Eagles' Jalen Hurts Is Eager For A New Journey

The fourth-year starting QB is taking on new roles and responsibilities that he's craved.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) talks with head coach Nick Sirianni (L) during a practice at Lincoln Financial Field. / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - Five days away from the autonomy he’s coveted Eagles’ quarterback Jalen Hurts took the stage at the NovaCare Complex Auditorium to put the period on the shift from future Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce to the QB1 when it comes to having the trump card in the moment.

Entering his fourth season as the starting quarterback in Philadelphia, Hurts has craved that responsibility but was told to stand down because of Kelce’s years of expertise handling pass protection adjustments.

There’s no one to blame for the schism. The college game isn’t exactly littered with opportunities to teach protection calls and most quarterbacks enter the modern NFL behind the curve just as practice time has been legislated down.

Each QB has to be taught and the goal should always be to find a signal caller with the mental dexterity to handle a difficult job, coupled with the willingness to strive for it.

However, Philadelphia is an organization that watched Kelce’s ability to take the heavy lifting off Nick Foles’ plate result in the only Super Bowl win in franchise history, and also saw Hurts develop into an MVP-level player under the same system.

It was natural for the Eagles to keep the status quo as long as Kelce remained and it was also understandable that Hurts fell into a bit of a rut after being told to stand down when it came to handling protection calls, something head coach Nick Sirianni confirmed was the case at his Sunday press conference in advance on Friday's preseason opener in Sao Paulo, Brazil against the Green Bay Packers.

“There’s things that happen at the line of scrimmage — there’s some teams that it’s all the quarterback, and some teams where it’s all the center, and some teams that it’s a mix,” Sirianni said. “It was Jalen being able to do some other things at the line of scrimmage and Kelce handling a big portion of it. 

“Yeah, what [Hurts] said is 100% true.”

What Hurts said came during an interview with 94.1 WIP last week.

“There’s just different autonomy in different places,” Hurts said. “We had a great player here in Jason Kelce who took on a lot of responsibilities and as a result of that, I was told not to worry about a lot of things. 

“My eagerness to learn and all of that over the years kind of was halted because of who we had, but now times are different."

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts / John McMullen/Eagles on Si

Sirianni did not notice any of Hurts' frustration.

“Ever since I've been here, Jalen has been all win, trying to do everything he can do to win,” the coach told Eagles on SI. “To say it's been more -- like he's done everything every year, 2021, '22, '23, he's done everything he can do to help this football team win and put every bit of his heart and soul into it.

“I see the same Jalen, a guy that's working his butt off to help us win this first game, working his butt off to make sure the team is in a good position, and that he's playing his best ball, because we know we need him to play good football for us to have a chance week in, week out.”

Sirianni then put his own punctuation on the subject.

”That's what I'll say: I feel like he's had an unbelievable training camp, and every year I've been here I've felt his desire and will to win,” said Sirianni. “The guy is a winner. He's been a winner his entire life and he knows how to win. He goes about that process every day to win better than anybody I've ever been around.”

The results are the results, though, and the Eagles’ faced the blitz the second most in the NFL last season, second only to Friday’s opponent, the Packers.

More often than not, it was an effective strategy for the opposition, especially during the Eagles’ 1-6 finish.

Tampa Bay defensive-minded coach Todd Bowles has been so effective with the strategy that the Bucs have knocked the Eagles out of the postseason in 2021 and in January of 2024, and former New York defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was such a headache that Hurts reached out to the veteran coach to pick his brain.

All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson foreshadowed what’s coming.

“I think teams are going to look at last year’s film and, until we stop it, I think those things are going to keep coming,” Johnson admitted.

New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has been tasked with getting Hurts up to speed with his expanded role. Moore downplays that bullet point of his job description when the red light is on but the always-honest Johnson conformed the blitz has been a point of emphasis.

“We’ve been trying to throw a lot of different blitz packages during practice, having hot checks, that’s been a point of emphasis really all camp,” Johnson said.

The results of this process will start being reported Friday night from South America.

“I’m walking into a year in which I have new roles and new responsibilities. That’s where we are,” Hurts said. “... I think as a quarterback, you’re always evolving. You’re always growing. You’re always taking in new knowledge and new information, and I think that’s what makes us better. That’s always been my approach.

“... I’m excited about that journey.”

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