Philadelphia Eagles: What Jalen Hurts arrival means for Travis Fulgham

The Philadelphia Eagles need to get Hurts and Fulgham on the same page.

After sputtering along with an offense devoid of any sort of consistency, the Philadelphia Eagles desperately needed a spark to help get their season back on track. Sure, the team had players like Miles Sanders, Dallas Goedert, and even Greg Ward, all of whom are able to put up big plays on occasion, but what they really needed more than anything else was a… spark to get things roaring back to life.

Fortunately, the Eagles got just that in Jalen Hurts Travis Fulgham.

That’s right before ‘Hurtzamania’ came to South Philly, it was Fulgham, the practice squad player turned Week 5 star who gave Eagles fans a reason to tune in each from Weeks 6-8.

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It was great. Fulgham, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound wide receiver who didn’t even expect to play football after high school before he walked onto the team at Old Dominion, had suddenly become a star, a fan favorite, and a fantasy football gem. He led the league in receiving yards for the better part of a month, recorded touchdown catches in four of his first five games, and was an instrumental part in all three of the team’s wins to that point.

And then… nothing.

Chalk it up to the return of Alshon Jeffery or the emergence of a finally healthy Jalen Reagor, but Fulgham’s production dropped off a cliff from Week 10 on – averaging 4.8 fewer targets a game on 9.3 fewer snaps.

Things weren’t looking great for Fulgham. When he was targeted, he suddenly couldn’t be counted on to catch a cold, amassing all of 32 yards over his last four games on a completion percentage of 25.

Needless to say, after losing four straight games against everyone from the New York Giant to the Green Bay Packers, Fulgham – and the Eagles as a whole – needed to find another spark to get their offense rolling and re-get the season back on track again.

Fortunately, like a gift from the football gods, the Eagles got just that in 2020 second-round pick Jalen Hurts.

In six-ish quarters of play, Hurts breathed new life into the Eagles’ zombie offense. His ability to extend passing concepts behind the line, make plays outside of the pocket, and pick up a much-needed first down with his legs allowed the Birds to outperform their opponents in time of possession and outscore their foes by a combined 37-28 thanks in no small part to a 73-yard punt return by Jalen ‘The Other Jalen’ Reagor.

Suddenly, the Eagles’ offense ticked along like a swiss watch. Gone were the days of drive-killing interceptions, indecisive sacks, and passes jettisoned into the cardboard cutout crowd, and in their place came a steady string of quick outs, read-options, and even a few timing routes like Jeffery’s 7-0 touchdown.

Doug Pederson even called a few trick plays, like a well-executed reverse sweep that netted Reagor 19 rushing yards – truly, this was the first fun Eagles game to watch for the entire 60 minutes.

But what about Fulgham? How did he fare with Hurts

under center

in the shotgun?

Yeah… not so good.

Despite completing passes to eight different receivers in Week 14, including Quez Watkins‘ first-ever catch, Fulgham finished his day without a recorded stat. He did play, logging a measly 11 snaps, but Hurts was far more willing to look Reagor’s, Goedert’s, Ward’s, and even Sanders’ way as opposed to the 25-year-old former sixth-round pick.

But why? I mean sure, Hurts only had a week to prepare with the starting offense, but surely the duo had to have played together at least a little bit during the preseason, right?

For better or worse, Fulgham’s midseason success was a direct product of his connection with Carson Wentz. Call it a fortunate byproduct of hauling in a go-ahead touchdown in Week 4 or just being one of the team’s few healthy players at the time, but Wentz rapidly developed a solid rapport with his new favorite target and opted to throw to him more often than any other receiver over that aformentioned four-game tenure.

If Fulgham wants to reincorporate himself into the Eagles’ offense, an outcome I’m sure fans would love to see, he needs to get on the same page as Hurts and re-prove himself a viable possession ‘X’ receiver capable of running crisp routes and catching balls in traffic.

Theoretically, a starting trio of Fulgham, Reagor, and Ward should actually be pretty good – the Philadelphia Eagles just need to see all three of them play well in the same game.

For all of the hype, he received during his four weeks of ‘Fulgham-sanity’ the 25-year-old is not a perfect wide receiver or the second coming of Andre Johnson. On the season (as of December 9th), Fulgham had the seventh-lowest average yards of separation (2.3) of any receiver in the league and the 13th worst catch percentage (55 percent) per Next Gen Stats. With that being said, Fulgham still deserves a chance to play and continue to prove his worth throughout the duration of his current contract. Heck, he may still open up camp as the team’s starting  ‘X’ receiver in 2021, assuming, of course, they don’t land a player like Ja’Marr Chase in the draft. But until Fulgham and Jalen Hurts get on the same page, I’d shade towards starting Jalen Reagor in fantasy football moving forward, as he seems to have a pretty great rapport with his fellow 2020 draft classmate.