Here Are The Statuses Of Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts

Well, maybe Hurts so good after all. On Friday, the Philadelphia Eagles tweeted out their injury report. This was two days prior to their Super Bowl LVII clash against the Kansas City Chiefs, and the injury report was notably missing their star quarterback Jalen Hurts:

Being missing from the injury report is presumably a good thing. There are good lists of body parts and bad lists. The injury report is a bad list. As you can see, the injury report listed defensive end Robert Quinn and his foot, cornerback Avonte Maddox and his toe, center Cam Jurgens and his injury, tackle Lane Johnson and his groin, guard Landon Dickerson and his elbow, wide receiver Britain Covey and his hamstring, but neither Hurts nor his shoulder.

Hurts has shouldered quite a lot ever since December 18 when Chicago Bears defensive lineman Trevis Gipson drove Hurts shoulder into the cold, cold field. That gave Hurts’ right sternoclavicular (SC) joint a rocking, resulting in a sprain—which is a medical term for a tear—in a ligament spanning the SC joint. This injury kept Hurts out of the ensuing two regular season games. He did return for the regular season finale against the New York Giants and playoff games against the Giants and the San Francisco 49ers where Hurts clearly wasn’t at full strength. In fact, just about a week ago, Eliot Shorr-Parks, the Eagles reporter for local radio station 94WIP quoted Hurts as saying, “I’m getting there. I’ve made it clear this whole time it’s something I’m dealing with” in the following tweet:

So, has Hurts actually gotten “there” since he didn’t appear in the latest Eagles injury report? In other words, will Hurts be at full strength by this Sunday when the Eagles take on the Chiefs? Hard to tell. The SC joint is pretty darn important for a quarterback since it is the connection between the clavicle, otherwise known as the collarbone, and the sternum, otherwise known as the breastbone. Throwing the ball without moving your shoulder at all is kind of hard to do. Every time your rotate your shoulder in any direction, you’re going to apply some force to the SC joint, the articular cartilage that sits within the SC joint, and the ligaments that connect the two bones forming the SC joint. So even if the injury doesn’t keep him out of the game, it could end up hindering his effectiveness to some degree on Sunday.

Although six players did appear on the Eagles injury report, all but one fully engaged in practice on Friday. Only Covey remained limited at practice. The Eagles listed him as questionable for Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs looked even cleaner ouchie-wise on their injury report with everyone being able to practice fully on Friday:

While the Chiefs’ injury report listed eight players, it looks like none of them will be missing the Super Bowl due to injury. All eight were able to fully participate in practice on Friday. Wide receiver Kadarius Toney was limited in practice on Wednesday with an ankle injury but was able to fully practice on Thursday and Friday. Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed missed practice on Wednesday with a knee issue, had limited participation on Thursday, but returned fully on Friday. Wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster, who suffered a knee injury a couple weeks ago, was previously considered questionable for the Super Bowl after missing third straight practices but has made every practice since Tuesday and should be ready for Sunday’s clash. All of the other players listed and their body parts were able to fully participate in practice over the past three days. That included running back Isiah Pacheco and his wrist and linebacker Willie Gay and his shoulder. The injury report was also ankle-deep with guard Trey Smith, running back Jerick McKinnon, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes being listed with ankle injuries.

If you recall, Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain during the Chiefs’ January 21 Divisional Playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars as I described previously for Forbes. This was a tear in one of the ligaments “higher” up on his ankle that connects his two lower leg bones: his tibia and fibula. Typically, one should wait six to 12 weeks before returning to sports with such an injury. But Mahomes ain’t your typical athlete, and the NFL playoffs ain’t your typical situation. He managed to return to action against Jaguars and then the following week in the Chiefs American Football Conference (AFC) Championship victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Mahomes did appear hobbled in the AFC Championship. But a hobbled Mahomes is worth two in the bush and more than most other quarterbacks when they are healthy. Against the Bengals, Mahomes completed 29-of-43 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns.

Mahomes has had nearly two weeks to recover since then. On February 8, the Associated Press quoted Mahomes as saying, “You won’t know exactly how it is until you get to game day. I mean, I definitely move around better than I was moving last week or two weeks ago.” He added, “So, it’s just trying to continue to get the treatment and the rehab and get it as close to 100% and then rely on some adrenaline to let me do a little bit extra when I’m on the field.”

So if you’ve got Hurts or Mahomes on your Fantasy Football roster for this Sunday, it’s probably a safe bet to start either of them over their backups Gardner Minshew and Chad Henne. Will either Hurts or Mahomes be 100%? Perhaps not. But you never know what some adrenaline and extra motivation may do.