Trusted Eagles source says Jalen Hurts demotion is ‘only a matter of time’

The Philadelphia Eagles‘ season-long evaluation of Jalen Hurts isn’t going well. The Birds are 2-5, and they appear to be a team that’s closer to getting worse and deteriorating even further than they are to being a team that can turn this around during the week that leads up to the next game.

After getting off to a torrid start, a three-touchdown performance in which he completed 77 percent of his passes, the excitement was through the roof. Sales of his jersey skyrocketed. The Birds were the only NFC East team that had won a game during the NFL’s first week of action, but it wasn’t long before a thought crossed all of our minds.

Everyone calm down! They beat the Atlanta Falcons!

A very familiar source for Eagles content thinks Jalen Hurts’ days are numbered.

Philly’s opening-weekend win feels like it was last season even if we all know that it wasn’t. Hurts has come back down to Earth though.

He’s thrown seven touchdowns over the past six weeks (most of which have come in garbage time). He’s completed just 56.9% of his passes since Week 1. He’s been unable to find the end zone with his arm in Week 2, versus the San Francisco 49ers, and in Week 5, versus the Carolina Panthers.

To complicate things, the Eagles officially announced, one day after their most recent debacle, that they were shipping Joe Flacco back to the New York Jets in exchange for a conditional sixth-round draft choice, one that could become a fifth. That means that Gardner Minshew is the backup now. Cue the controversy.

Eliot Schorr-Parks, who covers the Birds for 94 WIP-FM in Philadelphia, sees Minshew’s promotion as some writing on the wall and the beginning stages of Jalen Hurts’ demotion. Take a look:

It’s too early to start thinking about things like quarterback controversies, but anything is possible, right? Remember when we thought that replacing Carson Wentz with Jalen Hurts was unlikely?

Some may ask this question. If Philly made all of those efforts to communicate to Wentz that the starting quarterback role was his and ensure him that his job wasn’t in any danger, why would they put Hurts in a position where he may need to look over his shoulder? Schorr-Parks offers his take on that.

Honestly, two things can be said about this. One, good competition never hurt anyone, and having two good quarterbacks can be seen as being a good thing. Sure, we get the idea that giving your quarterback any inclination that you’re not sold on whether or not he is the guy can cause unnecessary emotional stress and locker room issues.

There’s something else to mull over too, however, and this is the second point. We acknowledge the need for legitimate depth at every other position. At some point, we have to believe that having starting-level quarterbacks in the QB2 role isn’t a flaw.

Hurts understands the situation. He knows that Philly thought about drafting a quarterback in Round 1 of the most recent NFL Draft. By virtue of playing in Philadelphia, he understood that he was signing up for a job unlike any other in the NFL. He also knows that Gardner Minshew has started and won games in the National Football League.

Hurts is cut from a different cloth though. This is one of the most humble professional athletes that you will find, and he’s wise beyond his ears. He also isn’t as fragile as, say, a Carson Wentz. Competition is only going to make him better. We saw what happened at the University of Alabama.