game, and it’s paid off with a very efficient six-week stretch, a six-game winning streak that’s put the Eagles at the top of the NFC East.
He used the mini-bye to focus on the physical side of the game.
The Eagles anticipate Hurts being a full participant in practice Thursday and Friday, and he’ll make his 33rd consecutive start Sunday night in Inglewood, when the Eagles face the Rams in a national TV game at SoFi Stadium.
That 33-game streak will be the longest by an Eagles quarterback since Donovan McNabb started 48 straight from late in 1999 to the middle of 2002.
“It's a long season, and it's just kind of crazy how it's played out, because we've had this early bye week and then we've had this time here,” Hurts said.
“So I think even when we talk about just our game in general, assessing things and really taking the bye week to kind of go through the same process and you know just see how we can become more efficient, how we can clean up the little things, just having those conversations and trying to build.”
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