The Key To Jalen Hurts' Sharp Summer

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is healthy and the result has been a consistency this summer.

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA - There’s a lot that has gone into Jalen Hurts’ sharp summer.

New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has certainly helped the Eagles’ fifth-year quarterback by adding some eye candy to test the discipline on the defense, and adding another playmaker like Saquon Barkley has only made creating space easier for the offense as a whole.

However, If you want to boil Hurts’ robotic-like consistency through 16 practices down to its purest form, the QB1 himself let you in on the secret after Philadelphia’s 2024 training camp concluded at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday morning.

“I think I'm in a better place physically," Hurts admitted.

From Week 1 of the 2023 season, long before a knee injury made things more apparent, it was clear Hurts was somewhat degraded from a physical standpoint.

It might have been the aftermath of ankle injuries in the 2021 and 2022 seasons that played into Hurts’ lesser mobility before all of it was amplified by a bone bruise in his knee suffered when Micah Parsons brought the signal caller down during a Nov. 5 win over Dallas last year.

Hurts was able to persevere in that game and get the Eagles to the finish line with a strong second half before pushing on by playing with a brace for several weeks.

“He's tough as heck,” head coach Nick Sirianni said at the time. “Never been on the injury report though because his play status has never been in doubt. Great leader, great player, rises to the occasion in big-time moments.

"That's who he is. And so, whether his body is feeling 100%, whether his body is not feeling 100%, which nobody's body is at this particular time, he's a warrior. He's going to play through bumps and bruises and at a high level because he's a big-time player."

Even warriors perform better when the vessel they are operating in is optimal.

"Obviously had some nicks there throughout [2023] that I told you guys not to ask me about," Hurts smiled at reporters. "But you know, you deal with those things. I think all of those things have made me better.”

The hurdles made Hurts reevaluate some of the things he does in the offseason to get his body ready, something that’s been a constant evolution since his arrival to the NFL in 2020.

Sometimes that means changing workout plans, tweaking his nutritional intake, or even understanding when to scale things back toward rest and recharging.

Whatever Hurts’ changes were this offseason, his body seems to be charged to 100%.

“[The injuries] made me re-evaluate some things, and they've allowed me to re-assess, and I've been able to saturate myself in the right things," he said.

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