Philly Front Office

Within minutes of last night’s Eagles Chargers game ending with another tipped Jalen Hurts interception, the calls for Tanner McKee began to whistle through the internet and my text messages. “It’s time to have a hard discussion,” was what threw me over the edge. I stopped responding and went to sleep. I figured I would sleep on it and calm down. It didn’t work, I’m still mad. Any talk of benching Jalen Hurts simply doesn’t make any sense to me. I am not trying to deny he had a bad game last night – it was awful – but benching him is ludicrous.

Bad Game

Last night was bad. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Eagles probably win that game if any number of Hurts mistakes don’t happen. 4 INTs is simply not a normal Jalen Hurts performance. In fact, it is the first time in his career he has ever had a performance that bad. It’s a stain on an otherwise sterling record of protecting the football, especially this season. Last night was double his season total. He has two 3-INT games in his career and both were surprisingly at MetLife Stadium.

Last night’s game was a bad one, but the team didn’t exactly help him either. A holding call negated a TD to AJ Brown, Brown dropped a TD in the endzone, volleyballed one of the INTs, and alligator armed two other passes. If any of those 4 go the other way, the Eagles win. The play to end the game was all Hurts though. It was a chance he didn’t need to take and usually doesn’t. It looked to me like a frustrated player trying to win and doing the opposite. Damn near everything went wrong on offense last night.

His counterpart last night, Justin Herbert, ended his season last year with a 4-INT game in the playoffs. Tom Brady had 5 of them. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees each had 3. For those wondering, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes don’t have a 4-pick game, but they have plenty of games with 3 including this past Sunday for Mahomes. It happens.

In fact, so many of his QB counterparts regularly lose games for their team and there is no doom and gloom. Joe Burrow nuked the Bengals against Bills this weekend with 2 killer INTs. Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes both lost to the Eagles this season trying to play hero ball and failing. When the Bills lose, it is damn near always because Josh Allen is Brett Favre-ing his way into a turnover. Again, it happens.

The System

I don’t know if it is even a debate at this point, but the Eagles offensive coordinator is an unqualified mess of an offensive mind. The key stat from last night was how anemic the offense was from the shotgun while basically cruising while under center. So obviously we ignored going under center for the end of the game and OT. The team went shotgun on the 2-yard line!!!

The surplus of hitch routes has been the bane of this offense this season and it manifests in a key stat, yards after catch. The Eagles are 2nd worst in the league in YAC, ahead of only the Jets. Hurts is basically forced to go only from spot to spot in order to drive the ball. The Chargers had a 60-yard screen play on their first drive of the game. That one play would account for 6% of the total YAC the Eagles have on the whole season! Everything on the Eagles offense looks difficult because it is.

Misconception

The Eagles have had one of the best offensive lines in football for years. Everyone around the league just assumes that is true without watching. The offensive line has been awful this season and everyone is at fault.

It is well documented that when Lane Johnson is out, the Eagles lose. He is the anchor of this unit. So far this season, the Eagles are 8-2 when he plays and 0-3 when he’s out. I know it’s not that simple, but it also might be that simple. Jordan Mailata has been above criticism because he is a lovable Australian and has been an elite lineman the last 3 years. This season he seems to get at least 1 BRUTAL holding call per game that absolutely kills a drive. Tyler Steen has been bad replacing Mekhi Becton and seems to always be the one helping Saquon up in the backfield on a completely botched run. Then there is the inside duo of Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens. They have been terrible and have most likely been playing hurt all season.

What do you get when you add up that formerly elite starting 5? You get a QB with no time and no confidence in his protection and a running game with almost no hope of succeeding. To help with this, they try to go jumbo with a 6th lineman and just tip off the defense with what is coming. That is no way to run an offense.

You Want to Bench Him?

I’m not going to tell you Tanner McKee wouldn’t be better because I have no idea, but I am pretty sure none of the above would magically improve with the backup under center (or in shotgun because that’s all we do). What I do know is that you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube once you squeeze it out. You want to bench Jalen Hurts for Tanner McKee? Granted, it literally worked for Jalen Hurts before at Alabama, but you aren’t doing that to this grown man and Super Bowl MVP. All you would do is castrate him with the team and ensure that he never plays here again.

In doing so, you are trading one of the few QBs in the league that you KNOW can win a Super Bowl. Do you know who can’t? Most of the damn league. Look around and see what QBs have cratered in the big moments. It’s Allen, it’s Herbert, it’s Lamar Jackson, it’s Jared Goff, it’s Dak Prescott, it’s so many who can’t get themselves over the hump of even getting to a Super Bowl, let alone winning it. Jalen Hurts has been the best player on the field in 2 Super Bowls and you want to ride with Tanner McKee?

Putting it that way makes me realize that that is probably what most of these a-holes have wanted all along. No matter what Jalen has done with this team, it has not been good enough. Making it to the Super Bowl wasn’t enough, winning the Super Bowl wasn’t enough, winning 20 games in a row wasn’t enough. If Jalen Hurts were putting up crazy throwing stats but losing big games, would that change everyone’s opinion? OF COURSE IT WOULDN’T!!! Philly reporters keep their pitchforks shined up and ready for a night on the town just in case.

The Contract

Jalen’s contract makes trading him easy, but cutting him impossible. Cutting him, even with a post June 1 distinction, would result in a $63m cap hit for next season and $20m the year after that. Trading him is somewhat easier. That would only result in a $12m dead cap hit in 2026 and a $20m dead cap in 2027. A trade partner though would need to pay his $50m option for next season. The Eagles would have absolutely no leverage in any trade and would likely completely destroy the team in this situation both financially and internally.

Shut the Fuck Up

I know everyone wants to have someone to blame. It’s easy to point a finger at 1 person and claim they are the problem. Is Jalen Hurts blameless? No. Is he the main reason literally everyone on the offense is struggling? Absolutely not. Nothing on the offense is working right now and that is simply not all on the QB.

Jalen Hurts won the Super Bowl a year ago. I’m not saying that gives him a pass, but shouldn’t it give him the benefit of the doubt? Finding a new OC and even head coach is a lot easier than finding a franchise QB. I am not advocating firing Nick Sirianni, but I would do that long before I even considered benching Hurts. Because to bench him is to effectively say “Jalen Hurts is not the guy.” Are you prepared to do that?

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference. All contract info courtesy of Spotrac.