Question No. 1 for every Eagles offensive coordinator candidate should be, “What’s your plan for Jalen Hurts? How can you make him elite again?”
Because Hurts, like just about everybody on the offense, underachieved this year, one year after being named Super Bowl MVP. Especially in the playoff loss to the 49ers.
Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman both raved about Hurts Thursday and re-asserted their belief that he’s the right guy to continue to lead the Eagles at quarterback. Not that his contract gives them much of a choice. But both also agreed that Hurts played a role in the offense’s year-long struggles.
“We all had a hand in our offense this year,” Sirianni said. “Good, bad, you name it, we all had a hand in it. That’s every coach, every player, myself obviously at the front of that list.
“Again, I love Jalen Hurts. I love everything that he brings to the table. Every time you step on the field, you feel very confident that you can win any game that you’re going to play when you have him as your quarterback.
“He has shown that to this organization, to myself, to Howie, to the city, that he’s a winner and he is able to do many different things at a very high level. But again, whether it was winning the games or whether it was us not playing up to (expectations) on offense, we all have our hands in that.”
Hurts wasn’t awful this past year, but Kevin Patullo clearly was unable to get the passing game functioning at a consistently high level. The Eagles finished 23rd in passing yards, and Hurts, while accurate and careful with the ball most of the year, threw for less than 200 yards 10 times.
He also ran less than ever under Patullo, especially as the season went on. In the playoff loss to the 49ers, he passed for only 168 yards and didn’t complete a pass longer than 15 yards to a wide receiver.
Whoever replaces Patullo will be Hurts’ seventh play caller in six NFL seasons. Sirianni said he expects Hurts to be open to whatever system the new coordinator operates, even if it’s new to him.
“I think you saw this year that he’s open to do a bunch,” Sirianni said. “We were under center probably more than we have been. Different motions, different things like that. Here’s what I’ll say, Jalen always … proved this to everybody, that he’ll do whatever it takes to win football games. Sometimes that’s throwing it a bunch, sometimes that’s running it a bunch, sometimes it’s him handing it off a bunch. He’ll do whatever it takes to win.
“All I’ve ever felt from Jalen and all I’ve (known) from Jalen is that the man will do anything he can do to win football games. He pushes himself to do new things. He pushes himself to excel at the things that he has already done so well, and he’s proven to everybody year-in, year-out, all he cares about is winning and all he cares about is being able to hold that trophy up at the end of the year.”
Even in an uneven year, Hurts went 11-5 as a starter, and he’s now 57-25 in his career. Only seven quarterbacks in NFL history have won more games in their first 82 career starts. And only three of them reached multiple Super Bowls along the way – Roger Staubach, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
“We’ve all got to look at ourselves and what we could do better,” Roseman said. “It’s a disappointing season. We sit here and want to be playing right now. …
“I think what coach has said, we have won a lot of games with Jalen as our quarterback. We’ve won a world championship with him as an MVP in that game, so I think obviously he’s done a tremendous job as our starting quarterback.”