Philadelphia Eagles: Boy, the Cowboys could really use Jalen Hurts

Maybe the Philadelphia Eagles’ decision to draft a backup quarterback in the second round wasn’t so crazy after all.

When the Philadelphia Eagles decided to forfeit selecting a player at a position of need in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft to instead commit themselves to four years of Jalen Hurts, it left many a fan in the City of Brotherly Love scratching their heads.

Now sure, there were some really good players left on the board, with the Eagles reportedly targeting Jeremy Chinn and J.K. Dobbins if Hurts was no longer available, but when pick 53 came up and the Heisman Trophy runner-up was still on the board, Howie Roseman made a choice that would forever affect the franchise’s course moving forward for better or worse. Whether Hurts starts the team’s next 60-plus games or his play tails off and Carson Wentz returns to the starting lineup, it’s clear fans will be debating that pick for a very, very long time.

And at the time, I had a theory about why it happened that looks pretty good under further evaluation.

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Keyword: Theory.

If you may recall, all the way back to February of this year, before terms like ‘social distancing’ and ‘propane outdoor space heater’ took up real estate in our collective minds, the Dallas Cowboys had a pretty serious problem at the quarterback position. They had Dak Prescott, who is, was, and will continue to be considered a franchise quarterback by most competent talent evaluators, but for whatever reason, Jerry Jones and company didn’t want to pay him what he was worth. After allowing the then-26-year-old to play out the final year of his four-year, fourth-round pick contract in 2019 – paying very well in a prove-it scenario – Prescott wanted to be paid like an elite franchise quarterback – making something in the vain of $35 million a year for the trouble of wearing the colors of ‘America’s Team’.

Mind you, this isn’t a serious problem like having Kirk Cousins under contract for almost $100 million fully guaranteed or whatever the heck is going on with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it’s hard to confidently build out a roster when you have no clue how much money is going to be dedicated to paying a QB for the next 4-5 years.

So naturally, with the NFL combine, (presumed) pro days, and the NFL Draft right around the corner, the Cowboys started to commit a little extra time into the quarterback evaluation process – with Hurts specifically catching their eye outside of the first round (read the full story here). In theory, the idea made sense. Hurts played for Lincoln Riley, a coach many had connected to Dallas at one point or another, and had a relatively similar set of skills to Prescott during his time at Mississippi State. The Cowboys could simply draft Hurts, franchise tag Prescott, and after a summer/season to evaluate what they had, go from there.

Heck, Hurts could have even been throwing to his favorite college target, CeeDee Lamb, if he was still available at pick 82, as the Cowboys shocked the world with his selection at pick 17 overall. Things were shaping up very, very well for Dallas – maybe a bit too well for Roseman’s liking.

Assuming my theory tracks, Roseman saw that things were shaping up for a QB controversy in Dallas, evaluated his own team’s lack of a ‘Nick Foles-esque’ top-tier number 2 behind their oft-injured franchise quarterback, and made the calculated move to select Hurts a bit earlier than many assumed if for no other reason than to keep him away from Big D.

If that really is what went down – which ultimately, we may never know – Roseman looks kind of brilliant as the Cowboys could have really used a player like Hurts in 2020.

With Hurts off the board, the Cowboys opted to draft *laughs* Ben DiNucci in the seventh round – a quarterback who flamed out at Pitt before finding a home at James Madison. DiNucci appeared in three games with one start – a Week 8 contest against your hometown Philadelphia Eagles – and will probably never start another game in the NHL again, as he turned in a horrid showing lowlighted by a QBR of 13.0.

The Cowboys did sign Andy Dalton in free agency shortly after the draft, a move that was lauded at the time, but the former Bengals’ quarterback has been anything but average for Dallas so far this season – having a 2-4 record as a starter without a single 300-yard passing game. If Hurts was on the roster, not only would the Cowboys have a near-full season to evaluate his fit in head coach Mike McCarthy‘s system, but they wouldn’t have had to turn to such household names as Garrett Gilbert to play meaningful NFL snaps.

And as for the Eagles? Well, Hurts may just go on to help save the season and secure Doug Pederson‘s fourth-straight playoff berth as a head coach, but you already know that. This is a Philly Sports blog, after all.

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Objectively speaking, 2020 is an NFL season defined by loss for the Dallas Cowboys. They’ve lost a lot of games – like seriously, the fourth most in the NFL – their head coach has lost his locker room, and the team has lost out on a perfect opportunity to evaluate a high-upside young signal-caller to determine what to do about Dak Prescott this summer. With a pick all-but-guaranteed in the top-10 of the 2021 NFL Draft, will the Cowboys opt to draft Prescott’s successor with the top-2 QBs off the board, or will they address another issue and try to cobble together another season of production from their current crew? Gosh, as a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, you hate to see a division rival grappling with such weighty internal challenges.

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