Pragmatic Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Craves Continuity

Jalen Hurts has faced a constant churn of coaches and coordinators since his college days.

PHILADELPHIA - Speaking for the first time since cleanout day after a disappointing end to the 2023-24 season, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was both pragmatic and reflective over the constant churn he's faced at offensive coordinator.

Brian Johnson, a family friend, two-time college recruiter, and position coach for Hurts before serving just one season as OC in Philadelphia was shown the door at the NovaCare Complex and replaced by veteran play-caller Kellen Moore.

"I think the best of him," Hurt said of Johnson, who still managed to get head-coaching interviews despite the hand he was dealt with the Eagles and ultimately landed on his feet as the assistant head coach and passing game coordinator for new Washington head coach Dan Quinn. "He's been a huge part of my development in my time here as an Eagle. I think he's still more than capable of being a big-time head coach in this league. I think he's on trajectory to do that still.

"I just didn't think it was the right time for him, and that's that."

Hurts' college career and the start to his professional life were a revolving door when it came to coordinators, one that slowed when Shane Steichen was handed the play-calling duties midway through the 2021 season and kept them through 2022 en route to Super Bowl LII when Hurts developed into the runner-up for MVP.

"I find myself in a situation very similar to college in terms of having a constantly revolving door in terms of coordinators and coaches," Hurts admitted. "But I've always managed to have success in it, so that's always been a good thing, because you've been able to learn from people and apply it."

Hurts will be applying what Moore is teaching now, a former star QB himself in college at Boise State who has had tremendous success with Dak Prescott in Dallas and Justin Herbert with the Los Angeles Chargers. Accompanying Moore will be longtime consigliere Doug Nussmeier as quarterbacks coach, who once recruited Hurts to the University of Florida when Nussmeier was OC and quarterbacks coach there.

"I'm just all ears. I'm a sponge," Hurts said. "I think there's some beauty in that. I'm just in sponge mode. I'm letting them do what it is they're going to do, and then we kind of adjust from there. I think the thing that we all have to understand is the importance of a foundation in something.

"So I want the coaches to declare their foundation in terms of what they want something to be, how they want it to look, and then obviously you're going to adjust from there."

Hurts intimated that once the foundation has been poured, he will start to get more vocal in an attempt to tailor things to his own comfort level.

The goal for everyone is significant success, of course, and the catch-22 there is that could again spawn change, albeit with a more positive tint similar to when Steichen got the Indianapolis Colts head-coaching job after the 2022-23 campaign.

"I think as a player, I definitely yearn for the sustainability and the consistency," Hurts admitted. "... As a quarterback, I yearn for those things in a play-caller and a quarterback coach because you kind of see how consistency in those areas can breed excellence."

-By John McMullen