Shander: The Eagles have no faith in Jalen Hurts

BY EYTAN SHANDER
PhillyVoice Contributor

NATHAN RAY SEEBECK/USA TODAY SPORTS

Jalen Hurts

The Eagles have no faith in Jalen Hurts.

That’s the cold hard facts of the situation. A kid was drafted in the second-round as a stop-gap plan to move on from Carson Wentz. At no point in his tenure has Hurts done anything to secure the starting job moving past 2022, and it looks like he won’t be able to do anything more this year – outside of win a Super Bowl.

Fair? Not my concern. But the façade that the team will run out about how much they love and trust Hurts will inevitably make me sick. This place isn’t a QB factory. The audacity to say something like that hangs in the rafters alongside "Gold standard” and "Dream team”.

No, the Birds wanted their cake, to eat it, and then have another one too. They wanted it all this offseason and now look like the fox in Aesop’s tale of sour grapes. "Meh, we never really wanted [insert big name QB] anyways, we are more than happy with Jalen.”

That’s simply not true. The Eagles were reportedly suitors in both Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson trades. Strong suitors. That’s not just picking up the phone and doing your due diligence. That’s actively trying to move on from the current QB, the one that Roseman and Nick Sirianni publicly drooled over in January then again at the combine.

They struck out. They did again with other players at other positions. The trending narrative put out and maintained by the social media illiterates is "Well, if Calvin Ridley didn’t get nailed for gambling….”

That’s it? The whole offseason came down to being leveraged in deals for Wilson and Watson, and having NO other options other than Ridley. This is the DEFENSE of the lack of movement for the off-season. There’s also the narrative about teams not winning through free agency, another ridiculous notion that spending money to upgrade your team is somehow a bad thing.

Trading draft picks for players already in the league has proven successful. I know a lot of people in this city turn off the TV once our teams are through, but the Rams did that – a lot – and won the Super Bowl. It seems some fans are actually ok with no trade movement because the Ridley thing fell through.

What kind of organization has no plan B? Of course, the Eagles do, they simply didn’t want to broadcast it. The plan is to do absolutely nothing this year and hope that they can get a franchise QB out of next year’s draft. Then they can go "all in” and hope to bring in major name FA or via a trade, but only when they have the QB they want.

They don’t currently have the QB they want.

Don’t get mad at me, I saw it on Twitter – it’s really easy to upset people who go to a place to be upset – where "fans” of our team somehow missed all of the obvious things going on and instead thought it was a personal attack on... Hurts! Beyond the lack of self-awareness, it’s more a matter of how anyone can miss what’s been happening. It’s too easy and lazy to dismiss the Eagles as a non-destination based on guys getting more money. Roseman can work the cap, the Eagles can create money, he’s done it before. No, the lack of deal with either big name QB had little to do with money.

It had everything to do with the organization, how it’s run, and the constant changeover of culture. The constant has been Roseman and Lurie, but the coaching staff keeps changing, as does the main position of QB. The Eagles have commitment problems to two of the most important positions in football, the coach and QB, yet remain insistent that their front office culture is some anchor for big name players.

It's not.

The Eagles are best when they maximize a younger player, still on a rookie deal, getting ahead of the market on his first contract, and going from there. They burn out QBs and they burn out coaches. The latest optics feature a head coach who’s more lauded for his pickup basketball games and cornhole challenges than he is for anything else, and a QB who has been publicly praised just minutes before the team tried to replace him.

Here's the takeaway: the Eagles are in all of these sweepstakes as "strong suitors,” but never see to land that prize. They have money, draft picks, so they can get in the game, but it seems like they are always coming in second, or third, but overall, just being used as the leverage. That isn’t a reason to fire anyone, but it should be a heavy factor in a GM’s job report. "Hey, we tried," isn’t really an excuse as to why the Eagles continue to be leveraged.

Maybe it’s the lack of substance behind the money, the lack of faith in the commodities they own. The constant turnover and lack of any true commitment to coaches and QBs since Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb left is staggering, and quite telling.

The other major takeaway from all of this is the unfortunate and sobering reality that anything positive that happens in 2022 is a bonus. Getting into the playoffs alone last year took a parlay of circumstances, and banking on that again, while doing very little to improve, is waiving the white flag.

Then again, Hurts could go out and win a playoff game or two. But don’t worry, the Eagles will remind you they had it all along.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/jalen-hurts-eagles-quarterback-trade-nfl-draft-deshaun-watson-russell-wilson/

I don't think this is off-base.  This offseason...so far... has made me wonder the following things:

1. I can remember Philly being a place where FAs wanted to come.  Now? Doesn't seem like it.  Why?  Is it Howie/Lurie?  Siri/Hurts? All of the above?  Is this organization viewed negatively by players nowadays?

2. Are the Eagles simply biding their time until next year's draft so they can get their franchise QB?  The thought process is true that, if they truly believed in Hurts, they would have  been more aggressive/successful in free agency to upgrade the talent around him.  They apparently "tried"...i.e., the Ridley trade, being "in" on Kirk and ARob, etc.  But we all know Howie is aggressive.  If he truly wanted someone, he would have made it happen.  Or was the problem with potential free agents more that they just didn't want to come here?

3. Related to the topic in question 1....was Sirianni hired because he was "all they could get"?  As in, no other "hotter" coaches wanted to come here?  With the way they treated Doug, hard to blame any coaches for not wanting to come here.  

4. Are we going to be doomed to a 2022 season of "meh" football with no real chance to compete?  This team has no juice right now.  None.  Zero.

 

<sigh>

Maybe w're targeting Pickett as our long-term solution at QB?

Our long-term solution is most certainly not Hurts. You didn't need more than a simple eye test last year to see that. I remember year #2 versions of Cunningham, McNabb and even Wentz. They were significantly better than year #2 version of Hurts.

2 hours ago, hoosierdaddy said:

Maybe w're targeting Pickett as our long-term solution at QB?

Our long-term solution is most certainly not Hurts. You didn't need more than a simple eye test last year to see that. I remember year #2 versions of Cunningham, McNabb and even Wentz. They were significantly better than year #2 version of Hurts.

Those other 3 QBs played all or most of their rookie seasons ... Hurts only played in the final 4 games of his first year.  The better comparison would be to compare Hurts in this upcoming season to those other QBs in year 2 - unless we are targeting a QB in the draft, it looks like we'll get that opportunity to make that comparison.  I'd like to think we'll focus on other areas of the roster by using those picks on players that should be rated higher than the QBs but knowing Howie, anything is game.  QB FACTORY!!  

This article is pretty much spot on. 

The Eagles aren't in on Hurts. If they were then they'd have gotten a proven WR. They would have overpaid for Kirk or they would have traded for Hill. Its easy to say that they did the right thing not moving for those players because of the price. But bottom line if we had a QB they believed in then making pricey moves to boost your offense makes sense.

The Eagles are in a hole. They lack young talent. Frankly they lack talent full stop. They aren't in a great cap position and they have major needs at major positions. And this draft, when they have the capital to spend, doesn't seem the draft to address those premium spots.