Shane Steichen was sitting in his office on the second floor of the NovaCare Complex when Jalen Hurts popped through the door.
This isn’t unusual. Happens all the time. The play caller meets with the quarterback all the time.
What did make it unusual was what time it was.
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“Shoot, last week, I don’t even remember what time it was, maybe 8 o’clock at night – and he came up and said what’s up,” Steichen said Tuesday.
“I said, ‘You going to go home to get some rest?’ (He said,) ‘I’m going in the weight room and getting on the bike.’”
Considering that Hurts' typical work day during football season begins before 6 a.m. you kind of get an idea of his work ethic.
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Steichen recalled how the NovaCare was a ghost town late afternoon this past Friday. In a typical week with a Sunday afternoon game, all the hay is in the barn by late Friday afternoon, and the players are home finally relaxing in preparation of a Sunday kickoff.
Not Hurts.
“On Friday this past week, we met after practice, and I’m walking through the weight room, you know, 4 o’clock, kind of everyone’s gone, and he’s in there,” Steichen said. “Working.”
Hurts is off to a remarkable start for the 3-0 Eagles.
He ranks first in the NFL in yards per attempt, third with 916 passing yards, fifth with a 106.5 passer rating, tied for sixth in interception ratio and eighth at 67 percent completion percentage. His seven total touchdowns are tied for fifth-most.
And when you hear Steichen rave about the way he prepares and just how serious-minded he is, you understand why.
“He doesn’t leave the building,” Steichen said. “Like, this guy’s here all day, every day. All he cares about is football, and when all you care about is football you’re going to be successful, and that’s what he does. It’s all he thinks about. He never takes days off. He’s always working.
“He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop. He’s relentless in everything he does, and it’s showing up. It’s showing up. And when you work like that good things are going to happen.”
Hurts is the only quarterback in the NFL who’s passed for 300 yards per game, completed at least 67 percent of his passes and thrown one or fewer interceptions.
He’s only the 16th in NFL history to put up those numbers three weeks into a season.
That list also includes guys like Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees – and Donovan McNabb in 2004.
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That was also the last year the Eagles got out to a 4-0 start. That’s what they’ll be shooting for Sunday, when Doug Pederson leads the surprising 2-1 Jaguars into the Linc.
After opening his career 3-8 in his first 11 games, Hurts is 9-2 in his last 11.
“His mental makeup and his DNA and how he goes about his business, it’s so impressive,” Steichen said. “It’s second-to-none, it really is. And if he continues on this trend it’s going to be special. He’s doing a hell of a job right now.”