Johnson, 2 others, placed on COVID list

Eagles veterans Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and Nate Gerry were placed on the reserve-COVID-19 list Wednesday, preventing them from entering the training complex for another week.

To make the dubious list players must test positive for COVID-19 or be close to someone who did.

Players who test positive and don’t show signs of COVID can return to the facility for testing in 10 days or try to test negative twice within five days of the positive test.

Players who test positive and show symptoms of the coronavirus cannot return for another test for 10 days since they became ill. In that window, they also must be asymptomatic for at least three days before returning.

Johnson and Mailata are offensive tackles, Gerry a linebacker.

Johnson held a football camp for offensive linemen three weekends ago in Texas.

While Johnson, Mailata and Gerry are being held out, rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts is getting his first experience inside the NovaCare Complex thanks to the pandemic.

If you were startled when the Eagles took Hurts off the board in the second round of the draft, you’ll be at least mildly surprised to learn the first NFL quarterback he leaned on for advice plays in the AFC.

Hurts has a major history with Deshaun Watson, having come up on the wrong end of a 35-31 loss to him and Clemson in the 2017 national championship. Hurts had run 30 yards for the touchdown giving Alabama a 31-28 with 2:07 left.

Hurts asked Watson, a runner-up in his first national title game, how to bounce back and be a champion. Hurts never got a national crown, having transferred to Oklahoma, but on the college level he turned into the same kind of complete quarterback Watson has been in the NFL.

By accident, Hurts said he’d been working out in Houston with Watson, the Pro Bowl quarterback of the Texans. Watson was the first name that came into Hurts’ head when asked about working out with DeSean Jackson.

Until this week, Hurts basically has known only the virtual Carson Wentz due largely to the coronavirus pandemic that blew up the minicamps.

“It’s been a weird deal,” Hurts said. “This whole offseason has been unprecedented, not being in the building, not experiencing things that I would have experienced in a traditional offseason.

“There hasn’t really been much of that communication.”

The Eagles don’t play the Texans in the regular season. Maybe the college quarterbacks will become a story line should there be a Super Bowl.

Clearly, there is no Eagles rookie more intriguing than Hurts, who can put points on the board in every imaginable way. The competitiveness will come out in his conversations with Wentz, whom he studied on Zoom.

“It was great to sit in the meetings and hear him talk,” Hurts said. “See how he sees the game. Just hear him talk. He’s very knowledgeable with what he’s doing on offense. I just wanted to see him, learn, listen to those things and soak it all in.”

Armchair analysts don’t see Hurts helping the Eagles in anything more than a Taysom Hill role this season. Hill plays in the wildcat offense, in short-yardage situations, on special teams as the up-back in punt formation and in other ways for the New Orleans Saints.

Hurts can do much more. Last year with the Sooners he completed 69.7 percent of his attempts for 3,851 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions and rushed for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Hurts was 38-4 as a starter and accounted for 80 touchdowns in a career that began with Alabama and concluded with the Sooners.

The experience at ‘Bama, where he lost his job at halftime of a national championship game to Tua Tagovailoa, has helped him smell a question that could simmer a quarterback controversy a bandwidth away.

“I’ve played quarterback my whole entire life,” Hurts said. “I’m here just trying to grow at that position and take steps to be the best quarterback that I can be for this team.”