Recently, @phillyeaglesonly on Instagram asked around the Eagles community what percentage they gave Jalen Hurts to be on the roster next season.
With Derrick Gunn’s recent “report” of Hurts’ “struggles” during practice, there has been a lot of talk surrounding Jalen Hurts. A.J. Brown made an attempt to shut down the report, but some fans were still not convinced. With the assumption that the report was indeed correct, this is very worrisome when it comes to Hurts’ future with the Eagles. However, Hurts did ball out in the public OTA’s, leaving many fans with hope. With all of these factors being considered, it’s time to break down the likelihood that Hurts is on the roster next season.
The Eagles front office has made it very clear that Hurts will not be on the roster next season if he doesn’t perform well. That being said, they had enough confidence in him to keep him for another season and build an entire roster around him. It is very unlikely that he doesn’t show any improvement from last season as we’ve already heard about his success over the course of this offseason. This is, of course, disregarding the report from Gunn and focusing mainly on his performances in the OTA’s.
This Eagles roster is set up to make Hurts succeed one way or another. A lot of analysts have said that the lack of an elite quarterback is holding the Eagles back from Super Bowl contention. While that may be true, it isn’t crazy to say that they could finish as a top seed in the NFC. The way this roster is built, they won’t even need an elite quarterback to have a successful offense. If Hurts finishes around the 11-13 range in terms of best quarterbacks, the Eagles could very well make a deep playoff push.
This would be the ceiling for the Eagles, at least for this season. The Eagles would NOT get rid of Hurts because they are unable to make a deep playoff push. The reason that they’d get rid of him is simply based on whether he can succeed with the talent around him or not. While that may seem painfully obvious, it’s true. Success isn’t necessarily a Super Bowl run with their current roster. If Hurts can lead them to a 12-5 record this season, there is no way you’d call that a failure.
A failure would be finishing anywhere worse than 10-7 and getting knocked off in the wild card round. Essentially, if we don’t make it further than last season, then Hurts is off this team. That being said, there are still scenarios in which Hurts could be on or off the team next year. If he plays well but the team doesn’t or are (god forbid) overridden with injuries, then we could see him on the roster next year. However, if he plays poorly in an important playoff game even after a successful season, the Eagles could look to move on from Hurts.
In conclusion, I would give Jalen Hurts a 65% chance of being on the roster next year.
