Jalen Hurts is Too Good With His Legs Not to Let Him Run
Nick Sirianni has a classic catch-22 situation on his hands when it comes to Jalen Hurts turning from quarterback into running back.
“We got to run him; I don't ever want him to get hit,” said the Eagles coach the day after the Eagles opened their season with a 38-25 win against the Detroit Lions.
That's the very definition of catch-22. You can’t have one without the other.
Against the Lions on Sunday, Hurts ran 17 times for 90 yards and a touchdown. He only ran more times in a game twice, collecting 18 rushes in both career games against the New Orleans Saints.
The Lions made sure they hit him, even when he slid. Hit him many, many times.
Only once was a penalty called and it led to the ejection of safety Tracy Walker, who was playing a terrific game until he hit Hurts in the head on a slide in the third quarter.
Sirianni has familiarized himself with the rule regarding when to hit a sliding quarterback and when not to, so, he said, “I don't fly off the handle that he got hit. That doesn't always mean I'm perfect with that because I know I do.”
He thought the officials did a good job legislating the hits Hurts took and got it right on the one that led to Walker’s expulsion from the game.
“They called it,” said Hurts. “It’s not the first time it’s going to happen, it’s probably not the last time it’s going to happen. It just comes with the game. I get right back up and keep going, next play.”
Next play. That's the hope, because running your quarterback is a dangerous proposition.
It is a must with Hurts. He’s too good at it.
Roll the dice and accept the risk.
That's what the Eagles are doing.
Should something happen, the Eagles seem to have a better-than-capable QB in Gardner Minshew should he be needed for a few games.
Granted, a QB can hurt in the pocket, too, the way Hurts did against the Giants in a late November game a season ago. He missed the next game but when he returned, he wasn’t the same, then he showed up in a walking boot at the postgame press conference following the playoff loss to Tampa Bay.
Not long after that, Hurts had surgery.
Getting hurt in the pocket is one thing, but when you are a running QB, you expose yourself to injury in two different ways.
Hurts may be a different QB creature, though.
“I think Jalen has a great feel,” said offensive coordinator Shane Steichen on Tuesday. “He has a natural ability to not take the big hit. Does it happen sometimes? Yeah, it does, but you can see that he slides at the right moment, he gets out of bounds when he needs to.
“Then he takes some of those hits when he slid, yeah, he did, but he knows when to get down, and I think he has a good feel for that.”
Even teammates are on board with Hurts’ legs.
“Guys will have something drawn up perfect and he can scamper and scramble and get a first down or 20 yards,” said Eagles RT Lane Johnson during his Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM’s Dog Days with Dusty and Danny on Mad Dog Sports Radio.
“That’s devastating for a defensive coordinator. I didn’t like that hit he took late, but usually he does a pretty good job sliding, not taking big hits. He’s really good, really smart about that. It makes life a lot easier for me.
"I don’t mind watching him scrambling out of the pocket and making plays and just don’t do anything nasty to him or late hits anything like that.”
So Sirianni will ride with the catch-22 for as long as he can, while he, his teammates, and the Eagles might want to cross their fingers and hold their breath when they see him take off.
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.
