The idea that Jalen Hurts won't be on the Philadelphia Eagles in the foreseeable future certainly raises some eyebrows. Hurts has done nothing but win for this organization, but many have started to say that it would be better if Philadelphia went in a different direction. It's tough to justify those comments, but they're certainly out there.
Former NFL coach Eric Mangini was the latest to do so, noting that while he definitely won't get cut, he'd be surprised if the Eagles eventually gave him a bigger contract in the future.
“I can’t wait to read the 10,000-word article when he gets cut because this doesn’t work,” Mangini said, per Newsweek’s Megan Armstrong. “Maybe he won’t get cut. But I can’t imagine you’re going to sign a guy to a new contract if the only way you can motivate him is not through direct conversation with the coaching staff or the GM or the owner or the players that he plays with — you have to motivate him through an article on ESPN or tweets or podcasts?
“I can’t imagine the organization will move forward with him after this year if this is really the case,” Mangini said. “How could you? How is that any way of legitimate communication between your star player, your face of the franchise and the rest of the organization, where you need to bring in a third party to do it?”
Teams don’t just move on from quarterbacks like Hurts. He’s not some fringe starter fighting to keep a job.
He’s a Super Bowl–winning quarterback, still in his prime, and should get better in a different offensive system.
I don't want to blame Kevin Patullo for everything that went wrong with the Eagles a year ago, but we've seen players play a lot better than they looked a year ago in Philadelphia. Again, that could be due to Hurts and other reasons, but there is certainly something to be said about how bad the Eagles were last year offensively. I simply can't put that on just Hurts, even if people around the league want to.
Not to say he doesn't need to play better or anything else, but the guy just won a Super Bowl less than two years ago at this point.