- Brian Symons
- Dec 21, 2020
Author: Sal Vassallo
Editor: Mark Awadallah
For the Philadelphia Eagles, quarterback Carson Wentz was an MVP candidate in 2018 before suffering a brutal knee injury. The Eagles, would of course, later win the super bowl that year with backup QB Nick Foles. Now that Foles has since moved onto Jacksonville and now Chicago, what ever happened to the Philadelphia Eagles? In 2019, the Eagles came back fresh off a super bowl win, and star QB Carson Wentz returned to lead the team to a 9-7 record. Wentz threw for a 63% completion percentage and had a touchdown to interception ratio of 27/7. Now, it has all gone downhill for him. His completion percentage is now at a barren 57% and he’s thrown 15 interceptions in just 12 games played. One positive for Wentz is that he has managed to stay predominantly healthy these past two seasons. However, he just does not look like the same quarterback in 2020, mental errors galore have led to the spike in turnovers. The Eagles have tried to remain loyal to Wentz, still only 27 years old, and fresh off a large contract extension given to him in 2018. However, his play has helped the Eagles sink to the bottom of an NFC East division that has seen the Giants and Redskins tied at 5-7 atop the division. While the Eagles sit just 2 games behind for the division lead, the way they have played feels like they are 20 games back.
With the Giants and Washington playing good football lately, the Eagles have finally made a change to quarterback rookie Jalen Hurts, who defeated an NFC titan, the New Orleans Saints, this Sunday. Yes, the Saints were without Drew Brees, however that does take away from how well Hurts played in his first NFL start. Hurts threw for 17-30 for 167 yards and a touchdown. Amazingly enough he also pulled a Lamar Jackson and rushed for 115 yards himself. Hurts and teammate Miles Sanders combined to run over the Saints defense with 221 rushing yards. While Hurts did fumble once, he made smart decisions with the football as failing to throw any interceptions. This is just game one, so perhaps Hurts’s passing game will improve, however in a league of young mobile quarterbacks, the Eagles could pull off a lot of big time wins with Hurts running the ball. People may have been confused by the Eagles selecting Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft, however now it looks as though they could look to Jalen Hurts to save their season. At just 4-8-1 and with the Washington Football team playing as well as they are, the playoffs may no longer be a realistic goal for the Eagles, but it’ll be interesting to see how Jalen Hurts fares to end the season. The more he plays, the more film there will be on him.
A former two time SEC champion, Hurts is also no stranger to adversity. During his junior year in college, he was benched for Tua Tagovailoa. Tua is, of course, currently the starter down on the Miami Dolphins who have looked awfully good this year. Overall, Hurts ended up transferring to Oklahoma his senior year and despite the big change, he still managed to lead the Oklahoma Sooners to a big 12 championship and a spot in the college football playoff before being knocked out by Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers. Hurts would also finish 2nd to Burrow in the Heisman Trophy voting that season (2019). While I wouldn’t count Wentz out yet, Jalen Hurts has a chance to force the Eagles hand if he continues to play as well as he did against the Saints. It will be interesting to see what the former Alabama and Oklahoma star can do at the pro level.
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