How Jalen Hurts choreographed A.J. Brown’s 1st Eagles touchdown

It’s hard to remember when it happened. Perhaps it was late sometime on Monday night or during the early hours of Tuesday morning. Regardless of the timeline, the 24-hour rule has been broken in consecutive weeks. We’ve constantly heard Jalen Hurts, QB1 of the Philadelphia Eagles, state that it’s unwise to get too high after a win or two low after a loss, yet here we are.

Hump Day approaches as we watch the final days of September trickle away. We should have long put the Eagles’ wins over the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Commanders behind us, but we keep thinking about A.J. Brown’s debut, DeVonta Smith’s big day in Week 3, and the touchdown passes that Jalen threw to both of them during the 24-point onslaught the Birds delivered in Landover. Let’s talk about that Hurts/Brown connection for a second.

Shane Steichen discussed Jalen Hurts’ diagnosis of the Commanders defense.

One day, when A.J. Brown has a ton of touchdowns in an Eagles jersey to his credit, we’ll take some time to reminisce and think about his first. Perhaps, when Jalen has stacked tons of wins and we’re talking about his dissection of opposing defenses and the growth we’ve seen from him over the years, we’ll think back to Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season.

Ahead of Round 4, a game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, Philly’s offensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon sat with members of the Philly media and bragged about his QB’s growth and work ethic. For those of you that didn’t notice, Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown’s first TD connection of the 2022 regular season was the result of QB1 making an adjustment on the fly. Here’s a quote (fast forward to the 7:22 mark if you’re following along).

"It was (a called play), but he saw a look to where he adjusted one guy’s route (A.J. Brown’s route). He adjusted one guy’s route because he saw the coverage, and that, again, was huge. I mean that’s the preparation part. That (comes from) watching film like he does, day in and day out to get that done. Great play by A.J. Great play by him. I mean that was huge. What was that? Third and eight at the nine (yard line). We were able to score there. It was a big-time play."

They say negativity moves the needle much more regularly than something positive ever will. Perhaps they’re right.

Have you noticed? It’s become increasingly difficult to find those Philadelphia Eagles fans that said Jalen Hurts isn’t capable of being a franchise quarterback and that he has a ‘noodle’ for an arm.

Nothing silences the naysayers like success, and if Philly’s QB1 continues on the incline that he’s on, we may be in a position where Howie Roseman can utilize all of that draft capital he acquired that we once thought was being stockpiled to grab another quarterback if need be to address some other positions of need.

Meanwhile, Jalen is constantly working to become better. Here’s more from Coach Steichen.

"Shoot, last week, I don’t even remember what time it was, maybe 8 o’clock at night, and he came up and said ‘what’s up’. I said, ‘You going to go home to get some rest?’ He said ‘I’m going in the weight room and getting on the bike."

Jalen Hurts is just different, but if you’re wondering why he’s made the jump that he has and why he’s developed so quickly, look no further than his work ethic. Can you imagine where he might be in his development three years from now?