Jalen Hurts Hype Train: Sirianni and Pascal continue to rave about their QB
After a shaky start to training camp, Eagles QB Jalen Hurts silenced some of his critics with an outstanding performance in the team’s first preseason game last Friday night.
On his one and only drive of the night, Hurts engineered a perfect series. The signal caller went 6-for-6 for 80 yards and a touchdown, posting a Pro Football Focus grade of 90.2 in the process.
Even though it’s just preseason, this type of performance is still worth raving about. Especially with all the question marks surrounding the Eagles quarterback this season.
Head coach Nick Sirianni had nothing but praise for his starting quarterback.
“I thought he was great,” Sirianni said when speaking with Eagles insider Dave Spadaro. “He made plays in the pocket when he needed to make plays in the pocket and when he needed to escape, he escaped. I think it’s interesting; I think it’s also to be known that leaving the pocket isn’t just something that you see when the protection breaks down. I think that people think like, oh, we left the pocket early, and the protection was good. Well, sometimes nobody is open. And sometimes the defense calls a good play and it’s not a good look in the coverage.”
The maturation process of Hurts as a passer has been a talking point all offseason. Diagnosing what the defense is showing him, going through his reads efficiently, and making decisive throws were all things he struggled with during the 2021 campaign.
At least for now, Hurts appears to have taken a step in the right direction, and his head coach agrees.
Sirianni wasn’t the only one who had something to say about Hurts’ performance throughout camp and the preseason, though.
When asked about his quarterback, WR Zach Pascal didn’t hesitate to show Hurts love
Jalen Hurts has a good deep ball? The anti-Hurts crowd will have you believing the man can’t throw an accurate ball past 20 yards. I’ll hold my judgement until the regular season rolls around, but for now, I’m siding with the guy who actually plays alongside Hurts and sees him everyday.
We still have a ways to go before any of us can confidently state Hurts is ‘The Guy.’ The jury is obviously still out on that. But with the small snippets we’ve seen from camp and the eight plays we saw him execute against the Jets, we can safely assume he’s improved in some capacity.
Whether that improvement is good enough to lead the Eagles on a deep playoff run is yet to be seen, but he’s undoubtedly heading in the right direction.
Mandatory Credit: Andy Lewis | Icon Sportswire
