It’s up to Jalen Hurts to hold the Eagles together and keep an uncomfortable situation from getting worse
This may be one of those seasons for Hurts and the Eagles, a campaign when everything is harder than it used to be. Sometimes the passes a quarterback throws are the least important part of his job.
For his 14 full and consecutive seasons as the New York Giants’ starting quarterback, Eli Manning was never an NFL MVP or even an All-Pro. He had more seasons with at least 20 interceptions (three) than he had seasons that ended with Super Bowl victories (two), and he wore a droopy-dog face so frequently that he might have set an unbreakable record for funny memes. But he also developed perhaps the most underrated good habit of any quarterback to play pro football: Whenever the Giants won a game, Manning would wait a few days before speaking to the media again. Whenever they lost, though, he would be available the day after, opening himself up to questions and second-guesses, bearing the brunt on behalf of everyone else in the locker room.
“He does a good job of taking all the blame,” Ryan Nassib, who grew up in West Chester and backed up Manning for two years, said in a 2014 interview at the Giants’ headquarters. “Guys inside these walls know it might not necessarily be the truth, but he’s the epitome of what you ask for in terms of humility and taking care of the players.”
Sometimes the passes that a quarterback throws are the least important part of his job, and Jalen Hurts might be facing such a challenge now. He, A.J. Brown, and Saquon Barkley had a heart-to-heart-to-heart on Monday about the struggles of the Eagles offense — about Barkley’s lack of production in the running game, about Brown’s social-media posts and the subtle but apparent tension between him and Hurts. Now the Eagles get the Giants at MetLife Stadium, and sure, Hurts could make those two and everybody else around the Eagles happy by streaking the smoggy North Jersey sky with touchdowns Thursday night. But for the moment, what matters is that Hurts, as the quarterback, as a leader if not the leader of the team, has to keep this situation from spiraling into a full-fledged crisis.
“Really just teammates being teammates,” Hurts said Tuesday in describing the nature of the sit-down with Brown and Barkley. “I don’t want to make this about that. I’ve got a short week. … It’s truly about the collective and the opportunities we have in front of us, and everybody in this building just wants to take advantage of that.”
If it stays about that, about the Eagles’ win-loss record, then Hurts will have accomplished something more impressive than any game in which he throws for 300 yards or puts up a perfect passer rating. Any time there’s a players-only meeting of any kind, there’s reason for a team to be concerned, and there’s no guarantee that all will be well for the Eagles coming out of this one.
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Barkley, after taking a handoff, can barely take a breath before defenders are hitting him. Brown wants the ball in the name of helping the Eagles win and fulfilling his ultimate desire to dominate whatever cornerback happens to be covering him. But something just seems … off … between him and Hurts, and that failed deep pass in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos, when Hurts pump-faked and Brown stopped running his route just as he was breaking open, was symbolic of their scrambled connection.
“Master the ordinary,” Hurts said. “Little things have gotten us.”
This may just be one of those seasons for Hurts and the Eagles, a campaign when everything is harder than it used to be. The offensive line is banged up. Opponents are more familiar with the Eagles’ tendencies and patterns. Kevin Patullo has exactly five games under his belt as an NFL play-caller.
“It’s like having all the same ingredients, but having a different chef in the kitchen,” Hurts said. “I think that’s kind of what it’s been for us over the years. You can have the same ingredients, and somebody makes the same dish, but it tastes different. Ultimately, the whole objective of the group collectively is to go out there and find ways to win. That’s changed in how we’ve been able to do that over the years, and we’re navigating that. But you’ve got to look inward. What can we control? How can we master our detail? How can we be better with the things that we can control? … That’s always a day-by-day grind.”
The thing is, most teams and quarterbacks go through years like this. Even quarterbacks who can win and have won Super Bowls do, because with certain exceptions — Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes or another all-time great — every quarterback has his weaknesses and limitations. Hurts has his. So did Manning. He had all the mobility of a mannequin. His performance from one year to the next wasn’t particularly consistent. In 2010, he threw a league-high 25 interceptions. In 2011, he won a Super Bowl and had his best overall statistical season. In 2013, he was back to being a turnover machine, with 27 picks. If the Giants had the right team around him, they had a chance at a championship, If their best wide receiver happened to shoot himself accidentally in the leg — as Plaxico Burress did in 2008 — the going was going to be tougher, and Manning wasn’t necessarily capable of single-handedly carrying them through it.
The steadiest thing about Manning was his demeanor, his understanding that he had certain responsibilities as a quarterback and that he had to meet them. That component of the job doesn’t show up in a stat sheet or fantasy league, but it can mean everything to a team that has to stay together to succeed. In that way, Jalen Hurts isn’t so different. In that way, the clock to complete his most important assignment starts now.