We’re all excited for football here in Philly. Howie Roseman and the front office made a number of big moves this offseason to improve the roster and gave the team a real chance to compete in 2022.
But as we all know, there’s still a lot of question marks surrounding the starting quarterback, which is obviously never ideal.
The biggest x-factor for this team in ’22 will be Jalen Hurts. I don’t think there’s anyone who would argue that. In the NFL, you’ll go as far as your quarterback can take you. It’s a sentiment that’s been proven time and time again throughout the years.
Since were in the midst of the NFL lull period, whenever we hear any type of noteworthy news about the Eagles, we have no choice but to listen. Over the weekend, Eagles insider Derrick Gunn spoke with Rob Ellis and Barrett Brooks on JAKIB Media’s Sports Takes. They talked all things Eagles in their near 3-hour sit down, but the snippet that’s making headlines revolves around Hurts and his development this offseason.
Here’s what Gunn had to say on Hurts:
I know it’s a controlled environment. And, like I tell you guys all the time, I don’t get too hyped about OTAs, minicamp, and even training camp. Because it’s controlled.
But when I asked a few people back in late May about where Jalen Hurts was in his progress, one person said ‘Let me just give you a scenario of what he went through in one day of practice. It’s a 10 play scenario. He had three picks, four incompletions, and three sacks.’ That was his 10 play series, OK.
And I followed up with ‘So what are you thinking?’ And the answer was, the direct answer was: ‘He’s got a ways to go.’ And that’s not very encouraging when you hear all this offseason news [about how] he’s working with this quarterback guru, he’s working on his mechanics, he has a second year in Nick Sirianni’s playbook.“
DGunn isn’t one to just say stuff to make some noise, so I have to believe he’s telling the truth here. Brooks chimed in after this excerpt from Gunn and said that he had heard similar things from his sources.
Now, should we be concerned about Hurts after hearing this? Truthfully, I already had my concerns heading into the season. To me, this isn’t much of a revelation from DGunn.
Just because Nick Sirianni and Howie have done nothing but shower Hurts with praise this offseason doesn’t mean they don’t have their reservations, either. One look at all the moves they’ve made, or have tried to make, since Hurts has become the starter and it’s obvious that the organization is keeping their options open.
For starters, the team tried to acquire both Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson this offseason. They went out and traded for Gardner Minshew last season as insurance and they gave a big undrafted free agent bonus to quarterback Carson Strong this offseason. Not to mention Howie and the front office have given themselves enough ammo in next year’s draft to target a quarterback if Hurts fails to live up to expectations this year.
At the end of the day, Jalen Hurts was never drafted to be the team’s franchise quarterback. It may seem like he was given everything that’s transpired since then, but the truth is if Carson Wentz would have played at an above average level in 2020, he’d likely still be the team’s signal caller. If it weren’t for an unprecedented drop-off from Wentz, Hurts would be the backup right now.
This tidbit from Derrick Gunn shouldn’t shift anyone’s perception of Hurts. After all, it is just OTAs. We’ll have no idea what kind of leap Hurts is going to make this year until Week 1 rolls around.
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