Gardner Minshew gets the start for the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday at Dallas with Jalen Hurts requiring more time to heal from a shoulder sprain, head coach Nick Sirianni said Thursday morning.
“Gardner will be ready,” Sirianni said. “Gardner will be our guy. Gardner worked his butt off to be ready for this opportunity against a really good football team. He had a great practice (Wednesday) and I think you guys have all heard how good a practice he had, lots of energy out there. He’s ready to go.”
Hurts “did everything he possibly could to get his body ready to go” and still wants to start, Sirianni said, classifying Hurts as the “toughest player I’ve ever been around.”
Without Hurts, the Eagles (13-1) are underdogs at Dallas with a chance to seal up the top seed in the NFC. Minshew can help set the franchise mark for single-season wins and deal the Cowboys a setback with playoff implications.
The role isn’t foreign to Minshew, who went 7-13 as the starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and teammates cited his energy and accuracy as reasons for optimism after Wednesday’s practice.
Sirianni also said tight end Dallas Goedert was trending in the right direction to play for the first time in four weeks. He was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury against Washington in Week 10.
“It’s an early Christmas present for me,” Goedert said. “Dallas and Dallas has a nice ring to it!”
Hurts, one of eight Eagles named to the Pro Bowl on Wednesday, rushed for 61 yards and three touchdowns while passing for 315 yards to lead the visiting Eagles to a 25-20 win at Chicago on Sunday, but came out of that win with a sprained shoulder. His timetable to return is unclear.
The Cowboys are familiar with Minshew, who started the regular-season finale for Philadelphia against Dallas last season. The Cowboys won the game 56-21 as part of Dallas’ season sweep of the Eagles.
–Field Level Media