Over the last week, there has been a growing mob on social media and television all aboard the criticism train for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
After ESPN's report came out about Hurts changing calls, having poor body language, and being called uncoachable, there seemed to be a lot of people outside of Philly not defending Hurts despite his great resume. Former Eagles quarterback Nick Foles brought much-needed perspective to the situation on his "The SZN Podcast," sharing his experiences with how difficult it is to learn new terminology every year under new coaches and defending Hurts.
"It's a lot more difficult. Now, eventually, at some point during training camp or some point during the season, it becomes second nature, but what stinks about it is that you never really get to go into an offseason building off of what you learned last year with your terminology and the quality of coaching, which means you can only get to a certain extent. Now, listen, he's taken them to two Super Bowls and won a Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs and was Super Bowl MVP with all of this going on. To me, that is fantastic. Another worry here is this is a young coach. Alright, that's awesome. Say they have a lot of success, well, Sean Mannion, if they have a lot of success this year, might be a head coach next year, which means he has a new OC, but I guess that is the thing you deal with when you have success. You will lose coaches because somebody is going to be hired away."
Nick Foles defends Jalen Hurts on his recent podcast
If fans include his college days, Hurts is about to have his 11th different play caller in 11 years. That means he has had a different play-caller every single year he has been in college and in the pros. Former offensive coordinator Shane Steichen is the only one he has had for more than a year, but remember, head coach Nick Sirianni was the original play caller in 2021 before Steichen took over.
Foles further defended Hurts, saying he understands the hesitancy to go with other plays when Hurts might know better what works for the offense. That's understandable since Hurts knows what's best for the players he's been around with longer than the offensive coordinator has.
This was just another excuse for the media to take down a man who, all he has done in his NFL career, is win games, 70% of those games if fans want to be exact. A Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl MVP is not something many players are doing in their careers, so some respect should be put on Hurts' name.
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All the criticism won't go away, but the hope is that more people will defend Hurts like Foles did and share the perspective that football fans don't know.