EAGLES HOMEWORK ON HURTS HAS MORE THAN PAID OFF

Paul Domowitch

Let’s take a short trip back in time. Let’s go back to April 24, 2020. The second day of the NFL’s COVID draft.

After selecting TCU wide receiver Jalen Reagor in the first round, the Eagles used their second-round pick on Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Eagles’ fans were apoplectic. The radio talk shows were questioning general manager Howie Roseman’s sanity. The grace period from the Eagles’ 2017 Super Bowl title had officially ended.

The team had just signed Carson Wentz to a $108 million contract extension the previous summer. What in the hell was Howie doing, wasting the 53rd overall pick in the draft on a quarterback, they wanted to know.

Roseman’s wife’s 91-year-old grandfather, who lived in Mobile, Alabama, just a three-hour drive from the University of Alabama where Hurts had played for three years before transferring to Oklahoma, sent Howie a cartoon from one of the local newspapers showing an angry mob of Eagles fans harassing Jalen.

“It’s not every day that you draft the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and people are mad about it,’’ Roseman said at the time.

Eagles did their due diligence on Jalen Hurts before they drafted him out of Oklahoma. Obviously that research paid off. Photo by Terence Lewis. 

Part of it was indifference toward Hurts, a tough but undersized dual-threat quarterback with an underwhelming pre-draft scouting report who had lost his starting job at Alabama to Tua Tagavailoa and was ranked anywhere from fifth to eighth among the draft-eligible quarterbacks that year.

Tanner McKee is firmly holding on to the No. 2 spot in the QB room. Photo by Terence Lewis. 

But a bigger part was the confusion over why the Eagles would use a pick that high on a quarterback in the first place when they already had Wentz, who they had taken with the second overall pick in the 2016 draft and given the afore-mentioned $108 million extension to 10 months earlier.

The decision to draft Hurts really wasn’t a reflection on Wentz. His plus-62 touchdowns-to-interceptions differential over the previous four years was one of the best in the league. Roseman truly hoped Wentz would be the team’s starting quarterback for a long time.

But the guy was injury-prone. He had missed 13 of 54 games the previous three seasons, including five of the Eagles’ six playoff games during that period. And he had left the sixth playoff game – a disappointing 17-9 loss to the Seattle Seahawks just four months earlier – after suffering a concussion on the Eagles’ ninth offensive snap of the game. 

He was replaced by 40-year-old Josh McCown, who did his best, but was playing on old-man hamstrings that quickly betrayed him.

So, Roseman wanted to solidify the backup quarterback spot. He remembered well how Nick Foles had come to the rescue in 2017 after Wentz shredded his ACL.

Local product Kyle McCord is pushing for the No. 3 spot in the QB room. Photo by Terence Small. 

He knew the NFL had expanded the number of playoff teams in each conference from six to seven. He knew the league probably was going to be adding a 17th regular-season game. Both of those things increased the need for a reliable backup to Wentz. 

And with Wentz’s cap number jumping from $18.7 million to $34.7 million in 2021, the Eagles really couldn’t afford to spend a lot on a veteran quarterback. So, drafting Hurts made a lot of sense.

Roseman also felt that even if Wentz stayed healthy, Hurts’ running ability would provide the offense with an added dimension. He believed Hurts had the skillset of where the league was going with respect to mobile quarterbacks. He was right. The Eagles just had to decide whether Hurts was Lamar Jackson or Taysom Hill.

“The guy's a gifted athlete,’’ Lincoln Riley, who coached Hurts at Oklahoma told me after the 2020 draft. “There’s a lot of things you’re going to be able to do with him. That said, I also believe he wasn’t drafted by the Eagles solely to be a gadget guy. 

They believe he can be a starting quarterback in the NFL.’’

Dorian Thompson-Robinson is hoping to push for a spot on the roster or practice squad. Photo by Terence Small

Drafting Hurts wasn’t an off-the-top-of-Howie’s-head decision. They had scouted him well. He and his staff had watched every one of Hurts’ snaps at Alabama and Oklahoma. Roseman had cultivated a good relationship with Riley, who said the Eagles were “very detailed in their discussions and the homework they did’’ on Hurts.

Five years later, no one is apoplectic anymore about Roseman’s decision to draft Hurts. The plan to have him back up Wentz went to hell when Wentz’s fragile psyche couldn’t handle Hurts’ presence in the quarterback room. 

He was traded after the 2020 season and has vanished into NFL oblivion, making just nine starts for three different teams in the last three years.

That’s the bad news. The good news: Roseman was right about Hurts. 

He has developed into a top-5 quarterback who has led the Eagles to two Super Bowl appearances in the last three years, including their impressive 40-22 blowout win over Kansas City in February.

The people that don’t want to admit they were wrong five years ago will tell you the lion’s share of the credit for the Eagles’ Super Bowl win goes to Saquon Barkley and Vic Fangio’s defense.

Yes, the Eagles had an NFL-high 55.7 run-play percentage last season. Yes, their 448 pass attempts were the fewest in the league.

But Hurts had a career-high 68.7 completion percentage, averaged a career-best 8.0 yards per attempt, had a career-high 103.7 passer rating and threw just two – two! -- interceptions in his last 15 starts, including the Eagles’ four playoff wins.

He finished tied for the fifth in the league rushing touchdowns with 14 and tied for ninth in rushing first downs with 62. He was named the Super Bowl MVP after completing 17 of 22 passes, rushing for 72 yards and scoring three touchdowns against the Chiefs.

Hurts will be dealing with his fifth different play caller – Kevin Patullo – in six NFL seasons. Throw in the three different playcallers he had in four years at Alabama and Oklahoma and you’re talking eight different playcallers in 10 years.

But he had no problems last year getting in sync with Kellen Moore, and he shouldn’t have any problems this year with Kevin Patullo, who has been the Eagles’ passing game coordinator the last four years.

“I’ve been treating this offseason like I’ve treated every offseason,’’ Hurts said. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can. Trying to develop that chemistry with the play caller.

“Kevin’s been a great leader. He has great command and I think that will only grow over time. Later on down the road, we’ll see how the sequencing is. A lot of teams in the league run very similar plays. 

"It’s a matter of how you teach and what are the details within the play and how you sequence it as you call a game. He’ll find that. I’m excited to see what we can do.’’

Said Patullo: “The biggest thing with Jalen is he always wants to get better, and that’s awesome. He’s willing to listen to anybody about anything. If he feels it’s going to make him better, he’s willing to take it and try it. He’s a great player for a reason.’’ *