Jalen Hurts is out for the season after blood clots spread to both lungs
The Philadelphia Eagles confirmed Monday that Hurts has deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli, a serious diagnosis that ends his 2026 campaign and leaves Tanner McKee as the starter for a team that was already reeling at 2-3.
In brief
From a cleat to the calf to blood clots in both lungs: Hurts is done for 2026
It started with a cleat. It ended with a quarterback's season.
On Monday morning, the Philadelphia Eagles and Hurts' agent, Nicole Lynn, released a joint statement confirming that doctors had found multiple blood clots in the quarterback's lungs. Hurts is expected to miss the rest of the 2026 season, with sources telling both NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and ESPN's Adam Schefter that the treatment involving blood thinners is expected to sideline the three-time Pro Bowler for at least three months.
Lynn and the Eagles said Hurts has deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli, meaning a blood clot traveled from his leg to his lungs. Both lungs. A diagnosis of bilateral pulmonary emboli means there are clots on both his right and left lungs, a condition that can cause permanent lung damage, low blood oxygen levels, and damage to other organs.
The Eagles traced the whole thing back to a Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Hurts was initially diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf last Saturday in London. He had reported to the team after practice on Thursday, Oct. 8 that he had taken a cleat to the calf in that Week 4 defeat, then practiced in full the next day and flew with the team to London overnight.
A "superficial blood clot" turned up during an evaluation on Saturday in London, but the Eagles said medical staff and doctors determined that Hurts could safely play. A subsequent follow-up exam on Wednesday "revealed movement in the small blood clot," which set off the chain of events that led to this week's announcement.
The Eagles placed him on injured reserve Saturday. Then, two days later, the full picture got worse. The Eagles and Lynn released a statement relaying that doctors had discovered multiple blood clots in his lungs. Hurts is now expected to miss the remainder of the 2026 season as he undergoes treatment, with his recovery projected to take three months.
The team called his prognosis "very good." The Eagles said they expect a full recovery, anticipating that Hurts "will have the opportunity to resume contact football activities when off the blood thinners," and that they expect "no long-term effects." That's genuinely good news for Hurts the person. For the Eagles the football team, the hole is enormous.
A 2-3 team now hands the keys to Tanner McKee
Hurts' injury is serious and could make McKee the starter for the rest of the regular season. The Eagles are 2-3 and had already lost three consecutive games headed into Week 6. Now they need Tanner McKee to keep them in the playoff picture, possibly for the next three months.
McKee, 26, is a Stanford product and a 2023 sixth-round pick. He has started two games in his career, both in Week 18 in back-to-back seasons when the Eagles had already clinched their playoff seeds and decided to rest Hurts. He has never played a snap outside garbage time in a meaningful regular-season game.
That changes now. McKee addressed the moment Thursday after it first became clear Hurts was out for at least one game. "As a backup quarterback, that's the mindset you have to have," he said. "At any moment, you have to be ready to play on a Sunday. It could be the first play, it could be the last play. It's kind of a luxury for me to have the '1' reps in practice ... It's kind of a luxury for me as a backup to have a week to prepare like that."
The Eagles did try to trade McKee this past offseason. The team reportedly spent most of the offseason entertaining trade offers for him. No team met their asking price. Given what's unfolding, Howie Roseman will take that outcome.
McKee started the Week 6 game against Carolina before the full scope of Hurts' diagnosis was made public. Monday Night Football then showed the broader damage, as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Washington Commanders 23-17. Philadelphia's schedule does not get easier. The Eagles still face divisional opponents who know their personnel cold, and McKee has logged fewer than 100 career dropbacks.
What this means for the NFC East
The Eagles entered 2026 as defending Super Bowl champions. Losing Hurts this early in the season is the kind of injury that reshapes a conference. Philadelphia had already been outscored and outplayed during their three-game skid before any of this happened. Now the NFC East competition, the Cowboys, Giants, and Commanders, all get to play the next several weeks against a backup making his first meaningful regular-season starts.
Hurts was initially diagnosed by specialists in London with a left calf superficial vein thrombosis. After further testing and monitoring, the updated diagnosis is deep vein thrombosis, as well as bilateral pulmonary emboli. He is clinically stable and has no significant functional limitations. The Eagles said he will remain active around the team and continue to condition while on anticoagulation medication.
The medical picture, at least, points toward a healthy offseason return. Philadelphia's 2026 season is a different story. McKee is in the final year of his four-year, $4.02 million rookie contract, which means he's also playing for his next deal in a situation most quarterbacks never asked for. If he struggles, the Eagles' front office may look at the trade market before the deadline. If he holds the line, he earns a payday. Either way, the next month of NFC East football just got a lot more unpredictable.
The Eagles' next game, and McKee's first full week of preparation as the unambiguous starter, is Sunday.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
