Howie Roseman Commits to Jalen Hurts as the Starter Next Season
There are no secrets. Jalen Hurts knows he is our guy.
Those were the very words of Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni when he and general manager Howie Roseman conducted their season-ending news conference together on Wednesday morning.
“Jalen knows where he stands with us,” said Sirianni. “He knows he’s our quarterback. How do you know where you stand with a coaching staff because you communicate, and you talk over and over and over and over again. So, Jalen knows where he stands with us. I thought he did a great job getting better throughout the year, so there’s no secrets there, he knows he’s our guy.”
The head coach saying that is one thing.
The GM saying it is another, and Roseman confirmed that Hurts will be the starter.
“Yes,” was Roseman’s response when asked if his mindset going into next year is that Hurts will be his starter. “I think for us we have to do whatever we can to continue to help him develop. How do we do that? By surrounding him with really good players.
“Players continue to grow. That’s a huge part of developing. They grow how they are in their second year is not how they’re going to be in your four, five, six, and seven. They are also products of the people around him. That’s on us to continue to build this team.”
LISTEN: Nick Sirianni says there are no secrets; Hurts will start in 2022
As is usually typical with Roseman, however, he may have left the door open just an inch when he said later in the 35-minute session that “It's our job to listen to everything and to see if there are ways to improve our team.”
Still, his confirmation that Hurts will start in 2022 is something he didn’t do last summer during training camp when his decision not to fully endorse him as the starter allowed rumors of a trade for Deshaun Watson to fester.
The same could happen again this offseason, with other starting QBs potentially available, too.
Roseman nipped that talk in the bud.
“Talk about Jalen and the growth he had, really (a) first-year starter, second-year player, leading this team to the playoffs, tremendously impressed by his work ethic, his leadership," the GM said. "Last time we talked was during camp and we said we wanted to see him take the bull by the horn, and he certainly did that.”
Hurts showed significant progress as the season went along, though that progress was far from evident in the Eagles’ playoff loss against the defending Sper Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
RELATED: Howie Roseman Should Back Jalen Hurts as His QB in 2022
He completed 61.3 percent of his throws for 3,144 yards, 16 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, three of which came in one game against the New York Giants. His passer rating for the year was 87.2.
Hurts also rushed for a team-high 784 yards and 10 touchdowns with a 5.9 yards per carry average.
His ability to run has bought him time to develop as a passer and that is what this offseason will be about for Hurts – developing into a better passer because making a living as a running quarterback usually leads to injury, and Hurts was no exception.
He struggled with an ankle sprain suffered against the Giants on Nov. 28, forcing him to miss a game the following week.
“We’ve seen so many things that he got better at,” said Sirianni. “First and foremost, Jalen and the football character he has, the desire and the want-to of how badly this guy wants to be an elite, elite, elite player in this league.
"Then you take into account Shane Steichen, who’s a great offensive coordinator and Brian Johnson, a phenomenal quarterback coach, and our offensive staff, doing everything they need to do to get Jalen ready to play, so a lot of factors went into why Jalen got better as a passer, starting with Jalen first.
“When he didn’t have that ability to run as effective with the ankle, three of his last four games, he played over 100 quarterback rating. We saw him develop in the sense where earlier in the year when he had to extend a play, it was a run. Later in the year, we just continued to get better in our scramble drills, he became a passer when we extended plays, and that really helped us down the stretch.”
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.
