Hurts hopes week off will help it heal

PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts hopes having an extra week of rest will help his sore right shoulder.

The Pro Bowl-eligible quarterback returned Sunday to lead the Philadelphia Eagles’ 14-3 victory over the New York Giants after sitting out the previous two weeks with a sprained right shoulder.

The victory assured the Eagles of first place in the National Conference, home-field advantage in the postseason and a bye week.

The Eagles implemented a conservative game plan for Hurts and didn’t ask too much of the dynamic quarterback so as not to put him at risk of taking a hard hit to the shoulder.

“We’re fortunate that we have two weeks until the next game,” indicated head coach Nick Sirianni. “He’s going to be a little bit healthier than he obviously was the other day.”

Sirianni confirmed that Hurts “came out sore, as expected.”

The 24-year-old quarterback — who is 17-1 in his last 18 regular-season starts — finished with 3,701 yards through the air and 22 touchdowns, as well as 760 yards on the ground and 13 touchdowns in his second season as a starter.

The Eagles decided to start Hurts after losing two consecutive games without him because a loss could have cost them the NFC East Division title and first place in the conference.

“We didn’t feel like we were putting him more at risk for injury, but we knew it was going to hurt him too much, we knew it was going to hurt him too much,” Sirianni said. “That’s the type of player he is, that’s the type of teammate he is. He fought through the pain because it’s important for him to be there. He knew how important it was for him and his teammates to be out there.”

The Eagles will play the weekend of Jan. 21-22 against the lowest seed that will come out of the divisional round between Tampa Bay, Dallas, New York and Seattle.