Will Hurts buy into Eagles' offensive plan?
Mike Florio and Chris Simms analyze recent comments from Jalen Hurts and question if the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback will play within the team's offense in 2026.
Video Transcript
The Eagles back in camp a year after they didn't defend their Super Bowl championship.
They continue to have a very good team.
Some significant changes this year in Philadelphia.
Obviously, A.J.
Brown gone.
It was a long time coming.
But also a sense that there's an expectation that Jalen Hurts- Yeah is gonna get with the program.
Yes.
He's gonna do what the offense expects him to do.
Sean Mania now the offensive coordinator.
The reporting last year from Derek Gunn that they were frustrated because Jalen Hurts was running the offense the way he wanted to.
He was playing his game no matter what they told him to do.
When it was time to go out and play, he was playing his game.
They had that article that landed on ESPN, very well-timed.
Just as the Jets were leaving Arizona for the league meetings, boom, there's the article that criticized Jalen Hurts and made it clear, I think, and it was the team using ESPN to get the word out to Jalen Hurts.
This is the year- Yeah you gotta do things our way.
No guarantees in your contract after this year.
Becomes easier from a cap standpoint to move on after this year.
Their hands were tied.
They used those, those annual option bonuses, cash over cap.
It creates significant cap charges 'cause you're kicking the can and kicking the can, and every year you're kicking the can.
After this year, if they wanna go in a different direction, they're gonna go in a different direction.
Yeah, it's a big year.
It's a big year for him.
It feels like a big year for the organization.
It's a team that is, yeah, been to two Super Bowls, won one, was upset in the other one.
It's a team that's talented to win multiple Super Bowls.
It's an offense that's way too talented to have all the stale moments we've seen over the last few years.
It's on It's one of the best rosters on offense in all of football, and yet even the year they went to the Super Bowl, we had plenty of weeks where we went, "Man, it's just underwhelming."
I don't care how talented you are.
In today's NFL, you can't just go, "Hey, we're really talented.
We're just gonna line up, and you kind of know what we're gonna do, and we're gonna beat you."
You might get away with some of the, some of that against, like, the lower teams in football.
But when it comes to the cream of the crop and even the middle class, man, you're, you're playing a dicey game.
And we've seen them play dicey games where we go, "Wait, there's so much more talent than this team," and here they are gonna fight it out to the end and, you know, barely win or lose a close one.
So it's just not sustainable, you know?
And they're making it harder on themselves than they need to, and hopefully Jalen Hurts does buy in here and, you know, they can become more of a machine on offense rather than, ooh, I just hope somebody makes a play, and which is, which is what it's felt like the last few years.
Jalen Hurts wants his teammates to buy into the notion of unity.
Here he is talking about the importance of the team sticking together through any and all adversity that may come this season.
You know, I'd, I'd say one of my main points coming in, especially talking to, to my teammates and getting a, a sense of where we are throughout the summer and where we're going, is just the importance of discipline and, and unity.
And, you know, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to carry and protect the intimacy of this team and what we do, 'cause it takes all of us, and we know that there are challenges that come throughout a year.
We're not looking forward.
We're really just focusing on where we are right now and taking advantage of this training camp.
And so to, to come out here and, you know, have the conditioning test and have a first day be out here to, you know, get it in, it's, it's a good, good start, good foundation, and we just wanna continue to progress forward, take it one day at a time.
Okay, real talk time.
How much of that is unity for the sake of unity and for having the best possible team, and how much of it is, "Please don't say bad things about me to reporters.
Yeah, well- Please don't share our secrets"?
I, the, the, I, I'm, I know what you're saying.
There was some of those thoughts that were going on there, right, in my brain at least.
We know it's important.
They haven't been a team that's felt like they are all on the same page, right?
A.J.
Brown unfortunately took a lot of the, the brunt of that backlash from that, which wasn't fair, and we've described that, and we know that.
Also, I know there's people in that organization and that locker room that feel like he hasn't been the best one with unity for the football team.
So yeah, I think there is some people in the locker room that go, "Hey, cool, I hope he buys in and he's, you know, practicing what he preaches."
And then I think you're gonna have others that are gonna go, "Damn, he's, he's one of the big reasons we haven't had unity here.
Now he's giving us a speech about unity?"
So they're a little bit both, goes both ways.
He's gonna have to show it.
That's the big thing, right?
It's gonna show on the practice field that he's doing the right things.
He's welcoming more offense, the more shifts, the motions, the formations that we've talked about, that everybody's talked about that he's been unwilling to do.
And I think once he starts to s- guys start to see that, and then like you said, he stays true to the offense in the game, that'll start to go a long way for the team to go, "Okay, we're playing as a team.
Our quarterback's bought in, and here we go.
We're the Philadelphia Eagles."
Hey, they'll explore their options.
They- Well, they're never scared.
Yeah, we know that and they were interested in Kyler Murray once upon a time.
Deshaun Watson- Early in- Matthew Stafford- Early in- Russell Wilson the Jalen Hurts career- Yes when the stuff got ugly between the Cardinals and Murray- Mm-hmm they were interested in Kyler Murray, who may be available next year to anybody who wants to sign him.
There's no tag clause in his contract with Minnesota, and so they're gonna have options.
They're gonna have options, and they won't be as handcuffed next year as they would've been in past years by the Jalen Hurts contract.
Yeah.
No, it, it, it's a big year for him, all right?
And it, it, it does seem crazy to say that, but, at the same time, yeah.
He's a guy that I think the organization and a lot of people in football would tell you, yes, he's won a Super Bowl.
He's, he can be a great leader in some ways.
But there's some things when you turn on the film to go, "That's not a, you know, phenomenal quarterback play," and that's where he's gotta get better and of course help the offense in taking, you know, the handcuffs off it to go, "Hey, we can do whatever, and we're not held back by ooh, I just like these few plays and that's all we're gonna do."
And that'll go a long way if, if he can make that adjustment for their team.
