The Eagles have understandably faced plenty of scrutiny for how they handled Jalen Hurts' health situation, which ultimately landed him on season-ending IR with deep vein thrombosis (blood clots) and bilateral pulmonary emboli.
Nick Sirianni's Monday press conference didn't make matters any better for Philadelphia as the Eagles head coach stumbled through five minutes of questioning. But according to ESPN personality and former Colts interim head coach Jeff Saturday, the Eagles did Sirianni a huge disservice by sending the coach out there to answer medical-related questions.
Appearing on Tuesday's edition of First Take, Saturday explained that Sirianni wouldn't have had any input into the process that led to Hurts traveling to London, playing
with blood clots and flying back to Philadelphia. A player's availability falls entirely on the team medical staff.
“Nick Sirianni had no business addressing those questions.”
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 20, 2026
—@SaturdayJeff on the Eagles' HC and how the organization has handled addressing the Jalen Hurts’ situation to the media. pic.twitter.com/FAAL4rEMH9
Saturday said:
“Nick Sirianni had no business addressing those questions. Not even a little bit. He’s not involved in player health and safety. He is the head coach of the Eagles. He is told by medical staff whether a player is up or whether a player is down.
"He doesn’t control whether a guy gets on a plane to go anywhere. He knows little to nothing. And it was set up that way by the Players Association and the NFL that no coach, whether it’s a head coach, position coach, coordinator, has any input into a player’s health or who’s going to be up or down for a game.
"So, Nick Sirianni was the scapegoat on this. Shame on you, Eagles. Shame on you, Philadelphia, for not putting a medical professional, who actually had input into that decision, getting up to field these questions.”
While much of the details into Hurts' medical care would have been protected information, it certainly would have benefitted Sirianni to be able to defer medical questions to a medical professional.
A head coach has to answer for what happens to his players, but Saturday did raise an interesting point in how Sirianni was put into an impossible position.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jeff Saturday defended Nick Sirianni after disastrous Jalen Hurts press conference
