Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts’ role in the offense still makes zero sense

The Philadelphia Eagles continue to stumble when it comes to using Jalen Hurts.

When Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles first selected Jalen Hurts in the second-round of the 2020 NFL draft, the pick was met with quite a bit of confusion. The team was obviously already tied to Carson Wentz financially, and he was coming off a strong 2019 season (broke the Eagles single season passing yards record). Considering just how many holes the team had heading into the draft, the general consensus was that the Hurts pick was a “bad” allocation of assets.

With that said, there were some minor reasons to be optimistic with the pick. Hurts was an extremely productive college QB, playing for both Alabama and Oklahoma, and was arguably the most athletic QB in the 2020 class. His elite speed and mobility led some to believe that he could be used in a “Taysom Hill type role”, rotating in on occasion to spark a big play or convert a two-point conversion.

The Eagles *supposedly* felt this way too, as they frequently experimented with two quarterback sets during training camp. The coaching staff did make a point of saying they drafted Hurts “as a quarterback”, but after a few camp practices you could see there was at least some level of belief that he could be a weapon in his rookie season – while still being the team’s backup QB.

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And then that belief completely vanished.

Gone.

Poof.

Not only has Hurts played in just 33 offensive snaps this season, but his usage has actually decreased as the weeks have progressed. Despite the Eagles offense completely falling apart under Wentz and Pederson, the team has treated Hurts like the plague, refusing to even put the ball in his hands for the most part.

Pederson and the offensive coaching staff clearly don’t feel confident in Hurts’ ability to throw the football, and their run packages for him have less creativity than a high school Algebra textbook. Despite the organization spending all offseason taking about how innovative and explosive Hurts would be in their offense, he hasn’t even hit 100 total yards on the season, and he has more fumbles (3) than touchdowns (0).

On Monday night against the Seahawks, this lack of a plan with Hurts was put on full display, probably more so than it’s been all year long. In the week leading up to the primetime showdown, multiple reports leaked saying to expect a good amount of Hurts, specifically with Wentz on the sideline.

Well, Hurts got two(!) total snaps, and he did next to nothing with them. The Philadelphia Eagles ultimately lost the game, and the QB conversation in Philly ended up somehow more confusing than it was heading into the matchup.

For what it’s worth, rolling with Wentz over these next couple of weeks makes an abundance of sense. He’s still the team’s best quarterback, and he likely has to be the starter next year due to his contract. With all that understood; (and I feel like I’m asking this for the millionth time) why draft Jalen Hurts in the first place??

The team clearly doesn’t want to play him over Wentz, and they have absolutely zero clue how to use him as a “weapon” at RB/WR/etc. Whatever the case is, it all makes absolutely no sense, and it’s the type of process that leads to people getting fired.

Even if Pederson hands the reins over to Jalen for the last couple of games, the initial pick will always make minimal sense. It didn’t help the Eagles in the short-term, it potentially ruined Wentz’ self confidence, and I’m not sure if it will even help the team in the long run…