Crossing Broad
Jalen Hurts has a career 54-22 record as the starting quarterback. He is the reigning Super Bowl MVP who has outplayed Patrick Mahomes on the biggest stage twice, led the team to the playoffs every year he has been the quarterback, and the Super Bowl on two occasions. The Eagles are off to an 8-2 start this season with Hurts at the helm, with the quarterback throwing for 16 touchdowns, rushing for six, and having just one interception on the season thus far.
By any objective measure, this is about as much of a glowing success as possible. Franchises across the NFL would be bending over backwards to have this level of success and this level of quarterback play. But in this city? Not so much.
The latest controversy surrounding Hurts stemmed from Derrick Gunn discussing alleged frustrations from inside the organization during an Eagles postgame show:
I’ll start by saying that I set the chances that anyone credible within the Eagles’ organization would make a comparison of Jalen Hurts to Carson Wentz (salary cap, personality, play, or anything in between) at 0.0%. Gunn has certainly earned his stripes through the years, but any credible voice within an organization is incredibly careful and calculated with their words. At best, this feels like reading between the lines and taking a massive leap in doing so. It is also worth noting that “people in the organization” is a broad stroke to paint with. There is a disgruntled star wide receiver who has not been tight-lipped with his frustrations, and I am sure the night time janitor has some takes to get off his/her chest as well.
This is not to say Jalen Hurts is absolved from criticism. No quarterback is, and certainly not in Philadelphia. It does not take a keen eye to note the Eagles’ offense has not played to their peak this year, and the quarterback has to wear the burden of that responsibility. They rank eighth in the NFL in scoring, 17th in total yards, 15th in passing yards, and 19th in rushing yards. Their +3.3 average margin of victory ranks 11th in the NFL on the year.
But it is a results-based world that we live in. Those results specifically are winning a Super Bowl seven months ago and losing two games in the 10 weeks of NFL football since. We don’t have to go down the keep the main thing the main thing cliches or whatever other quotes he spits at the podium. But as the famed poet Herm Edwards once said, “You play to win the game.”
You can critique how the offense looks and how much of that directly has to do with Hurts’ skillset. You can also critique that his personality is not the exact match you hope for in a franchise quarterback. His stoicism and lack of expression can be perceived the wrong way and may not always be what you want for from a face of the team and organization.
But his...
