Philadelphia Eagles report: Jalen Hurts is questionable versus the Jets

To call Jalen Hurts‘ Week 12 performance versus the New York Giants bad would be an understatement.

After turning in a solid string of games with fewer responsibilities and a streamlined game plan built around attacking opponents on the ground, Hurts was given a bigger set of responsibilities in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ second divisional game of the season and responded by turning in his worst performance as a pro.

Sure, his luck wasn’t great. Jalen Reagor dropped two would-be touchdowns, and he had another potential game-winning drive dashed by a Boston Scott fumble, but Hurts’ passes were off, his decision-making was suspect, and he just couldn’t seem to settle down through the first three-quarters of the contest.

Needless to say, more than a few Eagles fans took the game’s outcome as an opportunity to justify their disapproval of the second-year quarterback, with more than a few suggesting that Nick Sirianni should make a change in the offensive backfield in a last-ditch effort to save the season and fight like heck for a Wild Card berth.

Well, in a weird twist of fate, those fans might just get their wish, as the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback is reportedly dealing with an ankle injury that currently leaves his status for Week 13 up in the air.

The Philadelphia Eagles might have to play Gardner Minshew after all.

Alright, so let’s assume Jalen Hurts does miss the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 13 bout versus the New York Jets. Let’s assume Reid Sinnett gets his first opportunity to wear a midnight green uniform on the sidelines, and Gardner “Mustache ” Minshew gets the nod under center, what would that look like?

Well, let’s start with Minshew as a player.

A sixth-round pick who rose to national prominence during his graduate transfer senior season at Washington State, Minshew isn’t particularly athletic. As his spider chart indicates, Minshew isn’t very tall, fast, or strong and only has an average arm by NFL standards, but he largely makes up for it with good accuracy, an infectiously chaotic swagger, and a 1.4 interception rate.

While Minshew won’t be picking up 28 yards on a designed run like Hurts, he’s more comfortable operating out of the pocket and will turn to checkdowns when his downfield options aren’t available, as opposed to tucking the ball and scrambling to turn garbage into gold.

In the opinions of some, just having a quarterback who goes through his progressions before delivering a catchable ball is worth exploring, even if the team will have to adjust pretty significantly to losing Hurts’ 10.12 rushing attempts for 57.9 yards per game.

Sidebar: Did you know Hurts has accounted for 32.8 percent of the Eagles’ rushing attempts and 36.7 percent of their rushing yards? That’s crazy production for a quarterback.

Okay, so in Minshew, the Eagles would be trotting out a player with a more polished passing game but a more meat and potatoes ability to pick up yards on the ground. How would that affect Nick Sirianni’s approach to beating a New York Jets team that admittedly isn’t very good?

Well, for one, Sirianni would surely incorporate running backs like Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gainwell, and Boston Scott into the passing game, as all three could serve as viable short-yardage outlet passes. This would allow the Eagles to continue to gain yardage even if it’s just a little bit at a time and avoid the sort of sacks that surely would be much higher if Hurts wasn’t such a skilled pressure evader.

Sirianni, Shane Steichen, and company could also, get this, call more plays across the middle of the field, be that a slant, a dig, or even a curl route. Suddenly, the entire field would be Sirianni’s oyster, and the entire NFL world would get to see how much of the offense’s inconsistency falls on the team’s quarterback versus the head coach’s play calling.

Really, the only aspect of the game that would need to change considerably with Minshew at quarterback is the division of rushing, as Hurts’ ability to extend drives with his legs and pick up yards on the ground – sometimes with JJ Arcega-Whiteside playing a quasi fullback role – is like few other players in the league today. While Minshew has 479 rushing yards to his credit thus far in his career, he only attempted 4.7 rushes in any given give with the Jaguars, many of which weren’t meant to be runs designed to pick up a massive chunk of yards on the ground.

If Jordan Howard is good to go in Week 13, that’s tenable. If he isn’t, the Eagles might have to draw up some new rushing concepts to manufacture easy yards in a way Robert Saleh isn’t expecting. Either way, assuming Hurts can’t go, seeing how Sirianni adjusts would be incredibly interesting to see.

Is Gardner Minshew the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback of the future? Probably not. Is Jalen Hurts the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback of the future? Maybe. While I, for one, wouldn’t bench Hurts based on one game, as filling out his sample size with as much data as possible is more valuable than an effort to secure any individual win, if Sirianni’s offense comes alive with Minshew at the helm, the idea of drafting an athletically gifted quarterback like Matt Corral with an absolute cannon for an arm may become more of a possibility in 2022.