Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts gave a zombie offense new life

Jalen Hurts made the Philadelphia Eagles fun to watch for a change.

You can call the Philadelphia Eagles a lot of things based on their performances in 2020 – like bad, horrible, embarrassing, and other, more colorful verbiage that I’ll leave to your imagination, but no one, not even the most fervent supporter of bleeding green nation will accuse the team of being exciting.

No, when the Eagles have won games, it’s been boring. When they’ve lost games, it’s been for reasons all too predictable and therefore boring. Outside of the opening half of the team’s Week 1 loss to Washington, the Eagles’ offense has looked like a shell of its former glory for no reason in particular.

Who knows, maybe the old adage of having too many cooks applies here, as the Eagles swapped out one bad offensive coordinator in Mike Groh for about a comically high number of Senior Offensive Assistants who have yet to assist the team in any positive way.

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However, that all changed in Week 13 of the 2020 NFL season when Doug Pederson‘s zombie offense finally jolted back to life like an adrenaline shot into Mia Wallace’s heart thanks to the full-time insertion of Jalen Hurts as the team’s fourth-quarter QB1.

Was the rookie quarterback perfect? Hardly, he overthrew Greg Ward on a would-be first down and took a crucial sack on third down when his team was within punching range of shrinking the Packers’ lead to one score. He also threw a borderline pointless interception on a batted ball by Preston Smith, though to be fair, the play was ultimately pointless considering the score and time left on the clock.

But with Hurts in the game, the Eagles’ offense looked like an NFL offense, which is hard to say with a straight face for much of the season.

Though the team’s makeshift offensive line still made running five-to-seven step drops more complicated, Hurts was able to complete a pair of passes of 30-plus yards to Jalen Reagor and Ward – the latter of which was also the rookie QB’s first touchdown as a pro.

When the Packers attempted to collapse the pocket, Hurts was able to navigate his way through traffic and pick up an average of 5.8 yards per carry. His move-ability also helped to open up throws down the field, a look all too familiar to Eagles fans unlucky enough to watch the team’s previous loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football.

While it’d be unfair to credit Reagors’ 73-yard punt return for a touchdown with Hurts’ insertion into the starting lineup, it’s possible that 34-yard, left sideline-skirting catch bolstered the rookie’s confidence and gave him the little extra oomph needed to turn a bobbled return into six easy points.

Now to be fair, Carson Wentz wasn’t particularly bad in Week 13 – at least by his 2020 standards. He completed 6/15 passes for 79 yards and broke his two-game interception streak via an early exit. However, once Hurts was inserted into the game for a change-of-pace series, it became abundantly clear that re-inserting Wentz into the offense wasn’t going to affect the team’s fate one way or another.

If adding a little excitement is the change-of-pace Hurts brings to the table, why on earth would the team ever want to change back?

At 22-years-old, Jalen Hurts is far from a magic pill capable of fixing all of the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense. He’s far from a polished passer, an average NFL runner, and lacks the top-end athleticism of other young superstar quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray. With that being said, Hurts was able to take the plays called by Doug Pederson, run them, and make the most out of what the Packers’ defense was giving him – without a single utterance of ‘kill kill’ before clapping his hands. If Jalen Hurts is nothing more than a glorified game manager, at least we’ll be able to see how this offense is supposed to be run without near-constant mistakes disrupting their schedule.