Jalen Hurts responds to often-criticized 'flaw' in his arsenal
Stop us if any of this sounds familiar. 'This offense looks as stale as it did last season...'. Sounds about right, doesn't it? How about this? 'With all the offensive weapons the Philadelphia Eagles have at Jalen Hurts' disposal, this team shouldn't look as bad as it does without A.J. Brown'.
If you're like most, you've either heard a friend tell you something similar or you've found yourself making those statements yourselves. Here's another.
'Jalen Hurts and Kellen Moore refuse to attack the middle of the field with this stale passing game'. That's the one... Why this keeps happening is the million-dollar question.
As you might expect, this was brought up again after Philly beat the Cleveland Browns and QB1 sat with the media on Wednesday. Buckle up, we have much to discuss.
Jalen Hurts discusses what's been an obvious conversation piece about his evolution as a passer.
We've gone on and on about Jalen's evolution. He's been an MVP runner-up. He's been picked apart for what's been described as regression. We've discussed the litany offensive play-callers he's had until we're blue in the face.
Those discussions often lead us to familiar areas. Why does he turn the ball over so much? Why is he still seemingly confused about what he's seeing? And, yes... Why does he refuse to attack the middle of the field with his arm?
That last question received a shot in the arm when NFL Next Gen stats released his passing chart after Philly's Week 6 win over Cleveland. Notice anything?
Jalen Hurt's passing chart from the Eagles' victory over the Browns. He had an average time to throw of 2.94 seconds,...
Posted by Inside The Iggles on Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Now, as stated above, here's some of what we thought...
Jim Schwartz’s scheme involves a lot of single-high shells and pressure looks, which probably plays into the lack of targets in the middle portion of the field.
Jalen Hurts spoke with Philly media members on Wednesday. He offered the following as his theory.
Jalen Hurts on the questions about the #Eagles' perceived unwillingness to test the middle of the field.. pic.twitter.com/obDrAjWgsu
— Inside The Iggles (@InsideIggles) October 16, 2024
Longtime Eagles statistical analyst Fran Duffy added to the discussion recently. He's always thorough, so he's definitely worth paying attention to.
Hurts rarely attacks the MOF but he's (typically) been effective when doing so!
— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) October 16, 2024
Obviously sample size has something to do with that, but Hurts can try embrace those throws more often
You need to read the entire piece for the full deep dive 👇
READ: https://t.co/vzPDOgIHhj pic.twitter.com/BdDsc8VkPe
Let's make long stories short. While all of this is interesting, we're stumped on how to fix this. This is fixable, but it also has to improve.
Sometimes, Hurts abandons the pocket too early. Then again, that could result from him being too short to see over his offensive linemen.
Oh well... For now, we'll move on to the New York Giants. Something tells us this conversation isn't ending for a while.