Doug Pederson Sticking with Jalen Hurts Again this Week

The Eagles coach ended the drama he brought on by not committing to the rooke after the game and again Monday morning

Jalen Hurts will start against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon in Glendale.

After building some suspense as to who his starting quarterback would be in the aftermath of the Eagles’ 24-21 over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, then adding to the drama during his weekly Monday morning guest spot on 94WIP Sports Radio by not coming clean whether it would be Hurts or Carson Wentz, Pederson finally gave up the answer.

“After going through the film and looking back even to last week and the preparation and everything, I’m going to continue with Jalen this week as the starter,” said Pederson, finally, on Monday afternoon during his videoconference call with the media.

Hurts accounted for 273 yards of total offense. His 106 yards rushing made him just the second quarterback to run for more than 100 yards in his first pro start. 

Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was the other one, but Hurts distinguished himself further by becoming the first QB to not only run for more than 100 yards in his first pro start but also throw a touchdown pass while doing it.

Yet, Pederson acted as if he had just received a lump of coal in his Christmas stocking when asked about Hurts’ performance following a shocking upset of 10-win New Orleans, sounding very much like the Scrooge, bah humbug and all that.

The coach explained why he wasn’t overly effusive of Hurts’ performance in Sunday’s win, and, yes, some of it had to do with Carson Wentz, he said.

“I was thinking of a lot of things, quite honestly, I was thinking of Carson, but I was thinking about the rest of the team and how the rest of the team played in the game,” he said not quite 24 hours after the win. “Jalen, after looking at the film again (Monday), Jalen played well. He was a big part of the success we had on offense and obviously helping us win that football game. There were lot of other great individual performance on both sides of the ball.”

Unlike Wentz, who has the freedom to do pretty much what he wants at the line of scrimmage, Pederson pulled the reins in on Hurts.

“(Sunday), our mindset going into the game was, Jalen, just run the offense,” said Pederson. “We didn’t give him a lot of freedom in this game. First start in the National Football League, just go play, much like Carson in his first start in the National Football League, just go play.

“Then you continue to grow and build and take what the successes we had in the game and try to build upon that this week.”

Clearly, Hurts can’t be counted on to run the ball 18 times and pick up over 100 yards each week, so there is much building to be done between now and the trip to play the Cardinals (7-6).

“Do I want to run Jalen Hurts 18 times?” asked Pederson. “You don’t want to run your quarterback 18 times, not in this league because you see the amount of hits that he took. Do I want Miles Sanders to do what he did? Yeah. I’d rather give those rushing attempts to him, and Boston and Corey, and use Jalen and the quarterbacks when we have to … each week different from game-plan standpoint.”

And the game plan this week will have Hurts in it once again.

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