Come on. They used a second-round selection on this guy. Moving away from Jalen Hurts immediately or creating an environment where the young signal-caller is forced to look over his shoulder right away would be among the worst decisions that the Philadelphia Eagles could make right?
There’s a lot of talk surrounding the Birds again, but this time, the subject is the quarterback they decided to keep. Buckle up guys and gals. There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s get you all caught up as we move into the second week of 2021’s third month.
The Jalen Hurts discussions are hot and heavy in the fan base and media.
Whenever there’s any talk surrounding the quarterback position, especially in the Eagles’ fan base, antennas will tune to that frequency. Let’s be frank. We’re talking about the most recognizable position in all of the major sports.
The NFL’s most-opinionated fan base has been at odds with one another since former Birds signal-caller Carson Wentz entered a slump in 2020 that he clearly was never going to come out of, at least not before the most recent professional football season reached its end.
Respected football voices have been discussing some comments that were made by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, comments that suggest Philly has no intention of creating a quarterback controversy by drafting a signal-caller early. Instead, according to Mort, Philly’s brass and new head coach have been instructed by Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie to do all that they can to ensure QB1 is successful. As Mort puts it, “Jalen Hurts is the guy”.
Les Bowen of the Philly Inquirer questioned some of Mort’s theory, and the latter, a man who has known Eagles chairman and CEO for quite some time, issued a response. Take a look.
I would not report the Eagles have internal unanimity on Hurts as QB1 but sources say the boss, Jeffrey Lurie, has instructed his group to prioritize making Hurts successful in 2021 as opposed to creating a true competition.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) March 8, 2021
That’s very interesting stuff, isn’t it? Here’s the thing though. If you’re a Birds fan, this may be one of those rare instances in which Lurie is right.
Put some respect on Jalen Hurts’ name! This guy deserves a shot.
Whenever a team selects someone in the second round of any NFL Draft, the theory is they’re doing so with the intent of seeing him develop into one of the foundations for the team’s future. While some of you believe the best course of action is for Philly to take another quarterback at the sixth selection in 2021’s draft, that may not be the wisest of decisions.
Sure, they can trade that guy or Hurts if one or the other loses the preseason quarterback competition, but rather than do that, the more sensible play seems to be building a team around the guy this team currently has and coaching him up so that he becomes successful.
Carson Wentz wasn’t perfect. He clearly didn’t possess the mental toughness to succeed as a quarterback playing football’s most important position in one of the NFL’s toughest cities, but the Eagles also failed him. They can’t make the same mistakes with Jalen Hurts.
Let’s be frank. We don’t know if Jalen Hurts is better than BYU’s Zach Wilson, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, or North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, but we don’t know if they’re better than Hurts either. We do know that those guys didn’t lead two of college football’s most storied programs, handle adversity after being benched, and successfully and earn Heisman runner-up honors in the process.
With that being said, Hurts is worth building a team around for now. Next year’s crop of signal-callers won’t be as good as this year’s class, but Philly at least needs to allow themselves the opportunity to see if the guy they have can play. Four games (or three games and three quarters) isn’t enough to determine that.
This team can’t keep drafting guys and going out to sign free agents because they’re incapable or unwilling to coach the guys up that they have. Building around Jalen Hurts is the best course of action for this Eagles team.