Jalen Hurts appears close to returning just in time for the Eagles.
The quarterback landed on Philadelphia's Friday injury report with an official designation of questionable for Sunday's game against the New York Giants.
Hurts' designation follows encouraging words from his coach, Nick Sirianni, who told reporters earlier Friday the quarterback "is trending in the right direction."
Hurts has been dealing with a right shoulder injury that prevented him from playing in each of Philadelphia's last two games. Backup Gardner Minshew has replaced him, performing adequately in each of his two starts but going 0-2 in that span.
Prior to his injury, Hurts was playing at a level worthy of MVP consideration, ranking third or better in a number of key categories. Hurts owns the best win-loss record (13-1) of any starting quarterback in the NFL, and stands within the top three in passing yards per attempt, touchdown-to-interception ratio, passer rating and rushing touchdowns.
He's in line to lead the NFL in quarterback win percentage and passing touchdown-to-interception ratio. Four of the last five quarterbacks to do so in the same season took home NFL MVP honors.
Without him, the Eagles offense has suffered, especially in Week 17 when Philadelphia's third-ranked scoring offense mustered just 10 points in a loss to the Saints.
Due to their recent struggles, the Eagles have plenty of reason to play to win in Week 18. Philadelphia no longer owns a tight grip on the NFC's top seed and could even lose the NFC East title if it loses to the Giants and the Cowboys defeat the Commanders.
New York, meanwhile, is locked into the sixth seed in the NFC playoffs and will make decisions on key starters prior to Sunday's game.
Hurts could benefit from returning Sunday in a number of ways, but it will ultimately depend on his health. His improvement over the last week gives reason to believe he could rejoin his teammates in uniform and attempt to lead the Eagles to a division crown and top seed in the conference.
If not, it will again be up to Minshew to try to get the job done.
