Don’t rule out an early Eagles extension for Jalen Hurts if he plays well

No one should live their lives with the fear of making mistakes hanging over them. You have to miss the mark from time to time in order to get better. Sometimes, errors help you appreciate your journey more. We haven’t discussed this with Philadelphia Eagles vice president/general manager Howie Roseman or QB1, Jalen Hurts, ever. As a matter of fact, if we had them on the phone right now, we’d probably forget to ask them again, and we’d talk about something else. Something tells us that both would agree with that theory though.

After watching Howie seemingly stub his toe on the same rocks over and over (bad draft picks/extending aging or regressing players for too many years and too much money), it’s been nice to see him accept his flaws and change his approach to portions of his business model.

It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s not okay to keep making the same mistakes. Howie is a better general manager now than he was at this same time last year. Jalen is a better quarterback. We have to believe that, even if we’re wrong, or we all are going to drive ourselves crazy.

Sure, Howie can still be stubborn. We see too many bad players hang around too long and get too much on-field time (Jalen Reagor and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside) when guys who were drafted lower or went undrafted have proven they’re better players (think Greg Ward), but there are signs that Howie has grown older and wiser. Just look at how he’s handled the most recent offseason.

Then, there’s Hurts. He’ll need to learn from some of the mistakes he made as the full-time starter at quarterback last season. You saw that first game versus the New York Giants and the playoff game versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, right?

Understand something. This isn’t a session for bashing  Jalen Hurts. It’s hard playing quarterback in the NFL. Don’t let guys like Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow fool you. Most prospects will have an obvious learning curve while struggling with some of the nuances of playing the position early.

In other words, they’ll need to be allowed the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. Here are two questions though.

How much improvement needs to occur on Jalen Hurts’ part to be deemed satisfactory and how early might an extension come if QB1 is deemed worthy? Those will be two talking points as we move through the 2022-2023 NFL season.

History has taught us that, if the Eagles elect to extend Jalen Hurts, they might do so sooner rather than later.

While, as stated, we see no positive fruit coming from bashing Hurts, he can’t be given a full pass either. It’s year three. He has no choice but to get better. If he doesn’t, he may play himself out of a job. Ask yourselves this though. If Philadelphia does move on, who are they going to find that’s better? That’s their dilemma.

Sure, the argument can be made that there are no guarantees that any of the QB prospects in the 2023 NFL Draft class are upgrades. We can also state that we don’t like most of next year’s potential free agent prospects at the quarterback position. Sam Darnold, Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones, and Teddy Bridgewater? Really?

We talk about the need for Hurts to learn from his mistakes and get better, but haven’t we seen the best of those guys already? Why does it feel like they aren’t getting any better? Why do some believe that throwing them in another jersey will fix everything and make them better?

In other words, they’ve made a ton of mistakes. The problem is they keep making those mistakes over and over again. There’s a belief that it’s easy to argue for Jalen’s job security in 2023, but where does that leave him in terms of a possible extension to keep him in Philly going forward?

We know that he has to make the playoffs. We know that he needs to eliminate the inexcusable interceptions and show improvement in his arm talent and mechanics. The questions are about whether or not he’s hit his ceiling and if those are goals that are within reach.

Does Jalen Hurts need to win 12 games or lead Philly on a deep playoff run? No one would complain if he did, but that brings us to the following conclusion. No one knows what Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni are looking for. Only Howie and Nick know the answers to that.

Here’s what we can say though. If they like what they see, Hurts will get paid. He will be around, and if he earns that extension, it will come sooner rather than later. That’s what the Eagles brass did with Carson Wentz. That’s what they did with Jordan Mailata.

Sure, they got the short end of the stick with that Wentz deal in terms of dead cap space, but Howie parlayed the rights to Philly’s former QB1 into some nice draft capital. You see? He’s learning from his mistakes! And, if Hurts does the same and evolves into Philadelphia’s franchise quarterback going forward, it won’t be long before we’re raving over how wise the Birds were for spending that second-round selection on him and signing him early as opposed to waiting until later.

That’s how the Dallas Cowboys wound up overspending for Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott. Something tells us that they’ll pay for that in 2022.