Eagles Have Luxury in Jalen Hurts They Didn’t Have with Carson Wentz
Former Eagles linebacker Garry Cobb has become a staple in the Delaware Valley since he finished up a decade in the league back with the Dallas Cowboys in 1989.
A part of the local media for decades now, Cobb also works with the NFL helping young men transition to the second phase of their adult life once the game is no longer an option for them.
Few understand the difficulties of playing in perhaps the most passionate sports market in America because from the moment Cobb arrived in Philadelphia, he was on notice.
Back in 1985, the Eagles sent franchise legend Wilbert Montgomery to Detroit to acquire Cobb, something he still hears about on occasion nearly 40 years later.
Not everyone can handle that kind of pressure but one player Cobb doesn’t worry about is Eagles’ starting quarterback Jalen Hurts, perhaps because the 23-year-old has been in a pressure cooker since arriving in Tuscaloosa back in his college days.
“He can take the pressure,” Cobb said when discussing Jalen Hurts on BIRDS 365 Monday morning.
There’s been a lot of revisionist history around the Eagles since Hurts arrived as the 53rd overall pick in the 2020 draft less than 12 months after Philadelphia gave the largest contract in franchise history to Carson Wentz.
In the toxic cocktail that turned Wentz from franchise signal-caller to journeyman in three calendar years, the drafting of Hurts and Wentz’s inability to come to grips with it was a key ingredient.
The real idea behind the plan by the Eagles, as confirmed by multiple team sources, was for Hurts to serve as nothing more than a cost-effective insurance plan for Wentz, a nod to the reality that the one time perceived superstar had not finished three consecutive seasons due to injury (2017, 2018, 2019).
By 2020 ineffectiveness turned into a benching for Wentz, who essentially checked out on the organization, forcing the move to Indianapolis which was as deftly handled as possible by Howie Roseman despite a record-setting dead-money hit that Jeffrey Lurie ultimately had to rubber-stamp.
By last season, the Eagles’ low-cost insurance policy was their short-term answer at QB but most considered Hurts a bridge to the real answer down the road.
After a solid season as a first-year starter that produced Pro Bowl-alternate status and a playoff berth Hurts received a public vote of confidence from both Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni after the campaign.
“When we talk about Jalen and the growth he had, really first-year starter, second-year player, leading this team to the playoffs, tremendously impressed by his worth ethic, his leadership,” Roseman noted. “Last time we talked was during camp, and we said we wanted to see him take the bull by the horns, and he certainly did that.”
Sirianni was even more emphatic.
“Jalen knows where he stands with us,” the coach said. “He knows he’s our quarterback. … I thought he did a great job of getting better throughout the year, as we’ve talked about. And so, there’s no secrets there.
"He knows he’s our guy.”
Coaches and executives aren’t under oath in press conferences, though, and few around the league think the Eagles will simply cease to investigate getting better at the game's most important position.
This time, however, the organization can feel comfortable in understanding that if a path to a Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson doesn’t unveil itself, Hurts won’t take any perceived due diligence as a slight.
“... You got to have tough skin [in Philadelphia],” Cobb noted. “The [Eagles] can be looking for a quarterback and that’s not going to stop [Hurts] from getting better.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
