It Hurts to Watch the Eagles Play
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Jalen Hurts has played 11 seasons of high-level football dating back to college, and he has had 11 different play callers. The one thing they all seemed to have a common? A rudimentary passing attack.
In a 27-7 blowout loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday night, Hurts finished the game 16-for-25 for 153 yards with zero touchdowns and one interception. And yet, he somehow played even worse that pedestrian stat line would suggest. It’s one thing to miss open wide receivers streaking down the field; that sort of thing happens every game to even the best NFL quarterbacks. It’s something else entirely, though, to not even look at said wide open receivers because you’re only locked-in to one half of the field. Against Chicago, 16 of Hurts’ 25 passing attempts were to the right side of the field. He finished 12-of-16 going to his right and just 4-of-9 with one interception on all other throws.
This isn’t a one-time problem for Hurts, either. Recall ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler reported during the offseason that Hurts was the primary reason for the Philadelphia passing game becoming ‘calcified’ the last few years. He pushed back on changes to diversify the scheme, he railed against the use of shifts and motions, he changed play calls at the line of scrimmage to get into more basic pass concepts, and most importantly, he absolutely refused to throw over the middle. That’s a big reason why the Eagles’ passing offense has fallen from being ranked 9th and 16th in 2022 and 2023 all the way down to 29th and 23rd in 2024 and 2025.
And if the first three games of the 2026 season are of any indication, the Philadelphia offense is only getting worse. Dating back to last season, the Eagles are 30th in the NFL in drives that end in a three-and-out (60), last in three-and-out rate (29%), 31st in average third down distance (7.7), and 28th in total red zone drives (53). Add in the fact that Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion has never called plays before this season coupled with the inconvenient truths that Hurts targets Devonta Smith nearly twice as much as any other Eagles receiver and throws over the middle only about a quarter as often as the top quarterbacks in the league do, and it’s easy to see how the 24th ranked Philly passing attack might remain grounded for the rest of the season.
Hurts may be a Super Bowl MVP and a perennial Pro Bowler, but even his most staunch defenders can admit he’s never been a great thrower of the football. How else do you explain him getting benched in favor of Tua Tagovailoa at halftime of the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship game after leading the team to a 12-1 record up until that point? Unfortunately, the Eagles roster is no longer capable of masking his passing deficiencies like they had in the past. During his Super Bowl winning season, Hurts was 20th in both passing yards and passing touchdowns. How did they win so big with such a rudimentary passing attack? By having the top-ranked defense – by a wide margin - and the 2nd best rushing attack. Good luck duplicating that sort of thing again.
The Eagles might be stuck between a rock and a hard place with Hurts. He’s too good to keep them out of the basement but not quite good enough to carry the team. Recall, last November, longtime Eagles beat writer Derrick Gunn went viral when he called Hurts ‘Carson Wentz 2.0’ because he believed the franchise would be handcuffed financially by Hurts in the same way they were by Wentz back in the day. Well, the Philly front office somehow found an exit route with Wentz back in 2021. Who’s to say they can’t do the same with Hurts in 2027?
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