It’s surgery day for the Philadelphia Eagles’ Pro Bowl alternates

As things presently stand, two of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ six Pro Bowl alternates, Jake Elliott and Josh Sweat, have been elevated to the NFL’s most elaborate exhibition game.

For Elliott and Sweat – and Howie Roseman, who signed the duo to projection-based extensions – this is a fantastic development. Both players turned in their best professional seasons in 2021 and looked like the sort of contributors who will call our fair city home for years.

But this wasn’t just a big week for Elliott and Sweat. No, with their chances of sneaking into the Pro Bowl likely dashed, two of the Eagles’ six alternates, Jalen Hurts and Shaun Bradley, have removed themselves from consideration altogether by opting for offseason surgery on their ankle and neck, respectively.

Is that a bummer? Sort of, yeah; how fun would it have been to see Hurts specifically make it to the Pro Bowl just for the Twitter meltdowns alone? But do you know what? It’s better to get these surgeries out of the way now, especially since it will get two of the Philadelphia Eagles’ key contributors back in time for OTAs.

The Philadelphia Eagles need Hurts and Bradley back this fall.

Jalen Hurts and Shaun Bradley came into the 2021 NFL season with very different expectations.

As members of the team’s 2020 draft class, both were standout collegiate performers for their respective teams and came to the Philadelphia Eagles with chips on their shoulders due to less than flattering draft evaluations.

For Hurts, scouts loved his leadership, maturity, and ability to extend plays in a variety of different ways with his legs, but knocked his deep ball, pocket presence, and ability to go through his reads. While Hurts’ initial run with the Eagles was objectively weird, as the two-QB look Doug Pederson and company worked with almost never led to positive results, when the rookie OklaBama quarterback took the field at his natural position sans Carson Wentz, he clearly put enough positive plays on tape for Howie Roseman to consider him “the guy” moving forward, or at least enough of a guy to trade away his $100 million QB.

Say what you will about Hurts’ development and remaining areas of concern with the 2021 season officially in the rearview, but he started all but two of the team’s games and put up flashy enough overall numbers to garner a Pro Bowl alternate spot based on the respect he’s garnered around the league.

And as for Bradley? Well, he also took the field for the Eagles in Week 1 but did so exclusively on special teams, where he rapidly became a fixture of then coordinator Dave Fipps’ unit. Logging 25 snaps versus the now-Washington Commanders, Bradley went on to play 64.11 percent of the Eagles’ special teams snaps in 2020, a mark only surpassed by Alex Singleton. Heading into 2021, Bradley found himself buried on the linebacker depth chart once more but didn’t let that dissuade him. No, the Temple Tuff product took his plight in stride and established himself as one of the best special teamers in the NFL, as evidenced by his name being pushed forward over captain Singleton as the Eagles’ special teams Pro Bowl candidate.

Normally, when a player spends less than five percent of a team’s snaps at any given position, it’s not a good sign, but Bradley proved he’s an exception to that general rule and could soon join players like Chris Maragos as the sort of four-core special teams ace that Philly fans love to cheer on.

Surely, Jalen Hurts and Shaun Bradley are two of the biggest success stories of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2020 draft class. Initially drafted to fill two very different roles, the duo embraced their individual challenges and left their second professional seasons with intriguing futures and a Pro Bowl alternate spot on their respective resumes. Assuming both players recover fully from their respective surgeries, both are players to watch heading into the summer.