The Eagles Weigh IR as Hurts’ Clot Sets McKee’s Run

Jalen Hurts is out Sunday against the Carolina Panthers after a follow-up ultrasound showed movement in a calf blood clot. The Eagles found that clot in London on Oct. 10 and cleared him for the Jaguars, then sat him after a Wednesday night scan. Tanner McKee will make the first start of his career that actually counts, while Philadelphia decides on treatment and on a four-game injured-reserve slot.

Saturday’s reserve vote only sets a calendar. If Hurts needs blood thinners, tackle football is off the table for as long as that course lasts. Ian Rapoport said these cases are often measured in months, not weeks, and that football plans are not at the front of the file.

London Doctors Cleared Hurts After a Calf Ultrasound

Hurts told the training staff on Oct. 8 that he had been cleated in the calf during the Oct. 4 loss to the Rams. That was his first treatment session for the injury, after two full practices. He practiced in full again on Oct. 9 and went on the practice report.

After the flight to London and a walkthrough on Oct. 10, doctors ran an ultrasound out of caution. It showed a superficial blood clot. Team doctors and doctors in London reviewed the images and sent him out against Jacksonville anyway.

Our medical staff and doctors in London reviewed the results and concluded that activity and mobility were important and that Jalen could safely play.

Philadelphia Eagles, official statement, Oct. 15

They asked for another scan within 72 hours of the game and the flight home. Hurts played the whole London game without a listed limit, going 21 of 40 for 220 yards and a touchdown in a 19-17 loss that ended on Cam Little’s 57-yard field goal. He took treatment Monday and Tuesday, then practiced in full on Wednesday. The follow-up ultrasound that night showed movement in the small clot. The club ruled him out for Sunday and said it was still choosing a course of treatment, with his health first.

The league office was in the loop in London and again this week, the statement said. Nick Sirianni would not describe the treatment on Oct. 16. “I’m not going to get too much into that,” the coach said. “Jalen’s health is the utmost important to all of us in this building.”

THE MEDICAL TIMELINE

1. Oct. 4: Takes a cleat to the calf in the Rams game.
2. Oct. 8: Requests his first calf treatment after practice.
3. Oct. 10: London ultrasound finds a superficial clot; doctors clear him to play.
4. Oct. 11: Plays without limitation in the 19-17 London loss.
5. Oct. 14: Wednesday night ultrasound shows movement in the small clot.
6. Oct. 15: Ruled out against Carolina pending treatment.

That sequence is the whole medical story so far. A clot labeled superficial on Saturday in London was still moving four days after he played on it.

Wednesday’s Follow-Up Scan Changed the Treatment Plan

Superficial means the clot sits in a vein near the skin, not that it is harmless. Clots in deep veins, most commonly in the legs, are the ones that can break off and travel to the lungs. The Eagles have not said Hurts has a deep-vein thrombosis. They have said the small clot moved, and they have sat him while they pick a treatment.

For a straightforward superficial clot, doctors often start with heat, elevation, and anti-inflammatory drugs, plus compression stockings, and the problem can settle on its own. Deep-vein clots are treated with blood-thinning drugs that stop new clots from forming and can cause heavy bleeding. Some larger or poorly placed superficial clots get a similar drug course. The Eagles have not said which folder Hurts is in.

Rapoport has described the next questions in plain terms: does he go on blood thinners, and if he does, for how long? He also said Hurts cannot play until the situation is solved. Collision sports and anticoagulants make a bad pair, because a hit that would be a bruise on a normal clotting system can keep bleeding.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The label: The club called it a superficial clot in the calf after the Oct. 10 ultrasound.
• The change: A Wednesday night scan showed movement in that small clot.
• The status: Hurts is out Sunday against Carolina, with no return date attached.
• The backup: Tanner McKee starts; Cole Payton is next; Joe Milton joined the 53-man roster on Oct. 16.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Blood thinners: The team has not said whether Hurts will take anticoagulants, or for how long.
• Injured reserve: Jeremy Fowler said Philadelphia would decide Saturday whether to use the four-game slot, and that some people around the club still hope to avoid it.
• A return week: Rapoport has called him out indefinitely. No scan result after Oct. 14 has been released.

A review of public reports on professional athletes, published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, found an average of 6.7 months lost from play after venous clots from 1999 through 2016, including 12 NFL cases. Lower-extremity deep clots averaged 5.9 months. Those figures describe deeper events, not Hurts’ file, and seven athletes in the set never returned. They are the backdrop for Rapoport’s months-not-weeks line, not a prediction with his name on it.

What Injured Reserve Would Mean for Hurts

A player placed on injured reserve with a chance to return must sit at least four of his club’s games. A bye does not count. Philadelphia’s bye is Week 10. If Hurts goes on the list before Sunday, he would miss Carolina, Dallas, Washington, and the Giants, then sit the bye, and the earliest he could be activated is Week 11 against the Steelers.

That is the same calendar Will Shipley just joined. The running back went on injured reserve Oct. 16 with a partial tear of his plantar fascia, which opened a 53-man spot for Milton, signed off Dallas’ practice squad. Fowler, speaking to people he described as hopeful Hurts can stay off the list, still said the call was touch and go and that McKee will probably start multiple games either way.

THE TWO CLOCKS IN PHILADELPHIA

The reserve list does not treat the clot. It only spends four games of roster flexibility on a quarterback who may already be medically ineligible. If the medicine is monitoring and the clot stabilizes, skipping IR leaves a path back before Dallas or Washington. If the medicine is anticoagulation, the list is almost beside the point.

Tanner McKee Starts Sunday With a Thin Supporting Cast

McKee learned the job on the way to Thursday’s walkthrough. Hurts turned to him and said, “Looks like you’re going to be the guy this week.” The 26-year-old, a 2023 sixth-round pick, has two prior starts, both in Week 18 with seeding already settled. Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field is the first one that can move a 2-3 record.

Initially, just hoping the best for him. Obviously, some things are bigger than football, and his health is obviously that.

Tanner McKee, Eagles quarterback, at his locker

He has completed 54 of 88 career passes for 597 yards, with 5 touchdowns and 1 interception, a 61.4 percent clip and a 95.7 passer rating across 6 games. Andy Dalton beat him out in camp, then threw one pass this season, an end-zone interception against the Bears, and was released on Oct. 9. Rookie Cole Payton, a fifth-round pick out of North Dakota State, is the backup on Sunday. Milton is the emergency option.

THE QUARTERBACK ROOM FOR SUNDAY

• Starter: McKee, in his third career start and first that is not a Week 18 rest game.
• Backup: Payton, who has been preparing as if he were the starter, he said Friday, whether he is listed second or fourth.
• Emergency: Milton, added the same night Shipley went on injured reserve.

The supporting cast is thin in its own right. Saquon Barkley is out with a hamstring injury. DeVonta Smith is back and will play after missing two games. Lane Johnson already retired. Hurts himself has 933 passing yards, 8 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions in 5 games, completing 57.8 percent, figures that sit at the bottom of his run as the full-time starter. Philadelphia has lost three in a row. Carolina comes in at 2-2 off a bye, with kickoff at 1 p.m. EDT.

Superficial Became a Shortcut for a Bad Argument

Overnight, a Philadelphia radio segment treated the superficial label as proof Hurts was stepping out of a 2-3 start so the season would not sit on him. That take only works if superficial means minor, and if a Wednesday scan showing movement is a roster alibi. It is a medical event. The club already let him play in London because doctors thought motion would help. The next scan is why he is not playing Sunday.

Breaking: #Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is out for Sunday due to a superficial blood clot.

Full statement from the #Eagles on QB Jalen Hurts:
 
“On Thursday, October 8th, Jalen visited the training room after practice requesting treatment for his calf. He informed the medical staff he… pic.twitter.com/16hVutehsp

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 15, 2026

Rapoport’s own follow-up was blunter than the adjective in the statement. He said Hurts is out until the situation is solved, that treatment is often blood thinners, and that those drugs make football a problem. The public fight over the word is a sideshow next to that fork. A clot that stays small and still can be watched. A clot that migrates, or a drug course that thins the blood, is how a Super Bowl MVP loses a month, or more, in the middle of a skid.

Philadelphia’s Next Month Runs Through Dallas and Washington

McKee does not need Hurts on injured reserve to inherit a stretch that can define the year. Fowler already expects him to start more than once. The offense that stalled in London, with Hurts at 21 of 40, now goes to a pocket passer who has never started a game that mattered in September or October, behind a line that has already lost its right tackle to retirement.

THE GAMES ON MCKEE’S DESK

• Week 6, Oct. 18: Carolina at home, McKee’s first live start of 2026.
• Week 7: Dallas, still inside a window where a monitored clot could, in theory, clear Hurts if doctors allow it.
• Week 8: at Washington, the third game of a four-game IR clock if the club uses the list.
• Week 9: the Giants, the fourth IR game, with the bye still to come.
• Week 11: Pittsburgh, the first date a four-game reserve stay would even permit Hurts back.

Howie Roseman has already spent one reserve spot on Shipley to add a third quarterback. Four more games without Hurts, whether the paperwork says IR or not, is a different season than the one Philadelphia mapped in September. Sirianni would not sketch the treatment on Oct. 16. McKee spent the week taking the ones, which he called a luxury for a backup who is supposed to be ready at a moment’s notice. The clot that moved after London is what put him there, and it is what will decide when, or if, that job is handed back.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a public injury disclosure and roster situation, and it is for information only. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation for Jalen Hurts or for anyone with a blood clot, and it is not betting or fantasy advice. Readers with symptoms of a clot, or questions about anticoagulants and activity, should talk with a licensed physician or hematologist before acting. Figures, injury designations, and return windows reflect team statements and public comments as dated in the piece and can change with the next scan or roster move.