How Jalen Hurts feels about being the QB on a run-first team originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Most quarterbacks want to throw the ball. Jalen Hurts just wants to win.
That was the quarterback’s message Wednesday when asked about the transformation the Eagles have undergone this season to become the toughest rushing team in the NFL.
“It’s about the team,” Hurts said Wednesday. “I don’t care what it looks like. That’s kind of my game. I think people have to accept that, that it will look whatever Jalen Hurts wants it to look like. But he’s going to win.”
Hurts and the Eagles (11-2) won. After a 2-2 start, they have nine wins since their bye week and are working their way into one of the top two seeds in the NFC.
But during this winning streak, the entire identity of the offense has changed.
In each of the first four games, Hurts has thrown more than 30 passes, but he hasn’t done that once in the nine-game winning streak. In the first four weeks, Hurts averaged 33.0 attempts per game and has only averaged 21.4 per game since.
Hurts was asked Wednesday if that’s somehow hard to accept because he’s the quarterback on a team that relies so heavily on the running game.
“It’s no problem to win if that’s your main thing,” Hurts said. ‘And that’s really what it’s all about. I know everyone sees the mic clip of ‘service calls’ and such. And I know there will be times when that moment comes. It’s a matter of being rested when that time comes. That’s what we build trust for, that’s what we strive for.
“No one cares how you get it done if you get it done. That’s it. I feel like everything I’m saying comes from the whole conversation about standards and winning and losing that we had last year. But you have standards, but when did winning not become the most important thing in the end? I just want to play at a high level. We all want to play at a high level. But we want to win. We want to win. That is the most important thing.”
However, there is no doubt that the Eagles’ passing attack needs improvement. They had just 83 net passing yards in Sunday’s tight win over the Carolina Panthers and several players on offense expressed some frustration with those struggles.
How can it get better?
“Honestly, just finding that rhythm,” Hurts said. “The rhythm is important. I think that requires a collective group in the way we approach things, what we do, how we attack people. Ultimately, I know my job and I do my job.”
It wasn’t Hurts’ best game against the Panthers and he was critical of himself for his performance. Hurts in that game averaged a season-high time to throw of 3.47 seconds and a season-low yards per attempt of 5.1
When asked if he should get the ball out faster, Hurts didn’t push back.
“There are times when I can get it out quicker,” he said. “There are definitely times where I can definitely get out quicker. I guess that’s just something I own. I will deal with it better.”
The Eagles can still lean into their run game — and with Saquon Barkley and their offensive line, they probably should — but the passing game needs to be better when called upon. That’s a group effort, but a big part of that will obviously be the starting quarterback.
There is a balance to be found here. For as much as the Eagles’ offensive identity controlled the football, a large part of their effectiveness was limiting turnovers. Hurts turned the ball over seven times in the first four games and just twice in the last nine.
While the Eagles rank last in the NFL in passing attempts, Hurts has been mostly efficient. In the nine-game winning streak, Hurts has accounted for 23 touchdowns with 2 turnovers and has a passer rating of 113.7
But has his emphasis on limiting turnovers affected his ability to push the ball downfield?
“I think from a macro perspective, macro perspective, you have to be able to saturate yourself with something to say, ‘This is who we are and this is what we’re going to do,’” Hurts said. “I think, like I said, as things change and the dynamics change and the dynamics of our team have changed. We had a great addition in Saquon Barkley and he has had a tremendous impact on this team. We have always been able to run the ball at a high level. He took that to the next level.
‘The most important thing hasn’t changed. Ultimately, we’re looking at an area of our game that we need to get better at. We have to get better at being critical of ourselves. But at the end of the day, we still do what we have to do.”
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