'Cowboys Agree!' Eagles Must Bench MVP Jalen Hurts at Dallas, Start QB Marcus Mariota, Says David Carr

'Cowboys Agree!' Philadelphia Eagles Must Bench MVP Jalen Hurts at Dallas, Start QB Marcus Mariota, Says David Carr

FRISCO - In what we are quite certain sounds like a heckuva plan to those here inside Dallas Cowboys HQ at The Star, the Philadelphia Eagles are being informed that the best way for them to retain first place in the NFC and in the NFC East is to ...

Bench their team MVP Jalen Hurts, beginning with "Sunday Night Football'' this week at AT&T Stadium, and install Marcus Mariota as the starter?!

"I'd say (Mariota) is probably better at playing quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles right now (than Hurts),'' former pro quarterback David Carr said this week on NFL Network. "(Mariota) would be more productive."

Who would endorse this plan as a way for the 10-2 Eagles to continue to own the best record in the NFC, to bounce back from last week's 42-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, to slap down the surging 9-3 Cowboys to complete a season sweep?

Um ... without CowboysSI.com having surveyed the locker room, the surging 9-3 Cowboys are probably fine with it.

We sort of get where Carr might be coming from; Hurts' knee is obviously not quite right. At the same time, even though there is a hitch in his giddy-up, he continues to produce TDs - in the air and yes, still, on the ground - in a way that makes him uniquely qualified to lead the Eagles.

And there has never really been much evidence in the career of journeyman Mariota - once the No. 2 overall pick in his 2015 NFL Draft - that he is "uniquely qualified'' in any comparable way.

"I'd say he's probably better at playing quarterback for the Philadelphia @Eagles, right now he'd be more productive."@DCarr8 emphasizes Marcus Mariota should be the QB1 over Jalen Hurts. 😳 pic.twitter.com/rGgp6WZjIG

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) December 6, 2023

Said Carr: "If you're (Eagles coach) Nick Sirianni ... You have to have a really serious conversation if you're Philly and really say, 'Is it better for us to play Mariota right now while Jalen gets fully healthy?''

Eagles Wearing 'Big-Boy Pants' For Cowboys

The obvious point being missed here by Carr - unless he's simply trying to be "controversial,'' which of course is how national TV coverage of the NFL now rolls - is this ...

Is Carr - who himself was the No. 1 pick in his 2002 NFL Draft, meaning he ought to know how this works - really under the impression that he's broaching an idea about which that the Eagles haven't already "had a really serious conversation''?