August 29, 2024
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts during the team's open practice at the Linc on August 1, 2024.
The Eagles' roster has been cut down to 53 players, the practice squad is all filled out, and Howie Roseman took a late swing for a WR3 and landed Jahan Dotson.
Now it's all on to the ramp up toward Week 1 in Brazil.
There's still a good amount of time until then, however. So here's a bit of what they've been saying about the Birds in the meantime...
There are a lot of reasons why the Eagles fell apart last year, which leads to a lot of questions that will heavily determine whether the team is good for this one.
Sheil Kapadia over at the Ringer ran down the five big ones: Will Nick Sirianni turn it around? Will Vic Fangio fix the defense? Will Jalen Carter take a big leap in year 2? And will the Saquon Barkley signing pay off?
Then there was the question of Jalen Hurts and whether he would look back to his 2022 MVP-caliber form or the concerningly inconsistent one from 2023.
The general sentiment has long been that new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore will do a lot to help Hurts rebound with a more sophisticated scheme, but Kapadia noted that Hurts' decision-making needed work over last season, along with something else...
Hurts also hasn’t shown a willingness to publicly take accountability for his on-field missteps. That might not matter if he’s doing so inside the building, but it’s still something to keep an eye on. Sirianni took the blame for Hurts’s late-game interception during a Week 15 loss at Seattle, saying the Eagles were trying to draw a pass interference penalty. Weeks later, Brown revealed that he and Hurts had improvised on the play and that the players were actually responsible for the turnover. Hurts, meanwhile, stayed quiet. After the season, and even deep into the offseason, Hurts made it clear—whether directly or indirectly—that the coaching, not his play, was the problem.
Hurts will be asked to do more this season than ever before. With veteran center Jason Kelce gone, he’s working with new center Cam Jurgens to set the blocking protections at the line of scrimmage. Using more pre-snap motion is great, but it also asks the quarterback to direct more of the operation with precise timing. These additions will be new to Hurts, and he’ll have to show that he’s capable of handling everything. [The Ringer]
Hurts is the Eagles' clear-cut guy now on offense, and the whole operation is going to bank on him rising to the occasion.
To that end, Hurts actually called into WIP's morning show on Thursday and had an interesting answer to co-host Jon Ritchie's question about pass protection differences for this year compared to last.
"I don't know if it's necessarily new – I don't know if that's the word – but I think it's a different approach in some areas and some facets. I think [Cam Jurgens] has done a really good job just taking that role on and really taking on the responsibilities of what comes with leading [the offensive line].
"I think, in the end, when you look at this upcoming season and what you have seen from years past, it's just different autonomy in different places. You know, we had a great player in Jason Kelce who took on a lot of responsibility, and as a result of that, I was told not to worry about a lot of things. So my eagerness to learn and all of that over the years kind of was halted because of who we had. But now times are different, and I'm excited for that journey." [94 WIP]
Curious way to word that Kelce bit.
A change of pace to wrap up.
The Athletic released its sixth annual edition of its NFL agent survey on Thursday, in which the outlet polled 31 agents anonymously across the league on a variety of topics.
When it came to which organization had the tightest operation, five of the 31 agents voted for the Eagles, which put them in a tie with the 49ers for the best.
What a couple of agents had to say about Howie Roseman and the Birds via Ben Standig:
• “Eagles. Every year, free agents want to go there. They reward players, and (GM) Howie (Roseman) nails the draft.”
• “This is easy. Eagles. What an organized group with football and front-office business. Every year, they are on top of their game.” [The Athletic]
Picking up Hurts, DeVonta Smith, and Jalen Carter in the draft over the past few years, then making the big splashes for A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley? Yeah, it's sure easy to seem that way.
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