Jalen Hurts or DeSean Jackson: Whose Impact will be Greater vs. Giants?
Jalen Hurts played a career-high seven snaps in Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
DeSean Jackson hasn’t played any snaps since the first half of a tie with the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept 27.
Jackson is expected to return to action on Thursday night against the New York Giants.
So, which player will have a bigger impact on the offense against New York, the 22-year-old rookie, or the 33-year-old veteran?
THE CASE FOR HURTS
From the second he was drafted last April, Pederson said his second-round pick was a quarterback, not a running back.
So far, though, Hurts has done more running than throwing.
In 19 snaps through six games, he has seven carries for 49 yards while attempting, and completing, only one pass, an 18-yard throw to tight end Richard Rodgers against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“He definitely has the ability to run,” said Giants coach Joe Judge on a videoconference call on Tuesday morning. “That’s something that they’re doing a good job highlighting and using. But I wouldn’t fall asleep at all on this guy throwing the ball. He’s thrown for a lot of yards, to a lot of really good players … I think the way they’re using him is obviously very inventive. He’s very productive for them right now. You have to be very aware of how they get him on the field.
“A lot of times, they like to sneak him on late. You’ve already made your defensive call, and now all of a sudden you have two mobile quarterbacks out there. You have to be aware of how they’re doing things.”
With Miles Sanders expected to miss the game, it may be time for the Eagles to take the wraps off Hurts, albeit it, the week is short so time to design plays for him isn’t plentiful. But there should have been various installations for Hurts as the season wore on.
Now’s the time to break out some of them.
“Obviously, you saw (Sunday) some of what we call X plays or plays that are sort of unscouted with him have been productive for us in the last three or four weeks,” said Pederson. “I think it's something that we've got to continue to explore.
“It does give us the ability to run the football with him, so he's like another - I don't want to say he's another running back, but he's a quarterback that can run the zone-read plays from the quarterback position.
“It's something that we're definitely going to continue to explore each week if it's conducive; it has been successful for us, and I could see things continuing each week that way.”
THE CASE FOR JACKSON
We’ve been down this road last year when Jackson came back from what he thought was a rehabbed core muscle injury only to play a handful of snaps before being shut down for the season.
So, nobody knows what Jackson will look like if he plays or how long he will last.
He managed to play 120 snaps before getting hurt with 10 catches for 121 yards. Jackson is still looking for his first touchdown of the season. Never in his career has he gone a full season without a touchdown.
Even last year, when he played just 66 snaps, Jackson had two touchdowns.
If he plays, what will his timing be like with quarterback Carson Wentz?
“In a perfect world, you’d have more reps with everybody, whether it’s veterans or the young guys, but it’s the hand you’re dealt,” said Wentz. “So, it’s conversations. For those guys (like Jackson), it’s banked reps even from last year, and offseasons before. … I think we’ve played a lot of football together, whether it’s in practice or a game over the years.”
THE VERDICT
Hurts has earned some trust and should get more snaps, and I believe this will be a game in which he either scores a TD or throw for one.
Jackson can certainly still be a factor in this offense but has lost some trust from a health standpoint. The Eagles' hope is, if he plays, it’s for more than five or 10 snaps before having to shut it down again.
With that injury issue in the back of my head, I’m going with Hurts to have a greater impact.
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