3. Hurts isn’t ready to be an NFL starter
Had the Eagles pushed for a Jordan Love, or sought out a player like Jake Fromm who is considered pro-ready, then the pundits actually would have merit surrounding their assessment of the pick.
Even if another team chose to draft Hurts instead of the Eagles, there’s no guarantee that he’d be considered for the job and would likely take the same path toward learning how to play the position.
Hurts intangibles currently win him more games than his skills as a passer and that will have to change in the NFL in order for him to be totally successful. Hurts is a dual-threat quarterback who has made tremendous improvement with his deep-ball touch and intermediate accuracy.
That improvement is why the Eagles and so many teams valued him as a developmental talent who will keep getting better in the right scheme.
The Baltimore Ravens utilized a rookie Lamar Jackson on offense – like Saints currently do with Taysom Hill and that’s the route the Eagles should take with Hurts. In Baltimore as a rookie playing with Joe Flacco, Jackson averaged 9.6 snaps and 4.4 touches during his first nine games.