Jalen Hurts Readies for First Preseason Game, What can We Expect?

Even though the second-year QB made four starts in 2020, they came amidst trying conditions, but Thursday night's visit by the Steelers is a fresh start for him

PHILADELPHIA – People want to judge Jalen Hurts on his four starts from 2020, a season that was way off the rails before he stepped in for a struggling Carson Wentz on Dec. 13, a season that, for rookies, in particular, was sabotaged from the start with more offseason work being done virtually than on the field.

People are going to want to judge Hurts off what he does Thursday night when the Eagles host the Pittsburgh Steelers in the preseason opener.

Word of caution: don’t put too much stock in an offense that will be mostly vanilla.

“One of the things we have to our advantage is that nobody really knows what we're running,” said Sirianni. “To say we're going to show everything on Thursday or the following pre-season game or the following pre-season games, it's just not going to be the case.”

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So, as Hurts himself likes to say, don’t get too high or too low with whatever you see from him on Thursday night.

How much Hurts plays in the exhibition opener is under wraps and will be evaluated in-game from series to series, according to Sirianni. He’ll probably get at least a quarter, unless he opens with a 10-play, point-scoring drive, then maybe he sits the rest of the way.

“I love football,” said Hurts, following Tuesday’s practice. “I’d play every down if I had to. I just play. The coaches handle that.”

Joe Flacco will follow Hurts and Nick Mullens will follow Flacco.

The three Eagles QBs - Jalen Hurts, Joe Flacco, and Nick Mullens / USA Today

Hurts is the starter, taking every first-team practice rep so far, even though he has yet to be anointed such for the Sept. 12 regular-season opener.

“I think those reps are valuable,” he said. “I think my mindset never really changes in terms of how I maximize them and take advantage of them. But I think it’s been really good. This is a new offense. Another new offense for me and it’s something that we just have to continue to soak in, grab the bull by the horns and learn it and get it down so we can all be on the same with everything.

“And we’ve done a really good job with it. we just continue to keep climbing with this thing. Keep climbing and we’ll explode when the time is needed.”

Hurts’ body of work in 11 training camp practices so far has been, in a word, inconsistent, leaving some observers to speculate that perhaps he isn’t as good of a practice player as he will be when the bright lights of a game actually begin to shine.

It’s been no secret if you’ve been following along that the defense has gotten the best of the offense in just about every practice this summer, maybe even all of them.

“I think (my decision-making) has gotten better every day,” he said. “I think repetition brings comfort and confidence. And these are valuable reps that I’m getting right now. We’re trying to capitalize on it and take advantage of it and I think it’s been an up-field climb for us.”

His mindset always remains the same, no matter what is happening around him or how plays snap to snap.

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“I think he’s a great motivator,” said running back Boston Scott. “He stays in the present. It doesn’t matter – I mean, it matters if we have a bad play, obviously – but he does a good job staying in the present, keeping guys focused, keeping guys in the moment. Next play. Don’t let one bad play turn into another bad play. Then you have a string of bad plays. He’s been doing a good job.”

Hurts never seems to get flustered, his pulse rate rarely seems to rise.

It was noticeable in those four starts and again on Tuesday when Darius Slay barged in on Hurts’ interview with reporters.

Slay repeated some of the words Hurts was saying then said, “whatever,” in his best Cali-girl imitation voice.

Slay continued walking around inside the tent and Hurts said, “take my jersey off,” referring to Slay wearing Hurts’ No. 2 from his rookie season before moving to No. 1.

Slay responded, “I make this look sexier than you.” To which Hurts replied, “show me something then.”

Through it all, Hurts never seemed rattled, just remained even-keeled, his voice never lifting a single octave.

“I played some football with Jalen last year so I’m not learning anything that drastically different,” said center Jason Kelce. “He’s been pretty consistent since he’s got here. He’s a great leader, he’s got a great attitude about him. All he wants to do is win, all he wants to do is compete and bat the team across from him.

“You can feel that each and every day. When it doesn’t go that way, you can feel is frustration. I really like Jalen’s intangibles. I really like how he goes about his work.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.