The Rise of Hurts

[time2rock]

The Rise of Hurts

Posted: June 27th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

Jalen Hurts is a fascinating football player. He played for two of the elite college programs, Alabama and Oklahoma. He played for national titles and almost won the Heisman Trophy. He did amazing things in college.

The minute he went from college player to pro prospect, Hurts became somewhat of an underdog. He wasn’t special physically. He got benched at Alabama. Hurts also wasn’t a top flight passer. He did have good potential and great intangibles. That was enough to convince the Eagles to spend a second round pick on him and the rest is history.

Dan Pompei wrote an excellent piece for The Athletic on Hurts and the process behind him getting drafted. Bo and Zach contributed, of course. The Athletic doesn’t have long Eagles pieces without Shake ‘n Bake doing their part.

I liked these comments from former Eagles personnel executive Ian Cunningham.

Among the Eagles evaluators who saw Hurts play in person that year were Southwest scout Shawn Heinlen and assistant director of scouting Alan Wolking. His ability to make plays with his feet appealed to an organization whose appreciation of mobile quarterbacks was increasing.

"When you look at where the quarterback position was going, with these multidimensional talents who could create plays with their arms, their legs and their minds, we were trying to predict where we were going with the position,” Roseman says. "Carson had that ability, too.”

Then-Ravens area scout Ian Cunningham also saw Hurts in person during his freshman season, including at the national championship. One quality stood out.

"He was always cool, calm and collected no matter what, even in the national championship game as a true freshman,” says Cunningham, who became the Eagles’ director of college scouting in 2017. "He always had this poise and even-keeled demeanor.”

And

NFL evaluators still were concerned with Hurts’ accuracy, and Cunningham acknowledges it was a question. "It wasn’t always there, but he did show the ability to anticipate when it was clean,” Cunningham says. "That helped me feel more comfortable because I think you can develop accuracy. The inaccuracy was attributable to a lot of lower body (issues) — a wider base, inconsistent footwork, those types of things.”

“(Hurts) was a polarizing figure in the sense that some people liked him, some saw him as a developmental quarterback and some thought he was a backup,” Cunningham says. "I thought he was a developmental quarterback that had upside.”

I think Cunningham and I saw the same thing.

• Great intangibles
• Good athlete
• Potential as a passer

The passing part was complicated. Hurts posted good numbers at OU, but was playing in the Air Raid. That offense can have easier reads. At Bama, Hurts played in more of a pro system, but was an inconsistent passer. That’s why he lost the QB job to Tua Tagovailoa.

Hurts did improve as a passer at OU, scheme aside. He put great touch on intermediate and downfield throws. He showed solid arm strength. As simple as this sounds, I thought he looked more confident and comfortable. Lincoln Riley is a great offensive coach and he brought out the best in Hurts.

The Eagles saw enough to think Hurts was worth taking a chance on.

…“We spent a lot more time on Jalen,” Roseman says. "Jalen was one of those guys throughout the fall that we liked.”

The Eagles weren’t sure how other teams rated Hurts. They believed it was possible that no one else would take him in the first two rounds. But taking a gamble that he would fall to the end of the third round — Philadelphia traded its original third-round pick for Darius Slay but still had a comp pick — was ruled out.

"We had learned from that situation with Russell when we try to get cute with quarterbacks that we like,” Roseman says. "You can never get hurt drafting quarterbacks. There’s nothing more important.”

In 2007, the Eagles had taken Kolb in the second round, then were able to trade him to the Cardinals for a second-round pick and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Even if Hurts never displaced Wentz, he could bring value to the organization.

"I’m sure some teams had him in the third or fourth round,” Pederson says. "Maybe we were the higher team on him than others. We felt comfortable enough to take him in the second. In this business, you know when you have a good player and you don’t need a whole lot of convincing. He was that guy for us.”

I’m glad the organization learned its lesson from the Wilson scenario in 2012. If you like a QB, go get him. Do not play the waiting game.

You can really see how this was an organizational pick. The scouts did a good job before Hurts senior year in gathering background info. The scouts did a good job of writing reports on what they saw in 2019 at OU. Howie Roseman made sure to involve Doug Pederson and the coaches as much as possible since this was a tricky situation. The Eagles wanted to draft a talented QB to develop, but already had Carson Wentz in place. Howie wanted everyone on the same page. Pederson got on the Hurts bandwagon and did his part. Jeff Lurie gave his support to the pick. All of the key people were on board.

Not Wentz, of course. His frustration may have done the Eagles a huge favor. When your franchise QB is bothered by you spending pick 53 on a QB, I think you know he’s not meant to be your franchise QB. If you can’t handle a rookie behind you, how are you going to play well in a big game against championship competition?

The entire piece is really good. Make sure you go read it.

*****

Gannon is a strange duck.

The social media team for the Cardinals didn’t do him any favors with this.

I do miss Jim Schwartz telling baseball stories in his PCs. I do not miss Gannon saying "Good question” over and over.

http://igglesblitz.com/2023/06/the-rise-of-hurts/

[EricAllenPick6]

2 hours ago, time2rock said:

You can never get hurt drafting quarterbacks.

Apparently you can -- drafting Hurts probably was at least a partial reason why Wentz went on the downward spiral that he's been in ever since.  That was the start of the 'hero ball' and the other nonsense.  Their comment was more on the ability to flip Hurts in some future season for prospects, but I think you have to consider it from a team chemistry perspective, too.  

2 hours ago, time2rock said:

I do miss Jim Schwartz telling baseball stories in his PCs. I do not miss Gannon saying "Good question” over and over.

Verbal tick.  It seems like it's the same thing as saying 'uhhhhh' or 'ummmmm'.  Somebody needs to tell him to cut it out.  He probably doesn't even know he's doing it. 

[Ross]

21 minutes ago, EricAllenPick6 said:

Apparently you can -- drafting Hurts probably was at least a partial reason why Wentz went on the downward spiral that he's been in ever since.  That was the start of the 'hero ball' and the other nonsense. 

No, it wasn't.

Wentz was pulling his BS in 2018 and 2019. 2020 was the final straw, not the beginning.

Wentz crap the bed on team chemistry when he told the other players he didn't want the team to have have success without him at QB. Maybe Sproles could have knocked some sense into him if the others had let them fight, but I doubt it,

Wentz was turd and he started unabashedly showing it in 2017

[brkmsn]

Quote

When your franchise QB is bothered by you spending pick 53 on a QB, I think you know he’s not meant to be your franchise QB. If you can’t handle a rookie behind you, how are you going to play well in a big game against championship competition?

There are different ways of looking at this. It's reasonable to expect a 2nd round pick to come in and help a team right away. Drafting a guy who at the time was not expected to displace the current starter and plays a position that teams just don't rotate, is less helpful to a franchise QB than adding a player at a position like WR --- especially on a team with a huge need at WR and in a draft deep at WR. It's not a surprise that a pick like that would upset a franchise QB. We saw the same thing with Rodgers too. Most teams still expect Rodgers to play well in big games. Even the best franchise QBs still know football is a team sport and success depends on what you and the other 10 guys out there with you do. 

Once we decided to move forward with Hurts, the team surrounded him with weapons to give him the best chance to succeed. It's not like we brought in more competition at QB instead.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:30 PM, time2rock said:

He wasn’t special physically

I’m not sure I’d agree with this. He may not have a special arm but he’s so athletic in terms of his running and his power.