Jalen Hurts’ tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles has been a lightning road for social-media outbursts and traditional-media commentary from the beginning.
And Hurts has ignored all of it as he has ascended from game-day inactive in the season-opener to starting quarterback.
Asked during his Wednesday press conference how he has managed to ignore the outside noise, Hurts said: “I try and stay away from the rat poison.”
Not understanding Hurts’ answer, the questioner asked: “When you say rat poison, what do you mean?”
“You got to ask (Alabama) coach (Nick) Saban,” Hurts said. “He knows a little bit about rat poison, too. It’s all external factors. I’ve talked about that a little bit. External factors – no good for us and what we’re trying to do as a team.”
On Oct. 7, 2017, Hurts threw for 123 yards and one touchdown and ran for 56 yards and one touchdown in Alabama’s 27-19 road win over Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide reached 6-0 in its first game of the season with a margin of fewer than 17 points. In its previous two games, No. 1-ranked Alabama had beaten Vanderbilt 59-0 and Ole Miss 66-3.
“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys,” Saban said during his postgame press conference. “All that stuff you write about how good we are and all that stuff they hear on ESPN, it’s like poison. You know what I mean? It’s like taking poison. Like rat poison, so all right, I’m asking them: Are you going to listen to me or are you going to listen to these guys about how good you are?”
When Eagles general manager Howie Roseman used the team’s second-round draft pick to obtain Hurts on April 24, it seemed a puzzling pick – and fans and media let the GM know he’d wasted an opportunity.
The objection? Why would the Eagles use a draft choice that ought to make an immediate impact on the starting lineup on a player who would get on the field only if Philadelphia’s established and highly paid quarterback Carson Wentz got hurt?
But when the Eagles opened the season by going 1-4-1, a new outcry arose: Bench Wentz and play Hurts.
For the first 11 games of the season, Philadelphia coach Doug Pederson stuck with Wentz. In the 12th game, with Wentz owning more interceptions, turnovers and sacks than any other quarterback in the league, Hurts got his first chance at extended playing time. He entered the game in the third quarter with the Eagles trailing the Green Bay Packers 23-3, and although Philadelphia lost 30-16, Pederson saw the spark that Hurts provided for the offense.
In a 24-21 upset of the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 13, Hurts became the first quarterback in NFL history to run for at least 100 yards and throw a touchdown pass in his first start. After throwing for three touchdowns and running for another in a 33-26 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Hurts was the first player in NFL history with at least 500 passing yards and 150 rushing yards after his first two NFL starts.
Now the outcry is: Why didn’t Pederson start Hurts sooner?
With a 4-9-1 record, the Eagles are last in the NFC East, which is saying something since no team in the division has a winning record.
Even though Philadelphia scored four touchdowns in a game on Sunday for the first time since Oct. 18, Pederson once again declined to name a starting quarterback for the next week during his postgame press conference, only to announce on Monday that Hurts would start again, although the coach wouldn’t commit to starting him in the only other game on the Eagles’ schedule – the regular-season finale against the Washington Football Team on Jan. 3.
“Obviously, I’m going to have Jalen continue to start this week,” Pederson said on Monday, “and, obviously, I’m focused on this week right now. Obviously, I want to see how our team and he respond after a tough loss yesterday, so Jalen will be the starter this week.”
Pederson said Hurts had provided leadership on Sunday after Philadelphia fell behind the Cardinals 16-0 in the first quarter.
“He did what Jalen can do,” Pederson said. “We protected the football, and I’ll tell you this, the guys around him have played better. They’ve elevated their game as well, and they’re improving each week, and that’s all part of Jalen’s success, too, is having the guys around him play better.
“But he led the team. He played mentally and physically tough, which was good to see. He obviously extended plays with his legs. He had to throw probably more from the pocket yesterday because of the nature of the game and getting behind early in the football game. I think the biggest thing was just leading the team and keeping the guys engaged for the whole game and giving us a chance to win at the end.”
As he prepares for his third NFL start on Sunday, a road contest against the Dallas Cowboys, Hurts said his attention is on the Eagles’ preparations for the rivalry game.
“I just focus on what I need to focus on,” Hurts said. “Focus on winning, preparing and just doing my job. Coming in here every day, head down and going to work.”
Hurts’ play has the attention of Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who likened the rookie to his own injured quarterback, Dak Prescott.
“That was something that came up in the draft evaluation,” McCarthy said. “Jalen was held in high regard in our building throughout the draft process, and that comparable came up a number of times, especially as when Dak came out Mississippi State. …
“You look at their skill sets and their ability to play both in the pocket and out of the pocket, and they both came from heavy quarterback-run systems in college, whether it’s the RPOs and the zone read, and what they were asked to do and how they’ve been able to translate it to the pro game. To state the obvious, Jalen’s off to a really, really good start here the last two-and-a-half games, so we’ve been real impressed with him since he came into the game against Green Bay and, obviously, the last one against Arizona.”
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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