Trying to Make Sense of Taking Jalen Hurts
At last, the Eagles found their quarterback of the future on Friday night when they …
Wait. Hold on.
Didn’t the Eagles already have their quarterback of the present and future firmly ensconced on the roster already?
Carson Wentz. He’s still around, right?
He is, but that didn’t stop the Eagles from investing a second-round pick in quarterback Jalen Hurts, who played at two high-level Division I schools in the University of Alabama and Oklahoma University.
Stunning, really.
Geneal manager Howie Roseman said he talked to Wentz earlier in the day and told him that Hurts was going to be an option in the second round “so he had a heads-up ahead of time.”
Roseman said the board started to fall in Hurts’ direction and that this was the right way to proceed.
After all the Eagles have done for Wentz since arriving as the No. 2 pick to make him feel comfortable, drafting Hurts undoes all that.
Second-round picks are supposed to play, supposed to make an immediate impact.
Hurts won’t. Sure, he might have a limited in-game package and head coach Doug Pederson said the versatility Hurts has will be explored once training camp opens, if it does.
There is another way Hurts could play and that is if Wentz gets hurt. Except that never happens …
Wait. Hold on.
Yes, it does.
Wentz played all 16 regular-season games in 2019 for the first time since his rookie year of 2016. Still, he ended up finishing the season watching from the sidelines as he did in 2017 and 2018 when he exited his first playoff start early with a concussion.
Did that have a bearing on the Eagles’ thinking?
Probably.
“We believe this is the guy to lead us to our next sb championship,” said Roseman about Wentz.
“There's no doubt we have a Pro-Bowl, 27-year-old quarterback, but we've seen the value of quarterbacks on our football team.”
Nate Sudfeld is on the roster for a fourth season, but this is likely his final year.
“I think we’re feeling like (the QB position) was getting away from us a little bit,” said Roseman. “Nate been very clear he wants an opportunity to go start somewhere, so we felt like a year from now we’d be throwing resources at this position.
“We wanted to get out in front of it a little bit and make sure that room was a very strong room. And the player mattered. We just felt like this player, he’s got a lot of the traits we’re looking to develop. We’re not telling you he’s ready right now, but we have the right resources at our disposal at the right time to get comfortable and learn from one of the best players in the league.”
Hurts will be developed and when he is ready, then what?
Wentz is making a ton of money through 2024. His salary-cap charge will be above $30 million from 2021-24. If Wentz doesn’t start staying healthy, if he doesn’t’ keep winning, well…
It’s not time to go there now, but the Eagles have opened up a very uncomfortable situation for Wentz.
When the Eagles took him in 2016 everybody thought Wentz was going to be the team’s quarterback for the next decade.
Now, it’s easy to believe he won’t be and the reason is Jalen Hurts.
