At 22, Eagles Rookie QB Jalen Hurts Shows Poise and Leadership to His Teammates
Somewhere in the Eagles’ playbook, there’s a play that has a lot of the same letters, a tongue-twister, if you will.
Jalen Hurts was trying to regurgitate that play sent in from the sideline in his first pro start at quarterback last Sunday, when he began to stutter, his tongue tied in knots.
“He had to calm himself down,” said running back Miles Sanders. “He didn’t rattle. We didn’t rush him. We just looked at him. He took a deep breath, and he said the play. It was a play with a whole bunch of the same letters. It’s hard to say sometimes.”
Sanders thought the stutter came early in what turned out to be a 24-22 upset win over the New Orleans Saints that has them at 4-8-1 heading to Arizona to play the Cardinals (7-6) on Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
There was certainly no hesitation in Hurts’ game late, when he blunted a hard-charging rally from the Saints by guiding a six-play, 53-yard journey that ended with Sanders’ second TD of the game, a 1-yard plunge with 6:26 left in the final quarter that gave the Eagles a 24-14 lead.
“He’s a rookie quarterback in the NFL,” said Sanders. “He’s very poised in there. It’s really just trying to get us going and get us back executing like we were at the beginning of the game. We ended up making something happen.”
Hurts made plenty happen in the win.
He was the spark head coach Doug Pederson was looking for when he opted to put struggling Carson Wentz on the bench and put the rookie in against the best defense in the NFL.
“I'm hoping the spark is a little bit brighter and more of a flame now and obviously coming off a win, we've got to continue to play well,” said Pederson. “He gave us the spark that I was looking for obviously and I think the team was looking for and we've got to do it again. Just like I said earlier, we've got to kind of reset.
“This is another good football team we're playing this weekend and we got to do it again, we've got to do it all over again. We want to keep that spark or that flame lit, and we want to use that as momentum as we finish up these next three weeks.”
Hurts’ second start could look a lot different than his first when he ran for 106 yards and threw for 167 and a touchdown.
“Jalen has to understand now it’s a whole new defense,” said Pederson. “It's a different structure, different personnel. Scheme is differently defensively and so what we did and had success against New Orleans may not apply this week.”
Pederson said Hurts will need to study the film from his first start, study himself, and make corrections.
“We sort of have to reset,” said the coach. “He really has to study his mannerisms, too. No indicators to the defense and don't give things away, whether it be by TV copy or film or coaches copy that defenses can really clue into and try to get an advantage on.”
As Hurts goes through the process in his young career, one thing that won’t change is his leadership, something that has seemingly been more and more noticed.
“He has that certain kind of confidence in him,” said offensive lineman Matt Pryor. “Not cocky, like ‘I’ve been here before,’ you know what I mean? Something about him, he just brings a lot of energy.”
Brandon Graham, an 11-year veteran of the NFL, was asked how a player so young, just 22-years-old, can become a leader of men like him, Fletcher Cox, Alshon Jeffery, and numerous other veterans in their 30s.
“All he’s been doing is working,” said Graham. “That’s what you can tell when a guy comes in and he’s having success, that he’s been ready. He’s been waiting on his moment. He’s been making sure he’s sharpening his sword until his moment came. That’s exactly what you get because when he wasn’t in, he was supportive, out there working hard, trying to beat us every day (on the scout team).
“I think you start to see flashes of him getting better every day that he was out there. I think the work that you put in, you start to become that natural leader just because of what you do every day. You’re not a pretender. You’re not a faker.
"People are seeing the work you put in, and you produce on the field, people respect you even more. You get that respect, and eventually, you become that leader without even knowing it because people want to be like who you are. Sometimes people run from it, and sometimes they don’t."
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