The Evolution Of Philadelphia Eagles Franchise QB Jalen Hurts

I am with Merrel Reese on this one. The voice of The Philadelphia Eagles stood up to defend Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts when the team was struggling earlier this season. Since the season even began I have had the same stance. When any NFL Franchise isn’t having success fair or not the Quarterback always takes the most heat. This has always been the case in the NFL.

I get that, however, Jalen is a damn good QB on a team that’s getting better as the season goes along. Some bring up a lack of consistent accuracy when even the team’s most talented pass catchers are dropping passes. Some bring up his arm strength despite long accurate bombs being dropped into his receiver’s breadbaskets down the sideline.

Think WR Quez Watkins vs The San Francisco 49ers in week two. Jalen has the arm strength to succeed in the NFL and his accuracy has improved greatly as the season goes on. He is essentially a rookie QB playing in his second offense in two years. He’s a dual-threat QB with elite athletism that has kept his team in games with his arms and his legs against better teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and L.A Chargers. Two games the Eagles would have lost by massive landslides if Carson Wentz were still under center for the birds. Now he has led the Eagles to two straight victories scoring 5 TDs in the process.

The fans are starting to come around. The team as a whole has won three of their last four including Sunday’s impressive shellacking of the heavily favored New Orleans Saints 40 to 29 with the Saints last TD coming in garbage time. Jalen Hurts looked very impressive as a passer however it was the ground game and Jalen’s performance as a runner kept the Saint’s number one ranked NFL run defense on their heels as he ran for 70 yards and three rushing TDs…The most ever by an Eagles Quarterback in one game in a very impressive list of former dual-threat Eagles QBs such as Randall Cunningham, Michael Vick, and Donovan Mcnabb.

Today Jalen has become the first QB in NFL history to throw for over 2,000 yards and run for over 500 in one season as he has now thrown for 2,159 yards and has run for 579 yards on the ground while scoring a total of 20 TDs with just 5 turnovers in the process with a quarter of the season left to be played. He is getting better and better every week and has proven to me that he is the Eagles franchise QB this season and moving forward. It’s not just his play on the field. It’s his leadership and poise that most second-year Quarterbacks simply do not possess.

First-year Head Coach Nick Sirianni certainly deserves credit for (finally) adjusting the offense into a more balanced approach and first-year DC Johnathon Gannon’s defense is also a huge reason for the bird’s recent success as he’s finally letting his defensive backs play a good mixture of man coverage and zone with far less predictable cover two zones.

Most importantly Gannon has decided to let his extremely talented D-line blitz opposing Quarterbacks more than just once or twice a game. Rushing four was Swartz’s thing so it has been great to see Gannon mix it up and get a lot more pressure on opposing QBs which has led to a lot of turnovers.

Jalen still has his doubters even after today’s historic performance at the helm albeit less and less. Let’s dive into that momentarily:

Week 1: Everyone loves their new QB as Jalen throws two TDs and rushes for another in a 32-6 thumping of the Atlanta Falcons.

Week 2: The offense as a whole struggled in a very close loss to the San Francisco 49ers in what was arguably the Eagle’s most winnable loss of the season. Coach Nick Sirianni calling his own Philly Special on 4th and goal being more so the culprit in this game than anyone else. The QB as always get’s blamed anyway.

Week 3: Jalen is asked to throw 40 times with a temporarily undermanned O-Line while he has several good RBs in the backfield.

Week 4: Jalen throws 3 TD passes and the Offense scores 30 points in a 12 point loss to the Chiefs. It simply wasn’t a winnable game at this point in the season and nobody deserves any blame for that loss.

Week 5: Jalen’s second-half heroics and a big day from the defense give the Eagles an improbable comeback win against the Carolina Panthers.

I already covered the team’s Painfully close loss to The Reigning Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That L.A. Chargers last-second loss in more detail:

Jalen is a fine leader who follows the game plan called by his head coach Nick Sirriani who is a first-year NFL Head Coach. Jalen Hurts put the Eagles on his back in a gut-wrenching last-second 3 point loss to the Chargers. He made spectacular play after play in the second half of that game against one of the best defenses in the NFL by diving and front flipping for a crucial first down and throwing a laser 28 yard TD strike to WR Devonta Smith late in the fourth Quater to tie the game up at 24 all.

Without Jalen under the helm rather than a close loss to a potential Super Bowl Contender this season that game would have been a blowout. You shouldn’t blame Jalen Hurts for DC Johnathon Gannon’s defense not showing up. You shouldn’t blame Jalen Hurts for having to play under several different Offensive line combinations. His play is noticeably better when Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, and Jordan Mailata can suit up as it obviously would be for any QB. You shouldn’t blame Jalen Hurts for some crucial missed field goals as Jake Elliot is having a very good season but has missed a couple of crucial kicks. You shouldn’t, but some do.

Against the Lions, in week 8 HC Nick Sirianni finally found a winning formula on the offensive side of the ball and has stuck to it as the Eagles beat the Lions 44 to 6, The Denver Broncos 30-13 and now The New Orlean saints 40-29. Seemingly at the same time, DC Johnathon Gannon has his defense creating turnovers, tackling better, hitting harder, and hustling to the football, and on an underrated note, first-year Special Teams Coordinator Michael Clay has his special teams unit playing excellent football as well. This is a young football team coming together and now they’re starting to not only win games but look like a team that nobody wants to play down the stretch.

They’re not just beating teams. They’re dominating them in all three phases of the game. That is in large part to the team’s leader and franchise QB1 Jalen Hurts who is finally receiving the praise that he deserves. make no mistake after the Eagle’s huge home win against the Saints this is a team that is not simply trending in the right direction for next season when they’ll have three first-round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.

This is a football team that should make the NFL playoffs in 2021 as well. As of today even I am convinced that this team which is playing phenomenal complementary football and has the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the league for the last quarter of the season should be expected to reach the postseason.

I guarantee you that these are expectations that this team now has. If you would have asked me a few weeks ago if the Eagles were making the playoffs this season I quite obviously would have said no. Jalen Hurts and the Coaching staff have pleasantly proved me wrong and now quite frankly I expect them to be in the 2021 NFL Playoffs. I would not even be all that surprised if they did some damage in January and February. They could already play with anyone. Now that they’ve found their footing there’s now not a team they can’t defeat. Jalen Hurts is the biggest reason why.

Closing Note: If you think about it this is technically the third offense Jalen has learned in two seasons as Coach Sirianni switched up the offense starting against Detroit (quite obviously for the better) making Jalen Hurts all the more impressive to me personally as the team’s Franchise QB.

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