Jumpin’ Jalen

The biggest discussion point of the Eagles offseason was whether the Eagles had the right quarterback. Jalen Hurts played pretty well in 2021, but the wild card loss to Tampa Bay showed a need for improved QB play. Could Hurts be that guy? Should they trade for Deshaun Watson, even with his complicated and disturbing situation? Would going after Russell Wilson make sense?

The Eagles explored their options, but nothing panned out so they stuck with Hurts. This isn’t to be dismissive of him, but both Watson and Wilson had played at an elite level in the NFL. Hurts hadn’t come anywhere close to that and there were doubts about whether he could. It makes sense for a franchise to at least consider their options.

There is an old saying in sports that “sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make”. That has absolutely proven to be true with Hurts this year. He has raised his game in a big way. The jump from 2021 to 2022 is huge. Hurts doesn’t look like the guy from last year who struggled to use the middle of the field, struggled against good defenses and missed big play opportunities more than he should have.

https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/1575463367891976194

https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1575218830657605632

Jalen Hurts is the first QB in NFL history with:

900+ passing yards and 150+ rushing yards in first 3 games of a season pic.twitter.com/ZNHUuV6bJ2

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) September 25, 2022

I’d say he’s off to a pretty good start this year.

I knew Hurts would be better this year. That’s not because I’m some football savant. It wasn’t a PFF metric or anything like that. History told me Hurts would be better.

Go back to 2000. Donovan McNabb was coming off his rookie season where he played in 12 games and started six. He showed immense talent in that first season, but he still looked like a rookie. McNabb was the starter going into the 2000 season and all eyes were on him. McNabb led the Eagles to an 11-5 record, a playoff berth and he was runner-up for NFL MVP.

McNabb carried that offense on his back. He led the team in rushing (Duce Staley got hurt early in the season). McNabb still managed to take big steps forward as a passer. He was more accurate. He got the ball to his WRs and let them make plays for him. McNabb threw for 390 yards and 4 TDs in a key late season game.

Anyone who watched McNabb as a rookie saw that he took a huge leap forward in 2000. He looked like a real QB and not just a talented rookie.

Offensive football changed a lot between then and 2016 when Carson Wentz entered the league. Passing was expected, even from rookies. Wentz had a good rookie year, posting solid numbers like 3,782 passing yards and a completion percentage of 62.4. The problem is that Wentz threw a lot of short, safe passes. He averaged just 6.2 yards per pass attempt. That is small ball at its finest.

A year later, Wentz was headed for NFL MVP when he tore his ACL. His 2017 performance is arguably the best season ever by an Eagles QB (I’d lean toward Cunningham in 1990). Wentz went from being the “avoid mistakes guy” to a major playmaker. I think we all remember this amazing moment.

https://twitter.com/NFL_Stats/status/1168545297120792577

Wentz led the Eagles to an 11-2 record. He made big plays on almost a weekly basis. The Eagles thought they had the next great NFL QB. The guy from 2016 was a distant memory.

Let’s go for a very different example. The Eagles signed Rodney Peete in 1995 to be their backup QB. He was 29-years old and had 48 career starts under his belt. Peeted was fine with backing up Randall Cunningham. The Eagles started 1-3 and Cunningham struggled, on and off the field. 34-year old Jon Gruden was the team’s offensive coordinator. He was tough and demanding and trying to teach the west coast offense to a team that hadn’t run anything like it.

Peete took over as the starter in Week 5 and the Eagles went 9-3 from there. They won because of great RB play and very good defense. The passing game was ugly with a capital U. Peete finished the year with 8 TDs and 14 INTs. His passer rating was 67.3. Peete’s highlight game was throwing for 264 yards and a TD on Sunday night against the Broncos. That’s crazy.

The passing game wasn’t just held back by Peete. There were multiple problems. The OL needed help. The receivers needed to be changed. Fred Barnett and Calvin Williams were terrific in the previous system, but they struggled in the WCO where they needed to live in the middle of the field.

The Eagles drafted Jermane Mayberry to upgrade the OL. They replaced Barnett and Williams with Irving Fryar and Chris T. Jones, a pair of big, physical receivers. And Peete had a full offseason of time to learn the WCO and get coached up by Gruden.

Peete threw for 269 yards and 2 TDs in the 1996 season opener and you could see right away that this offense was going to be very different from the year before. Peete got hurt in Week 5 and Ty Detmer took over for him, but you could see what a different player he was in just that first month.

So what do we take away from all of that?

• Experience matters
• Coaching matters
• Skill talent matters
• OL matters

Jalen Hurts played in 15 games as a rookie, but only started four. He was purely a role player for most of the season. And that came under Doug Pederson. The 2020 Eagles were highly dysfunctional and finished 4-11-1. Pederson was fired and Nick Sirianni was brought in to run the show.

2021 was Hurts first season as full-time starter in the NFL. He also was dealing with a new coaching staff and a new offense. In some ways, it was like a second rookie season. The results were about what you would expect. Hurts had games where he looked really good. He had others where he looked lost. You could see potential, but also issues that needed to be fixed.

Hurts big jump in 2022 is due to several reasons. First and foremost is the work he’s put in. Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen used the word “relentless” to describe Hurts in a recent press conference. That’s a perfect summation. Hurts is incredibly driven. He is obsessed with football and will do anything he can to improve. We’ve seen other young QBs work hard, but Hurts just feels different. Maybe it was playing under Nick Saban for three years. Hurts is different than any other young QB I’ve seen with the Eagles.

This offseason Hurts knew he needed to work on his mechanics. The NFL has rules limiting what team coaches can do so players go find QB gurus to work with. Hurts trained with Tom House and his staff. House is a former baseball pitcher who is an expert on biomechanics and how to improve QBs. This isn’t something you go into casually. Hurts didn’t just go to a local high school or his alma mater to throw to receivers. He wanted someone who would push him and give him serious offseason coaching.

You only get better if you work hard and you’re honest about things. Hurts knew his mechanics needed to improve. He found a specialist to help him with that. Hurts stayed locked in with his weight room and classroom training. He is truly committed to being the best version of himself.

Now let’s talk about experience. Hurts had 19 NFL starts going into the offseason. I can’t stress to you how valuable experience is. He even got to start a playoff game. That start was critical for Hurts seeing where he was and how far he had to go. The Eagles fell behind 31-0 in that game. There were plays to be made, but Hurts was overwhelmed. He didn’t get going until the outcome was already decided.

Beyond just NFL experience, Hurts is in his second year in this offensive system. He didn’t have to learn a new playbook for the first time in a while. He’s got the same coaches around him for the first time since high school. Hurts could focus more on growing and less on learning. That’s huge for a young player. When you know a system, you become comfortable. The playbook is easier to recall and you certainly understand it better. We saw a great example of that on Sunday. Hurts had to call his own play on fourth down with the clock ticking at the end of the half. He called a good play and then got his guys to execute it correctly, before time ran out. Hurts hit DeVonta Smith in the back of the end zone for a TD.

That sequence would have never happened last year. Hurts didn’t have the knowledge or experience to pull something like that off.

One of the benefits Hurts has is working under a good coaching staff. Nick Sirianni is a good offensive mind and has proven to be a good offensive coach. Steichen is starting to get mentioned as a head coaching candidate for 2023. QB coach Brian Johnson will get some buzz as Hurts continues to play well.

Last year Trevor Lawrence struggled as a rookie. Lawrence is incredibly talented, but Urban Meyer proved to be a terrible coach and that made life brutally hard for Lawrence and the Jaguars. Hurts has been lucky to play for Pederson and Sirianni. Even in the dysfunctional 2020 season, Hurts was around some good coaches. Things got worlds better when Sirianni and his guys came in. The drama was gone and everyone could focus on football.

I think Hurts would tell you that adding A.J. Brown and Zach Pascal has helped him a lot. Brown is the workhorse receiver he can feed the ball to. Pascal is the role player who can come up big a couple of times a game and make his own impact. Brown’s presence takes pressure of DeVonta and that has helped Smith to get better. Quez Watkins is a role player, but still an explosive playmaker. This is a very talented group of receivers and they also seem to have good chemistry.

The offense was good, but inconsistent last year. This year the offense has been unstoppable at times. The Eagles lead the NFL in total yards and they have yet to play a complete game. We don’t really know what the ceiling is for this group.

Inside #Eagles game notes: Philadelphia leads the NFL in total offense with 447 yards per game.

Eagles also rank first in the league with 36 explosive plays and second in yards per play, 6.5.

— Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) September 28, 2022

The Eagles PFF’s highest rated:
•pass offense
•pass blocking offense
•overall offense
•overall team
Things are looking GOOD in Philly. #FlyEaglesFly #Eagles

— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 26, 2022

As for the OL, the Eagles have arguably the best group in the NFL and they have good backups as well. Hurts has benefited from that since joining the team. He’s been lucky in that regard.

So think about the big picture here. You had a young QB who was driven to improve. He had all the same coaches as the year before and more experience under his belt, including a playoff game. He got an impact receiver and a good role player to add as weapons. And he still has a top flight OL. Hurts was going to improve this year. All the signs pointed to it.

How has Hurts improved?

His mechanics are a big part of it. Look at these throws.

pic.twitter.com/xgV7EYuoX7

— PhillyVids (@philly_vids) September 21, 2022

A lot of Hurts best throws in the past came while on the move. You must be able to win from the pocket and Hurts is now showing that he can do that. He is smooth and fluid mechanically. He looks comfortable. Improved mechanics also help with accuracy. He’s completing 67.3 percent of his passes. That’s good for someone who throws down the field as much as he does.

Hurts is making good reads and good decisions. Last year’s experience is helping him quite a bit in this area. Hurts knows what he’s seeing and is able to make quicker and smarter decisions. One of Hurts weaknesses last year was throwing the ball away. He led the league in throwing the ball out of bounds. You like him avoiding sacks, but the downside is that he was too prone to do this and not give his guys a chance to make plays. Hurts has cut down on that and is giving his guys more chances to help him out.

Hurts is now using the whole field. Last season the passing game pushed the ball to the right most of the time. That’s what Hurts was comfortable with. Now he’s using the middle of the field and the left side as well. Defenses can’t cheat to one side and that makes a huge difference.

While Hurts has made great strides as a passer, he remains a gifted runner. He’s on pace to run for 945 yards and 17 TDs. His versatility makes it very tough for defensive coordinators to gameplan for him. Washington stopped his running on Sunday, but gave up 340 passing yards. It is tough to have an answer for everything he can do.

The mystery now is how good he can be. We’ve only seen three games this year. This great start doesn’t mean Hurts is now better than Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. We need to see Hurts deal with some adversity. The more game tape teams get, the more likely they are to pick up on potential weaknesses. Hurts will have to deal with injuries to key teammates. How will he do if Andre Dillard is his LT or Jack Stoll is the starting TE? The Eagles biggest deficit this year is 7-0. How will he do when they’re down 21-0?

We also need to see how Hurts plays when facing a top team and/or a top defense. The best QBs win big games. They show up in critical situations and take care of business. That’s how they become stars.

This is going to be an interesting season as we learn about Hurts and just how good he can be. He’s already off to a better start than any of us would have expected. It will be fun to see how long he can keep this up.

The scary thing for Eagles opponents is that Hurts still has plenty of room to grow. The best is yet to come.

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