On Jan. 1, Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler published an article going in depth on Hurts' negative contributions to the team's offensive woes. Many fans have their doubts about the legitimacy of this piece. Throughout Hurts' career, however, the film has only confirmed the article's concerns about his unwillingness to develop as a passer.
Hurts has always been a quarterback who primarily throws the ball outside the numbers. This is a key reason he is able to avoid interceptions. Most turnovers happen over the middle, and it is fair to say that Hurts' awareness of that has impacted his decision-making. Protecting the ball is one thing, but refusing to throw over the middle rules out far too many of the most successful passing concepts in the modern league.
According to Next Gen Stats' passing charts, only 16 out of Hurts' 454 pass attempts during the 2025 season were targeting a receiver over the middle (past the line of scrimmage and in between the hashes) of the field (past the line of scrimmage and in between the hashes). Was this a product of Hurts or first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo?
Hurts Rightfully Finding Himself at Center of Debate on Eagles' Offense
While Patullo certainly wasn't doing Hurts many favors, a dive into Hurts' history would tell you this isn't a new issue. Even when the offense was clicking under Kellen Moore, Hurts refused to throw over the middle. In the 2024 playoffs, only three of Hurts' 91 passes were over the middle.
Things worked at the time, though. The Eagles won a Super Bowl. With that success, there was no need for Hurts to leave his comfort zone. But, as Fowler and McManus reported, when the offense struggled in the 2025 season, the locker room grew divided. Patullo and his staff would opt for change, but Hurts would constantly speak against it.
One of these changes that Hurts pushed against was the incorporation of more formations under center. The Eagles ranked 16th in the league in EPA per dropback out of shotgun, but they were third in the league when passing out of formations under center.
There is a long list of reasons for this efficiency. The main one, though, is how much better they could run the football.
Quarterbacks aren't as comfortable taking snaps under center as they used to be, though. A lot of quarterbacks, like Jalen Hurts, want to start the play as far away from the defensive line as possible. This is because, out of the gun, quarterbacks don't have to go through as much of a dropback motion. They can simply catch and throw to their read. When a quarterback takes a snap under center, there is far more footwork and rhythm involved.
This is why the Eagles went under center for just 23.9 percent of their offensive snaps and just a measly 09.02 percent of their dropbacks. This is something that any logical offensive mind would've explored more. It is easy to imagine the reason he didn't was that Hurts refused to evolve his game.
Again, comparing these numbers to the 2024 team's offense under Kellen Moore, you'll see the under-center packages were just as underutilized. The Eagles only passed the ball 36 times out of an under-center formation.
This report directly correlates with many coaches looking for offensive coordinator positions turning down the job earlier this offseason. Given that this team was the Super Bowl champion a year ago, there are very few things that could've scared off so many coaches, from Brian Daboll to Jack Doyle, away. Hurts being a quarterback who doesn't want to adapt to a new system, however, would explain why people wouldn't be as interested in the position. I believe the lack of interest in the Eagles' offensive coordinator job only further proves the legitimacy of this article.
No matter what the reason may be, the Eagles eventually went with former quarterback Sean Mannion as their choice for offensive coordinator. Mannion has never had an offensive coordinator job before, but considering that he was a quarterback coach under Matt LeFleur, many have inferred that he feels most comfortable in a "Shanahanian" scheme.
This means he likes all the stuff that Hurts doesn't. Under center formations and passes over the middle are the name of the game for guys like Mannion, and despite it being his first year as an offensive coordinator, it appears that Mannion is going to be adjusting for Jalen Hurts and not the other way around.
This article from Fowler and McManus only heightened my concerns about Hurts and how he has limited the offense. However, now the problem seems bigger than I originally anticipated. At one point, it appeared that Hurts was just a limited quarterback who simply couldn't execute outside of his comfort zone on a consistent basis. The piece has revealed that it is less about Hurts' ability to operate these schemes and wrinkles. It is more about his apparent unwillingness to learn it.
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