The NFL’s next dynasty? Jalen Hurts a top 5 QB? The Eagles’ biggest threats? Here’s what they’re saying.
Rex Ryan and Dan Orlovsky had praise for Jalen Hurts after the win, while others — like Cam Newton — don’t think the team’s faced its toughest tests yet.
The Eagles finally had their first emphatic performance of the season, putting it all together on offense in the second half in a 19-point comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Here’s what former players and pundits are saying about the Birds after a big come-from-behind victory that featured a wake-up call on offense and some special team wizardry …
They wish he was a little bit taller … but still think he’s a baller
In the second half, Jalen Hurts finally got to throw the ball, and with that, show the rest of the NFL why Eagles fans were so defensive of his place in the upper echelon of the league’s quarterbacks.
Everyone else is finally waking up.
“If he was 6-foot-5, he’d be in the conversation as the best quarterback in this league,” Rex Ryan said on ESPN’s Get Up! on Monday. “That is my opinion. He doesn’t look the part, but he certainly plays the part. Nobody plays a winning quarterback better than Jalen Hurts.”
» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Eagles’ Nick Sirianni now is 4-0 against Rams ‘genius’ Sean McVay after a 19-point comeback win
The offseason — and into the start of the regular season — has been dominated by conversations and disagreements about where Hurts should be ranked among his peers and whether or not he was the elevated by the talent around him, rather than the other way around.
All along, however, Hurts has continued to win — the Eagles are 19-1 in their last 20 games, including the Super Bowl, and their only loss came against the Washington Commanders after Hurts was knocked out early in the game. That’s got former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky putting Hurts in his top 5.
A.J. Brown ‘saved the day’
The Eagles finally unleashed A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in the second half of Sunday’s game, and it paid dividends.
“The offensive coordinator for the Eagles [Kevin Patullo] needs to get A.J. Brown to the nicest steakhouse in Philly, and buy him [expletive] dinner, because he saved the day,” former Eagle Chris Long said on his Green Light podcast. “It felt like the whole thing flipped when the Eagles decided, ‘We’re going to open things up.’”
The duo combined for 12 catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, with the two scores turning it from a 26-14 deficit to a 27-26 Eagles’ lead.
» READ MORE: A.J. Brown wants the Eagles to ‘let your killers do their thing’ after second-half air explosion vs. the Rams
The Eagles found the spark they needed
At the half, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson posted on X that he was excited the Eagles were down at the half, because it would give Hurts more of an opportunity to show what he was capable of in the passing game.
That “desperation” drove the Birds to their best offensive half of the season so far.
“Being behind at the half can be a good thing,” Ochocinco said postgame. “I knew Patullo was going to have to come out and stop running the ball, stop playing safe … Just get [Brown and Smith] the ball. It’s not that hard!”
A dynasty in the making?
Can the Eagles become the NFL’s next dynasty? On NBC ahead of the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and the New York Giants, Mike Florio drew a few comparisons between Kansas City and the Birds.
“This is exactly the vibe the Chiefs used to have,” Florio said. “This is a team that knows how to win, and that becomes contagious, and it effects not just the Eagles moving forward, but their opponents will start thinking, ‘Here it comes, oh no,’ and we get tight, and they stay loose and find ways to win. It’s hard to get that, but once you have it, it tends to stick around.”
» READ MORE: David Murphy: Amid the jubilation, an Eagle sounds a warning about the lessons of 2023 and the missteps of 2025
The real threats to the Eagles’ NFC supremacy?
Who are the biggest threats to the Eagles left in the NFC? Cam Newton thinks it’s the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Detroit Lions.
“What these teams have in common, they have the ability to generate offense,” Newton said. “Not to say that the Rams don’t have the capacity too, because they’re still a threat, but look at the stat line … We’re in the red zone, but we’re kicking field goals.”
The Packers offense managed just 10 points in their 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers nearly lost to the winless Jets on Sunday and are averaging fewer points per game than the Eagles. And, yes, the Lions did score 52 points last week against the Chicago Bears, but they also managed just 13 in their season opening loss to the Packers.
So maybe it’s still just early in the season?