There were plenty of ups and downs in Jalen Hurts’ four starts in 2020 but the Eagles’ quarterback made one thing very clear the day after his rookie season ended.
Hurts wants to help the Eagles develop an identity with him at quarterback.
Despite swirling questions, an extremely tricky situation with Carson Wentz and faint praise from the organization, the 22-year-old Hurts on Monday afternoon spoke like someone preparing to be the Eagles’ starter in 2021.
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If Wentz is back, would Hurts welcome a competition in training camp for the starting gig?
“I’m a competitor,” Hurts said on Monday. “I control what I can, put my best foot forward in any situation I’m in.”
Wentz would have been asked that question but the 28-year-old veteran declined to speak to reporters the day after the 2020 season. That’s his right, of course, but that silence will only add fuel to a raging fire after ESPN reported that Wentz wanted out of Philly.
Yes, the future of the quarterback position in Philadelphia is up in the air. Maybe the 2021 starter is Wentz. Maybe it’s Hurts. Maybe it’s someone who isn’t even on the roster yet. But Hurts showed enough promise during his rookie season that there’s at least some reason to think he might be the guy.
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One of Hurts’ answers on Monday really stood out to me. He was asked how he thinks defenses will play him differently with four games of tape on him. And Hurts had a unique take:
“The game is everlasting and you get different looks. They’ll get different looks. It’s hard to kind of say … for me it’s hard to say that they’ve seen tape and tendencies when we’ve yet to really create the identity of what we want to be as an offense. Once we find out what we’ll do, it may be different for us offensively and how we execute and what that looks like.”
Yeah, that’s interesting, isn’t it? Because, sure, Hurts started four games this season and put some stuff on film that should theoretically help opposing defenses. But his point was that the Eagles’ offensive identity with him as their quarterback hasn’t really been defined yet. We’ve seen hints, but the Eagles switched their starting quarterback after 12 games in 2020 after preparing all offseason — and really the last four years — for Wentz to be the quarterback.
Obviously, there are quarterback issues to work out this offseason. But there’s a chance the Eagles will spend a good portion of their offseason preparing to play with Hurts at quarterback.
“That’s what we’re worried about moving forward,” Hurts said, “finding our identity.”
When asked about specific areas he wanted to improve, Hurts didn’t say accuracy or footwork or anything physical. He instead talked about wanting to see the game from his coach’s perspective.
Hurts stressed the importance of understanding how Doug Pederson (he didn’t specifically mention Pederson by name) sees the game and how he calls it. He wants to be on the same page as the play-caller so he can play faster and more decisively. It was a mature and smart answer.
And it all gets back to his big goal for the offseason.
“Creating the identity for who we are and what we want to be, staying true to it, going out there and attacking people,” Hurts said. “Making them stop us and fear us. It takes time. Everybody around here is fired up and ready to work. That’s all I have on my mind. I might drive myself crazy this offseason thinking about it. But it ain’t nothing that we can’t overcome. We’ll be better from this year. We’ll be better from all these different experiences we’ve had. And the sun will shine real soon.”
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