The Eagles did it. They finally (and mercifully) put an end to what has been a disastrous 2020 season for Carson Wentz, relegating him to the bench in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts. Doug Pederson announced Tuesday that the 2020 second-round pick would be Philadelphia’s starter going forward.
In a vacuum, the decision to sit a quarterback who’s at the bottom of the league in just about every metric isn’t terribly shocking. But Wentz’s case is different because he makes so much money. He’s going to continue to make a lot of money over the next few years — in fact, the $128-million extension he just signed last offseason hasn’t technically kicked in yet — and might be stuck in an almost comically awkward situation for at least another year.
The situation will be made even more awkward if Hurts provides a spark for a punchless Eagles offense, which will surely banish Wentz to the bench for the rest of his time in Philadelphia. Given what’s gone on around Wentz this season, I understand the skepticism that this change will lead to some improvement because the quarterback play hasn’t been the only issue. But let me at least try to make the case.
The one area where Hurts will clearly help is in the run game. The Eagles have, at times, involved Wentz in the run game but not to the extent that they can with Hurts, who has legitimate running ability. While Wentz is fully capable of making a defense pay on zone-read keepers, Hurts will allow Doug Pederson to build a run game around the quarterback position and force defenses to play 11-on-11 in a way they never really had with Wentz behind center. Only the Jets, Giants and Broncos have been worse than the Eagles on early downs, mostly because of a putrid passing game but the running game hasn’t been much better. It will almost certainly improve now.
Give the game situation Hurts inherited against Green Bay — along with the fact that the gameplan wasn’t put together with Hurts in mind — we didn’t get a good preview of what the Eagles run game could look like now that he’s the starter. But we have seen glimpses of creativity throughout the season whenever Hurts has been on the field.
Here’s a little speed option play…
Counter “bash” will be on the menu now…
As will inverted veer…
And here’s a quarterback draw RPO…
The Eagles just became a lot harder to defend on early downs. At the very least, it’ll be fun to watch.
More production on first and second down will lead to fewer third-down situations, which is important because this offense is not built to win on third-and-long. The offensive line has been bad and can’t pick up a blitz, the receivers don’t reliably get open and the play-calling hasn’t made anyone’s job any easier. Hurts isn’t going to improve things on third-and-long but his presence will at least help the team avoid them.
As for the passing game, I don’t think much will change schematically. The Eagles passing game isn’t overly complicated, so even a rookie quarterback should be able to handle it. And Hurts’ presence might make things easier on the receivers, as he’s a much more willing scrambler and will force defenses to use a spy or slow down their edge rushers in an effort to keep him in the pocket.
One of the biggest knocks on Hurts before the draft was his eagerness to take off running when his first read wasn’t open. But that could be a good thing for an Eagles offense that has, at times, been sabotaged by Wentz’s hero ball. When Hurts decides to scramble, he’s running the ball. Wentz, to his own detriment, will try to salvage a broken pass play and, far too often, it has led to disaster. In 2020 alone, he’s thrown four interceptions on 31 attempts outside of the pocket and leads the league in interception rate. His 36 undesigned forrays outside of the pocket (that didn’t result in a scramble) have resulted in a loss of 21.9 expected points, per Sports Info Solutions.
Hurts will not be a savior for a completely broken offense, and Wentz is almost certainly the better quarterback at this point in their respective careers, but the rookie’s skill set could be exactly what the Eagles offense needs right now.