The Eagles are 2-5, currently in the longest losing streak of the Nick Sirianni era. There isn’t really a light at the end of this tunnel given the team’s injuries and the pervasive feeling of ineptitude and mistrust in the organization’s leadership from the coach all the way up to ownership. While there’s plenty of negative to talk about, I woke up thinking about injuries, player health, and how the NFLPA needs to step up and do their damn job.
It’s almost darkly funny that it took until this year
for the 49ers injury bug to become a meme. It was mid-last season that the electrical substation thing broke contain of 49ers fandom and jumped to a league-wide unfortunate joke. Then, this year as the Niners suffered early season injuries, the specter of the substation returned.
The substation then moved to Philadelphia, with the injury bug hitting early and then reaching a crescendo with the Jalen Hurts disaster. Since then, the Eagles have been dealing with injuries to star players like Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter … along with Dontayvion Wicks, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley … and the list goes on. Against the Cowboys, Saquon Barkley was hobbled with a hamstring injury (and a new back injury that flared up) while the team still trotted him out there. He was limping and riding the bike between plays. Carter was previously playing with a hairline fracture and clearly wasn’t playing to a high level while wearing a cast on his hand.
Needless to say, injuries happen in football. It’s a physical, violent game. And in the case of the Eagles, you could make the case that after their Super Bowl win in 2024, it took a physical toll on the team. After all, the Chiefs fell apart from injuries last year after three straight seasons where they played 20 games. Maybe that attrition has hit Philly.
That’s reasonable enough, but the Eagles medical staff’s handling of the Jalen Hurts injury raises questions about their entire medical, strength and conditioning operation. How many players’ injuries have they mismanaged to get them on the field, jeopardizing their long term health for winning one week? It was well-documented that Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson were not healthy last year (Dickerson admitted he probably shouldn’t have played in 2025) and those injuries seemingly compounded to impact their play this year.
Back to the 49ers, whose injury problems have persisted through the Kyle Shanahan era, It is well-documented that Shanahan runs more full contact practice than any other head coach in the league. It’s well-documented that his practices are considered generally more physical. It should be considered no surprise, then, that the Niners seemingly lose a major contributor every few weeks to lower body injuries.
The teams theoretically have a responsibility to keep their roster healthy. But they also have a short-term incentive to win. Maybe Shanny’s practices are part of the reason his teams are typically so competitive regardless of who is on the field and that’s the trade off he’s willing to make.
This is where the union needs to intervene. There needs to be better standardized expectations for practice structure for players, in addition to strength and conditioning and medical care. There are 32 teams that behave in 32 different ways when it comes to these aspects. It is obvious that team-run medical staff cannot be fuly trusted to serve the players’ best interests when there are games and team interests on the line. Players themselves have more incentive to play in the short-term than not play, and they should be protected from that being the case.
The competency of a team’s medical and training staff should not be a competitive advantage. It should be something guided by set regulations. Much like the conversations about standardizing playing surfaces, the league must also contend with doing the same with the people that are supposed to keep players healthy.
