Mixed Messaging Continues with Eagles

Howie Roseman said, yes, they will investigate a QB with the sixth pick of the draft, while owner Jeffrey Lurie reportedly doesn't want any competition for Jalen Hurts

PHILADELPHIA - From all accounts, the Eagles plan to use the 2021 season as the kickoff to a transition phase in which 19 draft picks, as of now, over the next two years will help turn over over an aging, expensive roster.

In the short-term, it's difficult to be meaningfully involved in free agency when you're allocating 16.34 percent of a COVID-19 depressed salary cap to someone playing quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts.

As for Carson Wentz's successor in South Philadelphia, second-year signal-caller Jalen Hurts is the heavy favorite to get the nod in the wake of an internal order from the very top of the NovaCare Complex.

Per an ESPN report, Jeffrey Lurie has instructed his personnel department to build around Hurts in 2021 to see what the former Heisman Trophy runner-up has, meaning potential rookie options like Justin Fields, Trey Lance, and Mac Jones are off-limits for Howie Roseman and Andy Weidl.

Leaking that information hamstrung Roseman in ways that are both obvious and more layered ways, the latter being tone-deaf to alerting QB-deficient teams in the draft that Philadelphia is out of the picture at No. 6 overall.

Roseman did his best to rectify that part at his start-of-the-new-league-year presser on Thursday.

"Like Coach [Nick Sirianni] said, and he reminds me daily, we only have one quarterback on our roster," said Roseman. "It's definitely not going to stay that way. We've always tried to value that position and have depth at that position. I don't see any of that changing here as we go forward. That's nothing we would be comfortable with."

Obviously, the Eagles need numbers behind Hurts so it's not exactly breaking news that bodies will be brought in. The question is how meaningful will the competition be?

There's a big difference between Fields or bringing back free agent Nate Sudfeld for another go-round.

"We want to have a really strong quarterback room," the GM said. "We feel like we have incredible coaches on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball who can maximize quarterback play. We're going to look at the free-agent market, the trade market, and we're certainly going to look at the draft to try to strengthen that position."

As far as Lurie goes, Roseman continued to imply nothing has changed with the owner's involvement despite evidence to the contrary, starting with the overbearing finger on Doug Pederson's coaching staff and now with the QB instructions, hastily assembled to avoid the same kind of controversy that imploded the organization in 2020 when Wentz became alienated over the drafting of Hurts at No. 53 overall in last year's draft.

"Jeffrey has always been involved in what we do here," said Roseman. "He's always been one to ask us questions and to really challenge us and to make sure that we're doing the right things. I don't see how that's changed really over the past couple of years.

"Very comfortable with his role here, and very appreciative of his role here."

It wasn't quite a hostage reading off a script but Roseman, or anyone else in the organization for that matter, can hardly offer up an honest assessment of the guy writing the checks.

Instead, we got, "We have not been told to do anything other than to try to strengthen the football team and make sure that we're doing the right things now and going forward."

For now, that means evaluating Hurts at the expense of draft picks who have the higher ceilings as players. In 2022 it might mean something completely different.

"I think when people start talking about Jalen, the first thing that they go to is his athleticism and his strength as a runner," Roseman said of his 2021 QB1. "I don't know that's necessarily fair. This is a guy who completed over 70 percent of his passes at Oklahoma. He's got a feel for the passing game. He's got a plus arm. I think he's going to continue to get better and better."

Sirianni comes from Indianapolis where Andrew Luck's sudden retirement meant three QBs in three years, everything from the ridiculously talented (Luck) to the developmental type (Jacoby Brissett) and finally the ole' gunslinger during his final rodeo (Philip Rivers).

"As far as building the system, in Indianapolis, we had three different starting quarterbacks each year," he said. "Those teams had similarities in their offenses, but minor differences just because every quarterback did something a little bit different," the coach explained. "That's no different here.

"We feel like good offensive football is catering to your players, particularly first and foremost your quarterback. So, of course, we're looking at different things that fit our offensive scheme, but then also what our quarterbacks do well.

"Right now, we have one quarterback on our team, so we're thinking about Jalen and the things he does well: what he did well at Alabama, what he did well at Oklahoma, what he did well last year when he was here. We're thinking about those things and how we can make him as successful as we possibly can."

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Thursday on The Middle with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, former Eagles OT Barrett Brooks streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and SportsMap Radio. 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 EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.