When the Philadelphia Eagles drafted Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, some wondered why the Eagles made the move, especially since the Eagles are necessarily a team in need of a quarterback. And after Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson’s latest comments on Hurts’ role the season, fans are still wondering why the Eagles drafted Hurts, instead of letting another team, who needed a quarterback, draft him.
Pederson told the media that he doesn’t see Hurts being the backup this year, some of which has to do with the coronavirus.
“Seeing this pandemic and thinking back to when we came out of the lockout year, I think early on in this season this becomes a veteran-laden football season. Football teams are going to have to rely on their veteran players, and Nate is one of those guys for us. He’s been on our roster now the last couple of seasons, and he knows exactly what we are doing. I have a ton of confidence in Nate to become the backup quarterback.
Nothing is ever handed to anybody. I always try to create competition at every position, and quarterback is not exempt from that. But I fully expect Nate to come in, be aggressive and do the things he’s capable of doing and become the backup to Carson.”
But Pederson also shared how Hurts is putting in the work, and overtime, could become a huge asset for the Eagles.
“Jalen’s about right now just learning and picking up our system. And he’s another one, another young player that we drafted who, there’s a lot to learn at the quarterback position. So are we going to take it a little bit slower maybe with him until he grasps the offense? You might have to. What I like about it, is always the unknown, and the unknown is how well a guy, I think, can progress. And then once we get him on the grass, put him through the drills, put him through practices, then we see exactly what these guys are all about. But right now, Jalen’s doing an outstanding job of picking up the offense, spitting it back to (quarterbacks coach) Press (Taylor) and understanding what we are trying to get done. And we go that route with him right now at this time.”
This doesn’t mean that Hurts won’t ever get his shot. It just means it will take time.
And if there’s one player who has the ability to be patient, persevere, and work hard, it’s Jalen Hurts.
Many people forget Hurts’ college stats. They were nothing short of impressive. He was a starting quarterback at Alabama and Oklahoma. And when he was beaten out of the starting job at Alabama, it was by Tua Tagovailoa, who just so happened to be the first quarterback drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins.
Hurts finished the 2019 season at Oklahoma with a career high 3,851 yards passing, as well as a career-high 32 passing TDs. Not to mention a career 1,298 yards rushing to go along with yet another career-high 20 rushing touchdowns.
In his college career at both Alabama and Oklahoma, Hurts recorded almost 9,500 passing yards and 80 touchdowns, not to mention almost 3,300 rushing yards to go along with his 43 rushing touchdowns.
Jalen not only won a national championship, SEC championship and Big 12 championship during his career, he was also named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year this past season.
Who knows? Maybe Jalen Hurts will end up getting a shot in Philadelphia this fall and show Eagles fans why both Alabama and Oklahoma fans love him so much.
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