Why the Eagles Should Protect Jalen Hurts — and Not Just From Injury
For some quarterbacks, adversity fuels them.
It feeds their psyche, providing an extra layer of motivation that inevitably leads to limitless success on the field, and it only takes time to take over.
Perhaps no modern quarterback knows it quite like Jalen Hurts.
The new ESPN Special Saban details the moment in the 2018 CFP Championship Game when quarterback Jalen Hurts was told he wouldn’t start the second half, with Alabama already down 13–0 to Georgia. Instead, he would sit on the sideline while Tua Tagovailoa finished the game.
Down 23–20 in overtime, Alabama would score the game-winning touchdown. During that second-half comeback, many quarterbacks would have sulked. Many would have sat on the bench; not Jalen. He was on the sideline giving support and strategy on every offensive play and every offensive series.
Two years later, rookie Jalen Hurts was a starter for the Eagles when he was inexplicably benched in the second half of the season-ending game against Washington for Nate Sudfeld. The following year , he regained his starting role under Nick Sirianni’s offense — and took the Eagles to the NFC Playoffs.
As Peter King’s new book describes, there was a moment in the week leading up to Super Bowl LII when Nick Foles’s agent contacted him. That call described an event that hadn’t yet occurred—the reassurance that he would get a $150,000 check no matter what happened in the Super Bowl. As a tribute to his focus on playing the Patriots, Foles refused to sign the paperwork; instead, he won the game and went into Philadelphia lore as the first Eagles quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl.
The only quarterback to top that feat in franchise history, with two Super Bowl appearances of his own, is Jalen Hurts.
Hurts is the finest Eagles quarterback to ever play in this city. He’s had more success (playoff appearances in all five seasons he’s been a starter, two NFC Championships, and one Super Bowl Championship) than any other signal caller in the franchise’s 93 years. He has the poise to win the big game — and the skills to win many more. He has a combined record of 62–35–1 as an Eagles starter. And he was a steal in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft during COVID.
It’s unclear whether Jalen Hurts will ever play another snap for the Eagles. Instead, they chose not to extend the franchise quarterback nearly three years after signing his five-year, $255 million contract after the 2022-2023 season.
Hurts has now been placed on IR after suffering a blood clot after being cleated during the Rams game. First, doctors identified the blood clot in London—and then a follow-up ultrasound showed it had traveled.
Hurts is now out indefinitely.
The Alabama player who caught the winning score in that 2018 CFP Championship Game was none other than DeVonta Smith. Hurts bounced back the following year in Tuscaloosa to reclaim the Alabama starting job. He won an SEC Championship the following year, then the Big 12 Championship for Oklahoma in 2019. And the next Eagles quarterback to win a Super Bowl would be Jalen Hurts.
If he doesn’t play for the Eagles again, it won’t be just business. It won’t just be because of an injury.
It will just be a shame.
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