Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts has a dish cooking up

You can take the quarterback out of Houston, but you can’t take Houston out of the quarterback.

Jalen Hurts is having himself a summer, and it isn’t even summer yet. He lobbied for and landed the return of Kelly Green for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, survived the 2022 NFL Draft without his team drafting another quarterback, and, against all odds, got his good friend A.J. Brown in a midnight green uniform despite being the “best wide receiver in Tennessee Titans history.”

And in the NovaCare Center kitchen? Well, Hurts has made an impact there too, as he’s introduced crawfish, a southern specialty, to the menu.

Consequential? On the season, probably not, but it certainly showcases a willingness to embrace Hurts’ personality and allows him to fire up his teammates on the field and in the dining hall, too, assuming they opted for a spicy iteration of the dish. What is consequential? Hurts’ words, as he’s apparently embraced the “point guard philosophy” that someone has been banging the table all spring long.

Jalen Hurts needs to dish for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Some quarterbacks are gunslingers. They take the field like a Clint Eastwood character, shrug off check-downs, and throw the ball deep down the field with little regard for whether it’s caught or picked off. These quarterbacks, who like to “risk it for the biscuit,” often produce some of the most jaw-dropping highlights you’ll ever see, and their popularity rises above many of their peers – assuming they don’t throw more interceptions than touchdowns and get run out of town.

But in the modern-day NFL, there isn’t just one way to play quarterback.

No, there are floor generals, game managers, and all sorts of different players who fall somewhere in between. Some quarterbacks like to win vertically, others prefer to throw side-to-side, and others still add a running element to the offense that can be incredibly hard to cover too.

Hurts, to his credit, has the running part of being a quarterback in 2022 down pat. He can scramble around behind the line looking for open men down-field or take off running to pick up positive yards of his own.

What Hurts isn’t as well-versed in, however, are the subtle nuances of reading a defense, picking apart coverages, and outdueling a defensive coordinator who gets paid to do his job too.

Some of that comes with time. The more Hurts plays quarterback against “real” defenses in regular season games, the better he will get. But Nick Sirianni can make Hurts’ life easier, too; all he needs to do is design plays where Hurts can dish to open receivers and either run or check things down if those options are unavailable.

Remember, if you will, the tempo-based offense that made Nick Foles a Super Bowl MVP in February of 2018. Foles threw some bombs, sure, and the run game was very good indeed, but he also completed 72.6 percent of his passes during the playoffs and dominated with a then-revolutionary play that has rapidly become an NFL standard: The RPO. If Sirianni can inherit those looks from his mentor, Frank Reich, and fold them into an offense that also features a good number of designed quarterback runs and the offense could be very fun to watch indeed.

Off the field, Jalen Hurts is doing everything right for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s been a very good teammate, a fantastic ambassador for the team, and a pro’s pro; now, he just needs to back it up with his on-field performance. Fortunately, if Hurts can embrace the idea of being a passer’s passer, cooking up plates for his teammates, then he’ll be able to dish enough for everyone to eat well on offense.