Jalen Hurts didn’t throw his first interception this summer until the final day of training camp. He went through 15 practices, hundreds of throws, and few of his passes even hit the ground.
He looked crisp, sharp and in command according to those who watched him. He looked confident and comfortable — two things he definitely didn’t seem to be late last year.
“I just feel like he’s had an outstanding, outstanding camp,” Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said last week. “I’m really excited about where he is, just in complete control of the offense, delivering accurate balls, protecting the football. What an unbelievable camp he’s had.”
Maybe that shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone. Hurts is motivated after last year’s collapse. He’s healthy after last year’s injuries.
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And he’s never been surrounded by an offensive team as talented as this.
As good and as potent as the Eagles have been the past few years, they’ve just never had as many potent weapons as they do right now. The addition of free agent running back Saquon Barkley had already turned them into a “Dream Team” of sorts. Then they went out and acquired Jahan Dotson from the Washington Commanders last week, giving them the third receiver they’ve been seeking for years.
Add in an offensive line that they don’t think will miss a beat after the retirement of center Jason Kelce (who’ll be replaced by guard Cam Jurgens, a former second-round pick), the Eagles have felt a special vibe on offense throughout the offseason. Barkley felt it the first time he stepped into the team huddle. And Dotson was still marveling last Saturday, after his first-practice “goosebumps” wore off.
“We have a lot of people who can make a lot of plays. It’s going to be fun,” Dotson said. “In all of my years of playing, I’ve never been on a team with this much talent.”
Neither has Hurts, even though his offenses have been an embarrassment of riches during his three years as the Eagles starter. He’s had the benefit of one of the best 1-2 punches at receiver than A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith for the last two seasons. And they’ve had one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks long before Barkley came to town.
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But things are undeniably different now, even if Hurts doesn’t want to admit it just yet. Barkley is a huge upgrade over the Eagles’ past two workhorse backs — Miles Sanders (2022) and D’Andre Swift (2023) — and he could prove to be a very dangerous receiver out of the backfield, too. And Dotson, the 16th overall pick of the 2022 draft, fills what has been the biggest hole on the Eagles’ roster — a third receiver to take some of the pressure off everyone else.
“Most of the time I’m getting coverage rotated to me and I know they account for Smitty as well,” Brown said. “But they’re probably not going to put their best over there (on Dotson). So he has mismatches all day.”
In fact, there should be mismatches all over the field, because what defense can account for Brown, Smith, Barkley, tight end Dallas Goedert and now Dotson? And then don’t forget Hurts, who just two seasons ago was an MVP candidate and widely considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
His stock took a hit late last season. Hurts was a borderline MVP candidate during Philly’s 10-1 start, even though at times he seemed to be sleepwalking through the season. But after that, Hurts struggled down the stretch, in part due to a lingering knee injury, and in part due to some team-wide offensive dysfunction. He only topped 200 passing yards three times in the final seven games and threw just six touchdown passes in that stretch with five interceptions. And his turnovers were a particular problem — 15 interceptions and five lost fumbles in all — as the Eagles finished 1-6, including a blowout in Tampa in the first round of the playoffs.
But now, the injuries are in the past, and so is the dysfunction. After a summer of good health, and months of learning new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s scheme, Hurts is sounding more confident and comfortable than maybe he ever has before.
“I’m in a better place, yeah,” Hurts said. “I think I’m in a better place physically. I obviously had some nicks there throughout the year, but you deal with those things. And all of those things have made me better. They’ve made me reevaluate some things, and they’ve allowed me to reassess, and I’ve been able to saturate myself in the right things.”
The “right things” are all around him these days — the strong line, the Pro Bowl running back, three speedy and talented receivers and a dangerous tight end. The Eagles had the No. 3 offense in the NFL in 2022, their Super Bowl season.
But even that team didn’t have an arsenal of talent quite like this.
“I think it’s going to be hard for a lot of teams with the addition of Saquon, with Jahan and all the other weapons we have,” Smith said. “If you just try to zero in one person we have plenty of other guys who can make plays.”
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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