Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Hurts Talk

Posted June 7th, 2023 | 7 Comments »

Jalen Hurts had a breakout season in 2022. He flashed as a rookie in 2020 and then looked like a solid starter in 2021. Hurts took a major leap in 2022 and played like a star QB. It is fair for some to question what the future holds. Will he regress? Will he maintain the 2022 level? Can he get even better?

I think Hurts will improve.

QB is one of the positions where experience is absolutely crucial. Playing well is as much mental as physical. Hurts will have another year in the offensive system and that will help him to understand it even better. He can study game tape from last year and see how defenses tried to stop the Eagles passing game. The 2021 passing game wasn’t that good so the tape wasn’t as useful.

The game slows down for veteran QBs. They see things quicker and are able to process information quicker. That helps them to make good decisions and get the ball out faster.

Hurts has 34 starts and 4 playoff starts under his belt. That experience should help him to take the next step and play even better. He also will have another year of experience with DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown and Dallas Goederet. They should have improved chemistry, which will make them even more effective.

I don’t think Hurts will make a dramatic jump this season. He played at a high level last year so that would make it hard to make a big leap.

Hurts puts great touch on these throws. That makes them more catchable than similar passes from other QBs. Hurts is also dangerous because he trusts his receivers and will throw to them while they’re covered. He did this with AJ more than anyone and the two of them were hard to stop.

Nick Shook has Hurts as the #3 deep passer in the league.

  • Deep attempts:Ā 20-of-52, 780 yards, 10:2 TD-INT, 109.8 passer rating
  • Deep comp:Ā 38.5%
  • Deep xComp:Ā 29.1%
  • Deep CPOE:Ā +9.4%
  • PASSING SCORE (on deep attempts):Ā 99

Hurts landing here shouldn’t surprise anyone. As quarterback of the NFL’s third-ranked offense, he accounted for a large number of Eagles highlights in 2022. He fit in seamlessly with his team’s major acquisition from last offseason, receiverĀ A.J. Brown, powering the ninth-best passing offense in the league.

Hurts was stellar in every area of the game, including throwing downfield, breaking double digits in deep touchdown passes — an accomplishment only half of the quarterbacks on this list can claim.Ā But he trailed PrescottĀ in deep CPOE and passer rating. So why did Hurts end up ranked ahead of the Cowboys QB? Well, with so many players deadlocked at 99 in passing score, the best way to separate them was by diving deeper into the categories that help determine that metric. In EPA, which factors heavily into passing score, Hurts (37.3) was clearly better than Prescott (28.9), producing nearly 10 more expected points added, thanks to his 10:2 TD-INT ratio, which doubled Prescott’s output with only 17 more such attempts. Hurts also gained nearly 300 more yards on deep attempts than Prescott, although that is a result of Hurts’ advantage in volume.

Ultimately, points are what win you games. Hurts helped his team in that category more than Prescott, giving him a narrow edge over his Dallas counterpart after a season in which the teams split their matchups.

Nick Sirianni stresses the importance of explosive plays. He’s got the QB, the receivers and the offense to deliver them. It will be interesting to see if Hurts can get even better in this area. If so, that will make the Eagles even more dangerous on offense.

One area where Hurts can get better is the short passing game. Sometimes his desire for big plays leads him to pass on easy completions while looking downfield and focusing there. That overall philosophy is fine, but you do want to be able to march down the field methodically. There is value in that. Think how deadly Patrick Mahomes is now because he basically has an answer for whatever you try to do.

Fantasy Football is very different from real football, but FF does a good job of accounting for mobile QBs. It can be tough to compare Hurts to Matthew Stafford or Kirk Cousins. They play the same position, but in very different ways. FF gives the QBs credit for their running. Not all analysts do that. No need to mention specific guys named Chris.

We got to see Donovan McNabb improve during his career. We got a hint of that with Carson Wentz from 2016 to 2017, but then injuries set in and he flat-lined.

Hurts is healthy. He’s hungry. He’s got good coaches and good players around him. It will be exciting to see just how good he can be.

*****

We don’t have to worry about Hurts leaving the Eagles to pursue a baseball career.

https://twitter.com/NBCSPhilly/status/1666170746324807682

You won’t confuse him for George Brett or Tony Gwynn with that swing.

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Desai and Duffy

Posted June 6th, 2023 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles have had some legendary defensive coaches over the years. New defensive coordinator doesn’t have to be Buddy Ryan or Jim Johnson, but the team needs him to be better than his predecessor if they’re going to win a title. There is naturally a lot of intrigue with a coach we just don’t know a ton about. Desai has had one press conference so far. Luckily,Ā Desai was on Fran Duffy’s podcast and we got a half-hour of football talk from them.

I’m a little disappointed in Fran. We didn’t find out who the third string MLB is. There was no discussion of how Desai is going to use Nolan Smith. Fran didn’t even ask him for lengthy breakdowns of the players based on a couple of practices. There wasn’t one second of talk about which of the young defenders will end up in Canton!

Joking aside, it was a good listen. Fran made it a conversation about football and Desai’s background. It was just a couple of guys swapping football stories and talking a lot about Temple, where they both worked.

If you don’t have time to listen, Chris McPherson wrote up a piece on the discussion, giving his 5 key takeaways.

1. Desai explains his vision for the identity of the Eagles’ defense.

“We want to be able to run, hit, impose our will, play smart, and play a winning brand of football. I think that’s the essence of how we want to play defensive football here,” Desai said.

“The scheme is the scheme and there’s a lot of ways to play our scheme and do some things differently and we have some flexibility and the ability to adapt to some different situations. But at the end of the day, if we don’t do those things, the scheme doesn’t really matter because you better be able to run, hit, impose your will on your opponent, and play smart football so you can win.”

Desai has been reluctant to really talk much about his scheme so far. Part of that is being a coach and being secretive. I think Desai is also trying to make a point that there is no magical scheme. This one is good, that one is bad.Ā You choose a scheme you believe in, but it has to fit your players. It is then up to you to teach it and get the most out of your personnel.

That’s all logical.

My only frustration with this is that Desai talks about how he wants his guys to play and tries to focus on that. Fair enough, but his description of defense fits all 32 teams in the league and every team in organized football. That’s as simple and generalized as you can get.

I assume Nick Sirianni has told Desai there are 2 primary goals: come up with takeaways and limit explosive plays. Those were the goals under Jonathan Gannon, because those are Sirianni’s goals. Desai would be wise to talk about something like that, to give us a better sense of what he’s trying to accomplish. Saying “fast, physical, smart” isn’t going to cut it when you coach the Eagles. The fans are smart and there is too much media content out there. You’ve got to open up a bit.

I did like Desai talking about how he’s got to have answers for his players. Gannon did a good job as the Eagles DC, unless he faced a top QB. He just didn’t have the answers for how to deal with them. That’s where Desai can prove his value. Beating Kirk Cousins is nice, but what are you going to do against Dak Prescott or Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes?

This is where Desai’s time with a lot of good coaches can be a difference maker. He saw first hand how Vic Fangio put together gameplans for star QBs. He saw the adjustments that were made.

Desai will be an easy guy to pull for. He told Fran about how he broke into the business and worked his way up the coaching ladder from the very bottom. Desai becoming an NFL DC seemed about as likely as me and Kate Middleton going to a Slipknot concert together. But somehow he pulled that off. Maybe I should go ahead and buy those tickets.

I’m excited to see what Desai can do with this defense. He’s got some really good players to work with. He’s taking over a unit that is coming off a great season. Desai also has the benefit of an explosive offense on his side. That’s something he never had in Chicago.

Sirianni has put Desai in position to succeed. Let’s see what he can do.

*****

Art Donovan was a DT for the great Colts teams of the 50’s and 60’s. He is a great story-teller and one of the biggest personalities in NFL history.

https://twitter.com/nflnetwork/status/1185362803386765312

If you’re young and don’t know him, do yourself a favor and go watch YouTube clips. He’ll entertain you for hours.

*****

https://twitter.com/DiBirdsBlog/status/1665797690377003008

No surprises, but good stuff on the young guys looking to break out this year.

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