The Jalen Hurts Ramifications After Eagles Trade with Saints

If we learned anything about the Eagles’ trade with the New Orleans Saints on Monday, with eight draft picks changing hands, the Eagles have never been all-in on Jalen Hurts.

It’s actually something that’s been known for a while now, though the Eagles will never admit it.

They don’t have to. Their actions speak louder than their words.

They let the Deshaun Watson interest linger too long without ever pistoling it to pieces.

They never denied interest in Russell Wilson.

Would it surprise anyone that there are five quarterbacks in this year’s draft class (which is considered weak at the position) that are at a higher percentile in the Eagles’ database than Hurts was at the comparable time when the organization took him in the second round, 53rd overall, in 2020?

Not me and that's exactly what a former Eagles' personnel executive familiar with the team's thinking told SI.com's Eagles Today.

Heck, would it surprise anyone if the Eagles still take a quarterback in the first or second rounds? They have certainly invested plenty of time and energy researching them.

Now comes the acquisition of more ammunition in 2023.

Just in case Hurts fails to live up to his improvement mandate.

While the Eagles are down to “just” two first-round picks after sending their 16th and 19th choices away to the Bayou, GM Howie Roseman was crafty enough to get New Orleans’ 18th selection as well as a first-rounder in 2023 and a second-rounder in 2024.

LISTEN TO EAGLES UNFILTERED ON THE TRADE: EAGLES UNFILTERED: The Howie Heist - Sports Illustrated

Just in case Hurts doesn’t what?

Win the NFC East?

Win a playoff game?

These were the same what-does-he-have-to-do queries asked last year during training camp when GM Howie Roseman tap-danced his way around a question about what sort of tangibles did he want to see from Hurts in 2021 to give him another shot at being the quarterback in 2022.

Nothing has changed.

It’s all well and good that the Eagles have multiple picks in the first and second rounds of the draft the next two years to go get a quarterback in a 2023 group that is supposed to be superior compared to the perceived never-will-be’s in this year’s draft.

(For the record, I think this group will turn out to be better than most think.)

The thing about collecting insurance policies to find another quarterback – just in case – is that the Eagles’ quest to be serious Super Bowl threats again gets delayed.

Think of it this way: If they need to draft a quarterback in 2023, that pushes the timeline back another year. Unless whoever that quarterback is, is sooo good, and other parts of the roster have been bolstered sooo much that this still-unknown QB could lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl.

As a rookie.

Unlikely.

So that means another Super Bowl push likely doesn’t come until 2024, when Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, and Fletcher Cox are probably gone, maybe Lane Johnson, too.

That’s the thing about playing for the future. It never arrives when you’re always planning for it.

The best thing that could happen is for Hurts to improve, to have learned his lessons so well while working out with quarterback whisperer Tom House’s crew in Southern California, that the present swallows the future whole.

Then, the Eagles, with their new-found draft wealth – thank you, Nawlins – can look for something other than a "franchise" quarterback.

Hurts, though, needs help now.

The Eagles seem content to run it back with the same cast of offensive players as they had last year, with the exception being the signing of Zach Pascal.

That is expected to change in the draft, probably with the cost being yet another draft pick spent on a wide receiver.

Let’s see now, they already have spent five draft picks on players they hoped would be actual pass-catchers in the last three drafts, two of those came in the first round (Jalen Reagor and DeVonta Smith) and one in the second (J.J. Arcega-Whiteside).

Another name will be added to this list in the first or second round later this month. Another rookie.

Smith said shortly after the offseason began that he wouldn’t mind a veteran addition to the room this offseason.

Hurts has engaged his old friend, A.J. Brown, on social media to see if he can somehow find a way to let his bosses in Tennessee to trade him.

D.K. Metcalf and Brandin Cooks are reportedly on the market. Maybe Laviska Shenault will be at some point, too.

There’s still time, but it feels like an uphill battle for Hurts at the moment and the climb just keeps getting steeper.

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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.