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Eagles pounced on Jalen Hurts after missing out on Russell Wilson in 2012


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https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/2020-nfl-draft-jalen-hurts-russell-wilson-howie-roseman

Quote

Eagles pounced on Jalen Hurts after missing out on Russell Wilson in 2012

 

Back in 2012, the Eagles entered the draft with a goal to draft Russell Wilson out of Wisconsin and they didn’t do it. The Eagles’ plan was to draft Wilson with their third-round pick but he didn’t make it that far. 

They weren’t going to let that happen again. 

In a 1-on-1 interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman brought up the 2012 draft to explain why the Eagles used their second-round pick this year on Jalen Hurts. They wanted the player and they weren’t going to miss out. 

In 2012, we had a vision,” Roseman said. "We had a vision that we would draft a quarterback who’s been extremely successful, and I don’t want tampering charges on me but I think we can understand who that was, and then come back in the fourth round and draft a quarterback who won a world championship for us and go back-to-back. And I feel like we got a little cute. And I don’t know that there’s a big difference between taking the 53rd pick in the draft and taking a pick in the third round if you feel strongly about a guy.

When Roseman talks about getting cute back in 2012, this is what he means: The Eagles thought Wilson was going to be there with the 88th overall pick. Their plan was to take him at 88 and then draft Nick Foles in the fourth round. But their plan was ruined when the Seahawks took Wilson at No. 75. 

It’s also worth noting the Eagles in 2012 ended up with two second-round picks. They took Mychal Kendricks at No. 46 and Vinny Curry at 59. In hindsight, the Eagles obviously think they should have used 59 (they traded down from 51) to take Wilson instead of hoping he’d be there at 88. 

This is where we point out the Eagles were obviously in a very different situation in 2012 than they are now. The Eagles in 2012 were coming off the 8-8 Dream Team year and were about to post a 4-12 mark in Andy Reid’s last season. While their starting quarterback was on a long-term deal, as Roseman pointed out to Clark, Michael Vick was 31 at the time. Carson Wentz is still just 27. 

But the main point we think Roseman was trying to make was pretty simple: They missed out on a uniquely talented quarterback they wanted and they weren’t going to let that happen again. 

It probably won’t change your viewpoint and this doesn’t suddenly make the selection of Hurts a good pick. But — right or wrong — this is at least a little glimpse into the mindset of the front office. 

In the 1-on-1, Roseman again said this pick isn’t about Wentz. That was a point he tried to make on Friday as well. 

"Listen, Carson’s a phenomenal quarterback, he’s a phenomenal player, he’s a phenomenal person. And nothing changes on that,” Roseman said. 

Maybe this is truly just about adding depth at every position, but it’s still hard to imagine the Eagles’ drafting Hurts in the second round without Wentz’s injury history. I guess we’ll never really know for sure. Roseman said they owe it to everyone in the franchise to make sure that losing one player at any position won’t derail the entire team. 

"And we’ve seen that, we’ve seen that happen when the confetti fell on our heads,” he said. "We’ve see that through the years in the 20 years I’ve been with the Philadelphia Eagles where you need depth at every position.”

 

Posted
1 hour ago, Procus said:

And I don’t know that there’s a big difference between taking the 53rd pick in the draft and taking a pick in the third round if you feel strongly about a guy.

This in itself is a rather worrying statement. I mean I'm taking this out of context a little but there's a big difference between a second and a third round pick. 

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Posted
5 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

This in itself is a rather worrying statement. I mean I'm taking this out of context a little but there's a big difference between a second and a third round pick. 

It’d be interesting to see the percentages of starters, backups and pro bowlers drafted from each 2nd / 3rd round in recent history. I mean without that data perhaps there really isn’t that big of a difference.

Posted
5 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

This in itself is a rather worrying statement. I mean I'm taking this out of context a little but there's a big difference between a second and a third round pick. 

Hopefully he was just referring to the QB position.  We did overdraft our first 3 picks this year, so maybe not.

Posted

He isn’t nearly as good of a passer as Wilson. Not now, not ever. 

Posted
14 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

He isn’t nearly as good of a passer as Wilson. Not now, not ever. 

Let's at least see him work with the coaching staff first before we go that far. 

I wasn't crazy about the pick when it was first made, but also was not a fan of only having Nate Sudfeld and maybe a 41 year-old Josh McCown as the backups behind Wentz. I personally think Hurts would have been selected by the Steelers or Cowboys in Round 3 if the Eagles passed on him. A trade down in Round 2 if possible would have been ideal as I don't think he would have went off the board before Round 3, but who knows? The Seahawks did a great job disguising their interest in Russell Wilson in 2012 as Howie was technically right about Wilson falling to Round 3, but was wrong about him being available at 88.

Should the Eagles have offered the Jaguars a 3rd round pick for Nick Foles instead to beat out the Bears offer? Even if they did, there's the matter of restructuring that contract which undoubtedly would create a pretty big cap hit for a team at QB2 that needs to be careful with its spending going forward, thanks to Wentz's extension. Foles signed a 4 year / 88 million deal with the Jags and ultimately restructured for 3 years / 24 million with the Bears. 8 million a year is certainly more palatable for a QB2 than 22 million, but a draft pick would have a cap hit of a fraction of that. Jalen Hurts projected cap hit is supposed to be around 1 million given his draft slot.

I believe the economics of having a young QB on a rookie deal played a big role in this decision. If there's one thing that Hurts has going for him is that he produced on the biggest stages in college football for two different elite programs in Alabama and Oklahoma. Oklahoma literally produced the last two No. 1 overall picks in the draft before this year. I can certainly see Hurts develop into a better NFL QB than Jordan Love, and the Packers moved up in Round 1 to take him.

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Posted
1 hour ago, eaglesfan0075 said:

Let's at least see him work with the coaching staff first before we go that far. 

I wasn't crazy about the pick when it was first made, but also was not a fan of only having Nate Sudfeld and maybe a 41 year-old Josh McCown as the backups behind Wentz. I personally think Hurts would have been selected by the Steelers or Cowboys in Round 3 if the Eagles passed on him. A trade down in Round 2 if possible would have been ideal as I don't think he would have went off the board before Round 3, but who knows? The Seahawks did a great job disguising their interest in Russell Wilson in 2012 as Howie was technically right about Wilson falling to Round 3, but was wrong about him being available at 88.

Should the Eagles have offered the Jaguars a 3rd round pick for Nick Foles instead to beat out the Bears offer? Even if they did, there's the matter of restructuring that contract which undoubtedly would create a pretty big cap hit for a team at QB2 that needs to be careful with its spending going forward, thanks to Wentz's extension. Foles signed a 4 year / 88 million deal with the Jags and ultimately restructured for 3 years / 24 million with the Bears. 8 million a year is certainly more palatable for a QB2 than 22 million, but a draft pick would have a cap hit of a fraction of that. Jalen Hurts projected cap hit is supposed to be around 1 million given his draft slot.

I believe the economics of having a young QB on a rookie deal played a big role in this decision. If there's one thing that Hurts has going for him is that he produced on the biggest stages in college football for two different elite programs in Alabama and Oklahoma. Oklahoma literally produced the last two No. 1 overall picks in the draft before this year. I can certainly see Hurts develop into a better NFL QB than Jordan Love, and the Packers moved up in Round 1 to take him.

Hurts seems like a runner playing QB whereas Wlison is a QB who can run. 

Posted
18 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

Hurts seems like a runner playing QB whereas Wlison is a QB who can run. 

You could've said the same thing about Jackson in Baltimore. Coaching will determine a lot with Hurts IMO.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Road to Victory said:

Hurts seems like a runner playing QB whereas Wlison is a QB who can run. 

1 hour ago, Madriver said:

You could've said the same thing about Jackson in Baltimore. Coaching will determine a lot with Hurts IMO.

 

Yeah I'm going to wait to reserve judgement on Hurts. While he's no lock to be the next Wilson or Lamar Jackson, he definitely has the physical tools to develop into that kind of player. You can argue that Hurts is lucky to be drafted by the Eagles because of the coaching he's going to receive in Philly. While I would love to see Carson Wentz finish a whole season and end it with him winning the Super Bowl as the starting QB, history suggests that he's going to miss time at some point until proven otherwise.

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Posted
14 hours ago, Procus said:

"Listen, Carson’s a phenomenal quarterback, he’s a phenomenal player, he’s a phenomenal person. And nothing changes on that,” Roseman said. 

He says this, but then he also says that they needed to get this phenomenal player that they see as being like Wilson.

There's a contradiction in there.  Wentz is the guy, or he's not.  I could easily list 5 guys who I believe would have added more to the team than Hurts will.  In fact, because drafting Hurts in the 2nd will automatically mean that people will be chirping in Wentz' ear, in Hurts' ear, etc., it creates an sense of tension that would not have been there if the Eagles had drafted a backup QB in the 4th or later.

Like it or not, this moves gives off the sense that the F.O. is dismissive of Wentz.  And I don't like it.  I believe in Wentz.

  • Like 1
Posted
27 minutes ago, ilikepargo said:

He says this, but then he also says that they needed to get this phenomenal player that they see as being like Wilson.

There's a contradiction in there.  Wentz is the guy, or he's not.  I could easily list 5 guys who I believe would have added more to the team than Hurts will.  In fact, because drafting Hurts in the 2nd will automatically mean that people will be chirping in Wentz' ear, in Hurts' ear, etc., it creates an sense of tension would not have been there if the Eagles had drafted a backup QB in the 4th or later.

Like it or not, this moves gives of the sense that the F.O. is dismissive of Wentz.  And I don't like it.  I believe in Wentz.

Couldn’t agree more. How can you justify drafting a guy who might play 5-10 plays a game or drafting a potential starter at another position. They still need LB’s, a young CB, a young pass rusher, etc. 

Posted

I like the selection of Hurts in the 2nd round. I could understand if our 2nd round pick was in the 30s in the beginnning of the 2 rd. Our pick was at the end of the 2nd round, almost a 3rd. Backup QB for OUR team, based on our history of our amazing QB Wentz, to me is smart drafting. If we had Hurts instead of McCown vs SEA in the playoffs, our chance of having a better game proably would increase, Just Hurts use of his legs and the RPO aspect like with Big D Nick, will help our team. We have the history of using the RPO so if we ever need to chance our offense on the fly again, we will be ok.

Posted

I was so into drafting Russel Wilson. I was right here...ugh at the old place...just crying out to draft Wilson.  I was so upset when we lost out on him.

Posted

Obviously our need for QB was great back then. I wasn’t looking for a QB this season. I believe Hurts is the second best QB in this draft though. 

Posted

Jalen reminds me a lot of Dandre Swift when he runs the ball.  Very similar style.  Jalen is also unusually sturdy for a QB and runs with contact balance which isn't the norm.  I could totally see Jalen lining up at RB on a semi regular basis and I think he'd be our second best rusher on the team.  However, you don't want your backup QB taking that type of abuse on a regular basis.

Posted

So because Howie missed on Wilson 8 years ago he decides to waste a pick in 2020 when he isnt even looking for franchise QB?

Posted

In 2012 I kept thinking if Wilson was 6'2 he'd be a lock for #2 overall but I couldn't see a 5'10ish QB making it in the NFL at that point.  The decision makes in the NFL couldn't either.  The talk back then was Wilson was a totally different QB in the pocket which is partially true but the NFL was blinded by the 5'9 and change.

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