What Jalen Hurts' Blood Clot Diagnosis Means For Philadelphia Eagles As The NFL And NFL Players Association Open A Joint Review

Jalen Hurts' season-ending blood clot diagnosis has sparked fresh questions© Image via: X/@NFL

A cleat to the calf on October 4 has ended Jalen Hurts' season. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback now takes blood thinners for clots in his leg and both lungs, and the NFL and the NFL Players Association are digging into how the team handled his diagnosis. Hurts is stable, and doctors expect a full recovery. League executives, though, are reportedly angry, and their complaint has little to do with medicine. It has everything to do with what the Eagles said, and what they left out.

How Jalen Hurts Went From Playing In London To Injured Reserve With Deep Vein Thrombosis

Hurts felt discomfort after practice on October 8. Two days later, with the Eagles in London to face the Jacksonville Jaguars, an ultrasound found a stable superficial vein clot in his left calf. Eagles doctors and Cleveland Clinic physicians in London cleared him. He played every snap.

A follow-up ultrasound showed the clot had migrated. Further tests found deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli, which are clots in both lungs. That is a far more dangerous condition than the one first diagnosed. The Eagles moved him to injured reserve.

#Eagles Jalen Hurts was told by doctors not to sleep after his initial diagnosis of a superficial blood clot while in London. Hurts stayed awake for roughly 36 hours before starting against the Jaguars. https://t.co/z7CvlNXuCS

— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) October 19, 2026

Consider the football side, too. Philadelphia is 2-5 after a 38-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and the season was already slipping before this news landed.

Why NFL Executives Are Angry At The Philadelphia Eagles Over Jalen Hurts' Injury Updates

Marcus Hayes of The Philadelphia Inquirer, citing league sources, reports that executives accept the medical timeline and the treatment choices. Their frustration is with the messaging. The Eagles put out incomplete statements when Hurts went on injured reserve and again when the season-ending diagnosis came, and no medical professional stepped forward to explain how a calf clot became a lung emergency. League officials ended up answering questions about it repeatedly at the owners' meetings.

NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills has backed the care itself. "I think there was incredible vigilance, there was conservative care, state-of-the-art imaging that was done in London. And, as far as the timing and the decision-making, I have great confidence in that and believe that everyone acted with an abundance of caution."

The NFLPA wants a full investigation anyway. Commissioner Roger Goodell has welcomed it. A congressional letter has also reached Goodell, asking who cleared Hurts to play.

That is the real tension. A superficial clot that was stable on Saturday can look very different a day later, and the review will test whether the decision to play was sound given what was known. Dr. Steven Abramowitz of MedStar Health, speaking generally about clots and not about Hurts, noted that about half of people with deep vein thrombosis show no symptoms at all.