Not bad for a second-rounder who led his team to the Super Bowl after just his second full season as the starter.
Naturally with Hurts, the star quarterback of a winning and recognizable franchise, making headlines, it generated commentary on social media. Eagles fans, NFC East fans, and the rest of the lot had their takes. Here are some of the best.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is a runner and a thrower. The extent to which he’s able to do both makes him fully dangerous.
Last week against the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts gained 103 yards on the ground with just seven rushing attempts in the first quarter alone. That was the start of a game in which the Eagles decimated the Packers for 363 total rushing yards, the 20th-most in NFL history, on their way to a 40-33 win.
Against the Titans’ defense on the Eagles’ first drive this Sunday, Hurts completed five of six passes for 80 yards, a touchdown, and the highest possible passer rating of 158.3. The drive ended with this masterful 34-yard touchdown pass, in which second-year receiver DeVonta Smith just housed his poor defender on the way to the end zone.
A smart play here, as the Titans came into this game ranked first in the NFL in run defense DVOA. It speaks to how the Eagles are able to respond to any type of defense with Hurts as the epicenter, both as a thrower and as a runner. Smith’s runs aren’t just scrambles after the snap — they have a distinct package of designed runs for him, and this season, he’s run the ball 94 times for 595 yards and eight touchdowns.
But if you’re set up to limit Philly’s run game? Hurts has no issue at this point in his career throwing the ball all over the field.
Which is a big part of what makes this offense to tough to defend. Those who are still wondering whether running quarterbacks can lead top-tier offenses need to spend a bit of time catching up, because this is where the NFL is heading in a big hurry.
“It’s like your favorite steakhouse”
-Jalen Hurts says the Eagles offense is diverse and they can pick what they want to do pic.twitter.com/xPFzV48Hyv
With Carson Wentz now out of the picture, the Eagles need to give Jalen Hurts a full offseason as if he’s the team’s starting quarterback.
Now that the Eagles have traded Carson Wentz to the Colts for a 2021 second-round pick and a 2022 conditional second-round pick that could turn into a first-round pick if Wentz plays 75 percent of the snaps, or 70 percent of the snaps and the team makes the playoffs, Philly has the guy who was probably the NFL’s worst starting quarterback in 2020 out the door. Of course, getting Wentz out the door is one thing — getting him off the books is quite another matter. The Eagles will take on an NFL-record $33.82 million in dead money in the trade due to the four-year, $128 million extension Wentz signed in June, 2019. A disastrous decision in retrospect, but at least the Eagles are able to cancel it, with the inherent salary cap pain added in.
Of course, the question now is, what do the Eagles do with their quarterback situation? There’s Jalen Hurts, who impressed more than he didn’t as a rookie after it was clear that Wentz was killing the team every time he took the field. With the same offensive line and receiver issues Wentz dealt with, Hurts completed 77 of 148 passes for 1,061 yards, six touchdowns, four interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 71.6.
The Eagles also have the sixth pick the 2021 draft, which means they could either stay put and draft another quarterback with the understanding that the two best quarterbacks in this class — Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and BYU’s Zach Wilson — will most likely be off the board. Unless they trade up, new head coach and former Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni would then be left with a pack of quarterbacks with more serious issues.
There’s Ohio State’s Justin Fields, who certainly checks all the boxes as a thrower and as an athlete, but has some processing problems that could really bite him at the NFL level. There’s North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, who has a lot on the ball, but faces strength of competition concerns. One could easuly argue that in Hurts, the Eagles already have a guy who can do most of what Lance can do, and has already erased any strength of opponent issues both at the collegiate and professional levels.
Beyond that, there are two guys who would be massive reaches at six — Alabama’s Mac Jones, who looks like a future Pro Bowler in the pocket but has little to no second-reaction ability, and Florida’s Kyle Trask, who might be even less effectively mobile than Jones. As I recently posited regarding Jones, the inability to make second-reaction plays outside of structure and outside the pocket might be a fatal flaw in today’s NFL.
So, maybe it’s ride-or-die with Hurts, which isn’t the worst possible option.
Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni watches from the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
“I’m really excited to work with him,” Sirianni said of Hurts in his introductory press conference. “We studied him last year. Had a great college tape. He played meaningful snaps this year that he played well in. The conversation with him and the conversation with the guys that I’ve had is really excited to start working with you. Most of the conversation is getting to know the individual besides football.”
The admiration appears to be mutual, per the quarterback.
“I’ve had the opportunity to speak with him and I think he’s a great guy,” Hurts said during an appearance on the NFL Network. “Just meeting him, hopefully looking forward to being able to sit down and talk with him some more. I was able to do that a little bit. I’m just excited. I actually talked a little bit before I got drafted when he was at the Colts and I know he had a lot of love and respect for me there, so we got the opportunity to work with each other now so I’m excited.”
Hurts’ first start came against the Saints in Week 13, and I was very impressed with what he was able to do against the NFL’s second-best defense per DVOA.
