Tag: Eagles

Two months ago, Jalen Hurts was a turnover problem.

Two months later — turnover problems resolved — he’s a passing problem.

And two months from now, if the Philadelphia Eagles haven’t won February’s Super Bowl, Hurts might end up being scapegoated as the root cause of all the franchise’s problems.

That’s how the trajectory of Hurts’ career is starting to feel — like an exit-less maze of quarterback cannibalism, devoured by the fan base, hot-take media talk shows and his own teammates.

I don’t know how else to explain what has unfolded since Sunday, when the 11-2 Eagles — winners of nine straight — somehow went from impressive consecutive wins over the Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams and Baltimore Ravens, to being discussed as a flawed offensive team after a struggle-bus victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. That was against a Panthers team that is suddenly alive and kicking, by the way, and just a few weeks removed from giving the Kansas City Chiefs all they could handle in a 30-27 Chiefs win on Nov. 24.

Yet, here we are, with the Eagles and their fan base somehow in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff field but still choosing to extend their nightmares of the 2023 season, relentlessly searching for the cracks that will help forecast another late-season fracture and postseason failure.

That’s how I absorbed wideout A.J. Brown not-so-subtly shading his quarterback after the Eagles’ 22-16 win over the Panthers, which saw Brown tie his season low of four targets and also post his second-lowest catch and receiving yardage totals of 2024. Meanwhile, Hurts completed 14 of 21 passes for an anemic 108 yards, but also accounted for all three of Philadelphia’s touchdowns (two passing and one rushing).

During the game, Brown could be seen showcasing what appeared to be frustration. Afterward, he stamped them with a sledgehammer, giving short, suggestive answers that seemed to put Hurts very much at the center of his aim. All derived from this exchange inside of one minute in the locker room:

Reporter: “The offense wasn’t good enough, what are some things that the offense needs to improve on?”

Brown: “Passing.”

Reporter: “Passing?”

Brown: (Nods affirmatively)

Reporter: “A.J., I know everybody wants to get into a rhythm. DeVonta [Smith] was acknowledging that, you know, receivers, just like running backs, want to get into rhythm. How hard is it as a receiver to get into a rhythm when you guys are only throwing the ball like 20 times?”

Brown: “Incredibly tough.”

…

Reporter: “What are the conversations like with Jalen during a game like this when the passing game isn’t everything you want it to be?”

Brown: “Not too much conversation, honestly. I don’t know.”

This is after a win. For a team that is 11-2 and stalking the top seed in the NFC postseason field.

It’s a moment that is begging for problems, negative attention and drama. And it’s coming on the heels of a 2-2 start when Hurts had some turnover issues that needed to be solved. Which they were, thanks to a Week 5 bye that allowed the coaching staff to go back to the drawing board and steer more of the workload into a running game — and star chess piece Saquon Barkley — that was ready to handle it. The end game was to solve a wins and losses issue. To protect Hurts as long as he needed to be protected and capture the kind of success that would put Philadelphia back onto a postseason track while also giving the coaching staff an opportunity to adjust and balance the offense as needed. The results: The Eagles haven’t lost a game since. Meanwhile, Hurts went from seven turnovers in his first four games to two in his past nine.

Of course, there were some sacrifices that were made along the way. In the first four games, Hurts averaged 33 pass attempts per outing. Since the bye week, he’s averaged just a shade over 21. Let the math do the mathing and the result is basically 12 fewer pass attempts (and 12 fewer targets) for the surrounding skill position players. And Brown, as you would suspect, has clearly been one of the players sacrificing. After averaging 8.9 targets per game in 2022 and 2023, he’s seen roughly 6.2 targets per game since the bye week restyling of the offense. Meanwhile, in the same span, both Hurts and Barkley have seen an increasing in their average number of rushing attempts, with Barkley transforming into a league MVP candidate along the way.

The problem with all this? Brown — and some degree Smith, who has also seen a dip in his production — are focusing on their personal production and prioritizing their feelings about that over the larger picture of a team that has found a winning formula. These Eagles are not a mirage. They’re not catching a bunch of green lights or sweating out close games or just on some kind of mystical lucky streak. They’re winning games with a formula that not only works, but is also tough to deal with for teams.

Of course, that’s not going to be enough for some of the greed merchants in the national media, who I have seen hold up Brown as a paragon of truth for finally doing the right thing by pointing a finger at Hurts. These same greed merchants relate it as a positive because Brown is one of the best wideouts in the NFL and isn’t being utilized in a way that gets him max-level statistics. They point out that teams like the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens are somehow finding a way to run the football and stack up massive passing numbers. What they fail to point out is that both the Lions and Ravens have defenses that are giving up swaths of points and putting their offenses into positions of having to boat race their teams to wins.

The Eagles’ defense? During Philadelphia’s nine-game winning streak, opponents have scored an average of 15.3 (!) points per game. In today’s NFL, when you can be a dominant run team and give up only an average of 15.3 points per game, you’re going to be a problem for pretty much everyone. Which the Eagles are. Even when Hurts isn’t perfect and needs to see the field better.

He’s not absolved from needing to get better. But he’s also not this Achilles heel that is destined to destroy this season. He’s somewhere in the middle, needing to get better but also worthy of some grace.

But in some cases, with teams and media markets that just can’t help themselves, winning isn’t always everything. And the Eagles are the epitome of this syndrome, particularly this season which has been defined by one Hurts controversy after another. From his inability to throw over the middle of the field to his relationship with head coach Nick Sirianni to his thieving of Barkley’s goal-line touchdowns to his limitations hurting his wide receivers. Never before have I seen so many fundamental flaws in a team and quarterback that is 11-2 and scary.

But this is the Eagles. It’s how you incomprehensibly get team leader and defining voice Brandon Graham — who should be solving locker room beefs rather than confirming them — going onto his own radio show and (in what appeared to be an ill-conceived moment of honesty) confirming that, yes, there is some kind of issue between Hurts and Brown.

It was a moment that later left Graham trying to walk back his statements and Sirianni trying to downplay them, like a couple of janitors who were called in to clean up a mess and then profess that it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

None of that was believable. All of it was stupid.

The Eagles have found a way to win with imperfect quarterback play. They showcased an ability to adjust in the face of problems. And they can reach for those attributes down the stretch, when defenses adjust and Brown and the passing game are needed to carry the success of tomorrow. That time will become necessary, just as it did in the past, when Brown was being fed targets like he was at the end of an assembly line.

Until that day arrives, this is all just another chapter of self-inflicted nonsense. The Eagles created a problem in the middle of winning and success because the way the winning and success is being achieved isn’t perfect enough. If self-inflicted drama that teases future problems is the end goal, the Eagles are already there. Give them the rings. Name Brown the fiasco MVP.

Otherwise, clean this situation up, quiet the noise, and get back to the Super Bowl track that has been locked in place since early October.

Now, onto the rest of the QB Room …

○ After talking to a handful of sources about the Chicago Bears’ head coaching search — including league sources and some high-level agents repping potential candidates — I’m becoming more convinced ownership is going to lean into a strong leader with prior head coaching experience. From what I’ve been told, the performance of Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury in reshaping the Washington Commanders’ culture has left an impression inside the Bears’ organization. Ditto for what head coach Dan Campbell and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson have done for the Detroit Lions.

How the rest of this season plays out will shape the top of the Bears’ list of candidates. There’s some moving parts here that I need to lay out — all really pertaining to quarterback Caleb Williams. First, I think if Williams shows progress through the remainder of the season, it will earn interim head coach and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown a real shot to keep the job. But I also think the Bears would like to have options with Brown, and that’s what plays into other candidates.

If the Bears were to make a “leader” hire for the head spot, they could end up leaning into former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel or Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (who was previously the head coach of the Miami Dolphins). If either of the pair were hired — if Brown clearly has a strong impact on Williams’ continued development through the rest of this season — there will be a conversation with the next head coach about retaining Brown to achieve some continuity with Williams. I can’t say whether Vrabel or Flores would go for that kind of arrangement as they filled out their staffs, but it could be a factor in the process if Williams plays well down the stretch.

One extremely interesting thing that a league source brought up about Vrabel and Flores: They have very different track records as head coaches when it comes to their offensive coordinator spots. And pay attention, because this might be something that separates the two as potential head coaching candidates for Chicago. While Vrabel was coaching the Titans, he had four offensive coordinators in six years. Two of the coordinator changes occurred because Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith — who are very well respected offensive minds in the league right now — landed head coaching jobs that took them away from Vrabel’s staff in Tennessee. Now compare that against Flores’ head coaching stint in Miami, when he had a stunning four offensive coordinators in three years with the Dolphins. And those changes in Miami? None of them occurred because a coordinator was hired away for a better job.

If the Bears are focusing a considerable amount of their search into finding a culture-builder and leader, it makes sense that they’d consider whether that coach can either mesh with Brown or hire their own top-level offensive coordinator to guide Williams, then keep that coordinator around as long as possible. The idea is very much like what Campbell has done in Detroit with Johnson, and what the Commanders hope to achieve with Quinn and Kingsbury. Clearly, Vrabel has fared far better when it comes to his offensive coordinators compared to Flores.

I’ve got to believe that is going to matter for the Bears if they’re staring at both for their head coaching job. And that’s without getting into the highly publicized issues Flores had with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in Miami.

○ It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out with the Cincinnati Bengals now that wideout Ja’Marr Chase has blown the doors off this season and can lay claim to being the best wideout in the NFL — and worthy of an extension topping the four-year, $140 million deal reeled in by Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson last offseason. The question now is whether Chase pushes for a market-setting deal that puts him solidly in front of Jefferson, similar to how Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott used his leverage to create a $5 million annual average salary gap between himself and the next-highest paid players in the league. Prescott’s deal posted $60 million AAV, versus a three-way tie between quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Jordan Love at $55 million per season.

Chase doesn’t have the same negotiating leverage as Prescott, since he still has his fifth-year option and at least two franchise tags ahead of him. But he has the full backing of Burrow, who has repeatedly and publicly put his verbal weight behind Chase’s extension getting done. That support is even more notable this season, with Burrow’s frustrations over a lost year being evident — and an arguable point that the Bengals created some of this season’s early problems by not aggressively attacking a Chase extension and getting him into the team’s offseason work.

The Bengals had more than three months to get a Chase deal done after Jefferson signed his extension last June. It could have been accomplished with an offer that would have put Chase ahead of Jefferson in the receiver pecking order in both AAV and guaranteed money. That never happened, and it definitely created a disruption in training camp that appeared to linger into the first few weeks of the season, when the Bengals dropped two tight games to open their schedule — both of which saw Chase held in check. Two wins in those games would have put the Bengals at 7-6 right now instead of 5-8.

So what did the Bengals accomplish? They frustrated Chase through negotiations. They frustrated Burrow through a disruption in training camp, and suffered some early losses that might have changed the complexion of the season. And now they’ve cost themselves potentially more money, with Chase putting up a career year while on track to deliver a possible triple crown in receiving (leading the league in catches, yards and touchdowns) and almost certainly his second All-Pro nod in four years. It’s a penny-pinching disaster at its finest, and if the Bengals don’t move quickly to get the contract to bed between now and early in the offseason, I would not be surprised to see Chase or his agents request a trade.

Without a doubt, a lot of this should be focused through Burrow, too. It seems to be a foregone conclusion he’s going to lose No. 2 wideout Tee Higgins this offseason. He’s making his way through a losing season in what could end up being the best statistical one of his career. And his No. 1 wideout has done everything necessary to get a landmark deal that, frankly, should be signed right now. If you’ve watched any of HBO’s in-season “Hard Knocks” covering the AFC North, you’ve seen how tight Burrow is with Chase and Higgins. How much disruption is he going to sit through before he starts questioning whether Bengals ownership is truly committed to doing what it takes to win, versus continuing its perception as a cheap family owned team?

○ There’s disappointment in the NFL’s personnel ranks over how the College Football Playoff field ultimately sorted out for the quarterback class during the last month of the season. Two closely monitored prospects made it into the playoffs and can help themselves: Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Penn State’s Drew Allar. But too many others will miss a huge opportunity to show out on an elevated stage, including Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Miami’s Cam Ward, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Georgia’s Carson Beck.

At the moment, Sanders and Ward are considered the consensus top two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft. So neither will really suffer from missing the playoffs. Conversely, talent evaluators are pointing to Milroe and Beck as being the biggest losers of the playoff sorting. Milroe would’ve had another chance to showcase his considerable raw skill as a passer — and extensively high ceiling as an athlete — in a pressurized schedule that would have spoken volumes about his continued development and impacted the guidance he’ll receive from the NFL as it pertains to his stock. And then you have Beck, whose situation has sadly spiraled horribly this season. Once considered to potentially be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, his season was plagued by inconsistency, and then, on Saturday in the SEC championship game, he suffered an injury to his throwing arm that is expected to sideline him for the entire playoff and also impact his pre-draft work.

Some evaluators still believed Beck was a possible second-round pick heading into the SEC title game, with a chance to push himself back into the first-round field with a strong run in the playoff. Now? How far he falls will likely depend on his medical status and what team is willing to take a chance on the considerable talent he showcased in 2023 that had many thinking 2024 would be his coming out party as an elite college quarterback.

○ Following this past Sunday’s five-touchdown opus from Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold, there has been a lot of debate about what the Vikings will ultimately do at the QB spot following this season. To date, I’ve been told the plan has remained consistent inside the franchise, with Darnold departing in free agency and 2024 first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy being the team’s centerpiece moving into the offseason passing program. All season long, through all of Darnold’s best moments, the message has remained consistently focused on McCarthy being the future of the team.

Here’s what I think today: Everything about the Vikings’ quarterback decision is going to be up in the air until the season ends and the results can be sorted out by head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

As much as the Vikings want to stick to their plan of steering into McCarthy, nobody on the team’s leadership knows where this ride could end with Darnold. If it’s in the Super Bowl — and if that is achieved through high-level play from Darnold — there’s going to be another conversation about the plan. Maybe it ends up with McCarthy in the driver’s seat no matter what. But we don’t know that for sure right now. And we won’t know it until Darnold has his chance to take this run as far as he can.

Working with Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams, O’Connell learned the value of finding the right quarterback who connects with the system. And Adofo-Mensah saw a lot of different versions of success and failure at the position in his previous jobs with the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers. And both have seen how QB upheaval can impact not only their own positions, but also an entire locker room and team culture.

If Darnold takes the Vikings further than most believe he can — and he maintains his current level while doing it — it’s going to be hard letting him walk away from the leaders in their own locker room. And maybe ownership, too.