Tag: Matter

PHILADELPHIA — “I’m fortunate,” Jalen Hurts tells his backup. Fortunate for all the different faces he’s known in football, as varied as the pictures along the NovaCare Complex walls. Fortunate for all the different systems he’s learned, each one intricate and demanding of the players to which it belonged. Particularly to Hurts. Yes, Tanner McKee. Hurts is the one who must walk these halls after Wednesday’s practice, change into pants and a purple sweater, stroll into an auditorium and answer the myriad questions about his particular fit in this particular offense.

That’s what happens when you’re the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, Tanner. You can go 14-3 for the second time in three seasons. You can throw for two touchdowns to beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC wild-card round, and you’ll still have to answer for your 0-for-7 passing slump — no matter the six-man rush in your face, the blatantly missed pass interference call or the concept that you don’t need to force the ball downfield to win with this team.

Are the questions fair? What is fair? Is it reasonable to trust that the Eagles can win a Super Bowl with an offense in which the quarterback threw the fewest passes (21), completed the fewest throws (13), recorded the second-fewest passing yards (131) and fielded the lowest EPA per dropback (-0.11) in any playoff win by the Eagles since at least 2000? Can there be confidence in a quarterback’s ability to deliver when his pass attempts are his fewest per game as a full-time starter (24.1), and therefore more weighted, and therefore less rhythmic, and therefore carry all the metaphysical qualities of pressure that players train themselves to ignore?

Perhaps, Tanner. As Hurts will soon say behind the dais, “Winning and losing, success and failure, is all relative to the person.” Some will say Hurts succeeded back in Super Bowl LVII, when he threw for 304 yards, a touchdown and ran for 70 yards and three scores. Some will say the Eagles defense failed in allowing 24 second-half points to the Kansas City Chiefs. Hurts knows they lost. Hurts also knows they collapsed in 2023 with no offensive identity, a dysfunctional system in which his career-high 31.7 pass attempts per game yielded 4.2 completions of 16-plus yards. He knows he’s now averaging more such explosive completions (4.3) in this year’s run-oriented system.

Hurts knows they’re winning. Is there anyone more invested in the system’s success? Is there anyone who’s scrutinized the intricacies of this offense more than him? Lincoln Riley, Hurts’ former coach at the University of Oklahoma, said he totaled 20 hours on multiple phone calls with Hurts before the transferring Alabama quarterback even committed. Kellen Moore, Hurts’ fifth play-caller in five NFL seasons, told The Athletic he and Hurts spend every Tuesday night on the phone as they put together the week’s initial game plan. They’ll “talk throughout the week” about the inner-workings of an offense that’s had the NFL’s fifth-highest EPA per play (0.10) since their Week 5 bye, according to TruMedia.

“His feedback’s been awesome,” Moore said.

It’s why Nick Sirianni practically pounds his fists when sermonizing different variations of “Jalen is a winner.” The two bonded over the bye week after butting heads a year ago. There were no answers back then. Hurts threw six interceptions during that 1-6 downfall within a convoluted system Sirianni admitted grew stale. Sirianni fired Brian Johnson, hired Moore and relinquished majority control of the offense within a CEO-type role.

New quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier said he was immediately impressed by how Hurts “wants to have all the answers.” A talent-laden team that could’ve charted multiple directions signed Saquon Barkley, and, after Hurts turned the ball over seven times in a troubling 2-2 stretch, the quarterback spent the bye week having long conversations with Sirianni about leaning even deeper into a run-oriented identity Philly’s offensive linemen were clamoring for themselves.

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What’s going on with Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing offense?

The adjustment required a willingness to throw for the franchise’s fewest pass attempts per game since 1978 (25.06). It’s required Hurts to be conservative in the pocket, often to the frustration of a fan base that’s watched him enjoy the highest average time to throw of any starting quarterback in the league (3.31 seconds), per TruMedia. Hurts has been sacked on a career-high 9.5 percent of his dropbacks. He’s attempted passes of 20-plus air yards at a career-low clip (2.47 per game). But he’s thrown a career-low four interceptions as a full-time starter and recorded his highest EPA against the blitz (0.25). In other words: Hurts embraced a reduced role with less glamor but just as much criticism, a path that’d keep him out of the MVP conversation but might lead to the city’s second Super Bowl.

“He wants to be great,” Barkley told The Athletic. “He’ll do anything to be great.”

In Barkley’s record-setting season, Hurts has still delivered many of the season’s most consequential plays. He struck Dallas Goedert on a last-minute, third-and-16 crosser against the New Orleans Saints that gained 61 yards and set up a go-ahead score. Hurts hit DeVonta Smith for a 45-yard touchdown on another crosser in a 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns. Against the Carolina Panthers, down 16-14 late in the third quarter, Hurts gained 35 yards on a third-and-10 scramble, then, three plays later, dished a go-ahead touchdown pass to Grant Calcaterra. Hurts rectified his shortcomings in the passing game against the Panthers by subsequently throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Hurts doesn’t tout these plays when he sits behind the dais. He doesn’t dismiss his deficiencies in the wild-card win, although, he said, “I think things are magnified a little bit more because there’s less opportunity in certain areas.” But that’s the part he’s accepted. His “role in each game will be different.” The team’s “approach in each game is different.” He’ll absorb the proverbial beatings like the literal burdens he’s experienced on the field. Since the 2022 advent of the Brotherly Shove, Hurts has a league-leading 112 rushes when the Eagles have needed a yard for a first down or a touchdown, according to TruMedia. Josh Allen has 71 in that span. No other quarterback has more than 40.

“I think you guys need to understand that I don’t play the game for anything other than to win,” Hurts said.

Lincoln Riley spent a lot of time on the phone with Jalen Hurts to convince him to come to Oklahoma. (Brett Deering / Getty Images)

Riley shut the door to his hotel room, set the bag of delivered food on the desk and put his cell phone conversation on speaker.

This was life on the recruiting trail in January 2019. Riley, then Oklahoma’s head coach, knew he could never go out for dinner. He knew every single night he needed to carve out two hours for two long phone calls. One with Alabama’s transferring quarterback, Jalen Hurts, and the other with Jalen’s father, Averion.

With the latter, they weren’t your typical Quarterback Dad recruiting conversations. Averion, who’d been Jalen’s head coach at Channelview High just outside Houston, provided Riley valuable insights into the mindset of his son. This is what he’s been through. This is how he thinks. This is who he is. Those conversations gave Riley the framework to build the foundation of his relationship with Jalen on their next call.

There was never a guarantee during their roughly 20 hours together that Riley would land his next quarterback. There also wasn’t any fear he was wasting his time. “I was devoting it, but so were they,” he said. From the onset, Riley understood Jalen was “very intentional, very goal-oriented, very process-driven.” They covered the full vision and scope of what became their only season together in Norman, a playoff-bound year in which Jalen was voted runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

“It was that in-depth,” said Riley, now the head coach at the University of Southern California. “You could tell how meticulous he was and how important it was to him to really understand and to be very thorough.”

This is who Jalen has always been, Averion informed Riley. It’s who Jalen still is. Sirianni and Moore are now the recipients of such marathon phone calls. Sirianni has said it was the “common ground” of how he and Hurts “both deeply want to win football games” and “both deeply care about the culture of this football team” that’s helped them connect this year. But without trust in an on-field plan, and Jalen’s role within it, no professional relationship is going to be pure. Winning is the only metric that matters. Apart from that, there’s little use in talking about anything else.

“The games to him are everything,” Riley said.

That’s also where the only confirmation existed. After some rocky spring practices at Oklahoma, Riley says Hurts gave him some constructive pushback, some tough moments in which Hurts seemed to be testing Riley’s assurance in the plan they had together.

“If something’s not going well or didn’t go well that day, there was going to be a phone call that night,” Riley said. “He was going to call me or I was going to call him, and we were going to hash it out. He’s never disrespectful. Ever. Like, not even in the least bit. There were times where there was a little bit of like, ‘You really want me to do this? You really think this is gonna work? You really want me to lead this way?’ I don’t think he’s testing how much I believe in it. He knew I believed in it. I think he was like, ‘All right now, we’ve worked together some. You’ve been around me some. Do you really believe this is going to work for me?’”

Riley said he’d hear Hurts out. He’d also try to “be very firm and resolute in what I believe.”

I told you before you came here, and this is what it feels like. You’ve just got to stay the course. 

“You can’t coach him like you coach everybody else,” Riley said.

He never had to worry about how seriously Hurts was taking his tasks or how prepared he was for their games. Quite the opposite. One of Riley’s biggest goals for Hurts was to loosen him up a bit. He’d try to get the stoic quarterback to crack a smile. He’d try to get the mission-bound athlete to have a little fun. Not just for Hurts. Not just for his teammates, which Riley told Hurts would be helpful as a leader for them to see the other side of him. The goal was to break Hurts free from playing what Riley believes should be a fluid position “so systemic,” “so by the book.”

“There’s times where doing that is great,” Riley said. “But there’s also times where you’ve got to improvise and times where it may not happen exactly like it does on the field or exactly like it does on a whiteboard. And you’ve got to be able to have that freedom and be able to just let it loose. I think the goal was just trying to unlock how good of a player can you be with the gifts that you have and your work ethic and your mindset. Can we free you up and loosen you up a little bit that not only makes you a better leader but just flat out makes you a more effective quarterback, too.”

There “was definitely some resistance” to that approach, Riley said. That wasn’t the way Hurts was wired. It still isn’t. Sure, Hurts will sometimes groove to a song during practice. He’s got himself a touchdown dance, too. Riley sees bits and pieces of how the quarterback’s come a long way. But Hurts mostly prefers to embody a persona that rarely wavers from solemnity. After Hurts threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Smith in a 28-23 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, right tackle Lane Johnson caught his quarterback grinning and shoved him playfully.

“Hey! You’re smiling!” said Johnson, his voice caught on a microphone. “You having a good time? That’s good for you!”

“Not really,” Hurts replied.

Too serious? An Eagles fan page posted Hurts and Johnson’s exchange along with a caption and a crying with laughter emoji: “JALEN HURTS IS A PSYCHOPATH.” But Hurts has conditioned himself to a high standard, those who’ve played with him say. Stray too far into fun, and sometimes you’ll lose focus.

“It’s hard for me, even us (offensive linemen), to loosen up,” Johnson says now. “I mean, the way our games go, you f— up one time, it’s a bad game. So there’s not a whole lot to be jolly about until the game’s over.”

It’s this mindset that makes Hurts’ adjustment in this year’s system all the more significant. All the resistance Riley received at Oklahoma, all the reassurance Hurts required — it’s evident those qualities remain inside the fifth-year Eagles quarterback. Moore told The Athletic there’s still constructive pushback from Hurts.

“He’s always invested in trying to find the best possible way to be successful” and “does a lot of work outside of the building,” Moore said. Hurts exhausts his resources. Last season, Hurts phoned former New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to ask how they’d confounded Hurts with constant blitzes. He thrives in a support system that’s as invested as he is. And that, at times, is a line sometimes too lofty even for himself.

“He is very hard on himself,” Riley said.

Saquon Barkley knows how deeply Hurts strives for greatness. It’s partly why they connected so quickly when Barkley arrived last offseason. They spent portions of the summer together, hosting workouts with other teammates. They talked about their goals, their vision for the season. The more time they spent together, the more Barkley understood why Hurts once said before his NFL combine workouts, “I’m not trying to prove anybody wrong, I’m just trying to prove myself right.”

“Greatness doesn’t come from someone saying he can’t do this or he can’t do that, but him going out there and doing it and showing people,” Barkley told The Athletic. “When I think about people that are great, greatness is the things you accomplish, the winning, the things you do as a team — all those little things. I feel like that’s his mindset, his goal.”

You can’t strive for perfection, Barkley says, because perfection “is not a thing.” It’s as foolhardy as believing you’re going to please everyone in the world with the way you play the game.

Just keep an eye on the scoreboard. What does it say? As Barkley said Sunday, “Whether we throw for 400 yards, we rush for 400 yards, we win the game 3-0, I don’t give a f— to be honest.” The running back knows his quarterback feels the same way.

“The outside world, they may have a vision of how the quarterback position is basically played,” Barkley told The Athletic. “But he knows what he is, he knows what he’s good at, he knows what he’s able to do, how much of a weapon he is. He locks into that and we fuel off that as a team.”

Will it be enough for the Eagles to advance past the visiting Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in the NFC divisional round? Will Philadelphia leverage a conservative approach at quarterback against Barkley, who rushed for a franchise-record 255 yards against the Rams in Week 12, and a top-ranked defense that can help a run-oriented offense drain the clock dry? Or will Hurts unfurl within a passing game that hasn’t yet matched the potency it revealed against Pittsburgh? Can the Eagles rely on explosivity from Hurts’ arm when he’s thrown 99 fewer times than he did in 2022 and 21 fewer completions of 16-plus yards?

“We do whatever we need to do to win each and every game,” Sirianni said. “So if that means you’re in a two-minute to end the game and you’ve got to throw it like we did against New Orleans to get the ball down in a position to score, you do that. If you’re in a position where you’re in a four-minute at the end of the game and you’re running out the clock to do whatever you need to do to win the game in that particular one and you’re running it well, then you do those things.”

“So, I think that’s just the nature of how that’s gone,” Sirianni added. “Again, I think any time that you have won whatever — 13 of 14, 14 of 15, whatever it is — your quarterback is going to be playing well. And Jalen has been playing very efficient. He’s taking care of the football. He’s playing really good football. And I know the stats don’t look the same way because of different circumstances, but I think Jalen is playing really good football at this stage of the year and excited about his opportunity of what he gets to do on Sunday.”

(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)