The NFL’s chief medical officer on Tuesday expressed his confidence in the Eagles’ medical staff and defended its handling of the situation with quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts is now expected to miss the rest of the 2026 NFL season after blood clots were discovered in his lungs. While Dr. Allen Sills told reporters at league meetings on Tuesday in New York that he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the Hurts’ case, he did offer a general support of the Eagles’ medical staff and all NFL medical staffs. “I will say this,” Sills said. “I have tremendous confidence in the Philadelphia Eagles’ medical staff and all our medical staffs. Meaning that our teams secure the rights and the services of the best of the best physicians in their markets. And they employ an army of consultants as well to help them in all the medical decision-making. The league itself, it’s not our job to go in and tell them how to practice medicine. It’s our job to support them and to administer the jointly bargained protocols that we do have.” In recent days, there have been plenty of questions posed about the Eagles’ medical staff in the wake of finding out the severity of the situation with Jalen Hurts. NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller on Tuesday said that uniformed speculation led to “unfounded criticism” of the Eagles’ doctors. “There was considerable and uninformed speculation yesterday in the reporting,” Miller said. “I understand that all the facts are now publicly available and have been reportedly widely regarding the conservative steps that were taken to ensure Jalen Hurts’ health was always made the first priority and continues to be. Allen will address the pride that we have in the team doctors and trainers, who are incredibly professional in the work that they do. All of you know that. And none of whom deserve the unfounded criticism that was leveled against them in the press yesterday.” Earlier on Tuesday, The Athletic reported the NFL deemed that the Hurts situation “was handled appropriately” by the Eagles and the team would not be punished by the league. Initially, a superficial blood clot was found in Hurts’ calf during an ultrasound in London on Oct. 10 and he played the next day. Later that week, a follow-up ultrasound showed the clot moved and Hurts was ruled out for Week 6. And this week, Hurts’ agent Nicole Lynn and the Eagles released a statement saying that Hurts’ new diagnosis is “deep vein thrombosis, as well as bilateral pulmonary emboli” (blood clots in the lungs). Sills on Tuesday came to the defense of all team physicians in the wake of this specific criticism. “There’s often a lot of discussion about what do team physicians do and what is their obligation to the team vs. the patient,” Sills said. “And team physician is really a bit of a misnomer. To me all it means is you’ve got a physician that’s working with a particular team. Our first obligation as team physicians is always and evermore will be to the patient. To do the right thing. Why? Because that’s what we’re licensed to do. That’s our standard of care. That’s the standard we’re held to, that’s the standard we’re licensed to, that’s the oath that we’ve pledged and that’s what happens. “Any idea or any suggestion that a team physician is ever being influenced by a coach, a general manager, a team owner, it just doesn’t happen. … I can tell you in my 30 years in sports medicine and today, there is no doctor who is taking orders from a football person, a non-medical person, period.” Since Hurts’ blood clot was initially discovered in a London hospital, Sills also addressed the topic of medical concerns in international games. He said the league takes several trips to each host city to identify partner hospitals and local physicians. In this case, the league partnered with the Cleveland Clinic in London, where Hurts’ tests were conducted. “I can stand here in front of you today and say we have all of the resources available in any of our international games that we would have in any city in the U.S. and we do the same drills and practices and trainings there for emergencies that we do here,” Sills said. “So anytime that one of our players, coaches, staff has a medical issue at one of our international games, they’re getting access to the best care in that market, which we feel is equivalent to that, that we have in the U.S. That absolutely happened in the case that’s being discussed here.” This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less