NFL Network analyst thinks the Eagles should bench Jalen Hurts

NFL Network analyst David Carr spent much of Tuesday night responding on social media to criticism of his Jalen Hurts hot take.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is an MVP candidate, but NFL Network analyst David Carr, right, thinks he should be benched.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff photographer, Heidi Fang / Las Vegas Review-Journal, TNS

by Rob Tornoe

Published Dec. 6, 2023, 7:27 a.m. ET

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has led the Birds to an NFL-best 10-2 record and is one of the leading candidates to win this year’s MVP award.

But there’s at least one NFL analyst who thinks the Eagles should bench Jalen Hurts ahead of the team’s important NFC East faceoff against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

NFL Network analyst David Carr, a former No. 1 pick who spent 10 years as a quarterback on four teams, inspired laughter among his colleagues Tuesday on NFL Total Access by suggesting the Birds replace Hurts with backup quarterback Marcus Mariota.

“Clearly Jalen isn’t comfortable reading through a defense in a drop-back pass scenario. Some would say he’s not even good at it,” Carr said shortly after the show displayed MVP odds showing Hurts near the top of the list.

Hurts left Sunday’s loss against the San Francisco 49ers to get evaluated for a concussion, but was cleared and quickly made his way back to the field. During his absence, Mariota completed two of three passes, his only attempts all season.

“Put Marcus in there, win a couple of games, maybe you have the No. 1 seed still, you might have it,” Carr said. ”I’d say [Mariota] is better at playing quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles right now. Right now, he’d be more productive.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that, Philly,” fellow NFL Network analyst and former NFL fullback Michael Robinson said to the camera following Carr’s take. “I know what time it is. I didn’t say that, he said that.”

What the clip doesn’t show is Carr was making a point about Hurts not being healthy. His opinion is that the Eagles don’t have a chance to win a Super Bowl if Hurts doesn’t regain his dynamic running ability that has been somewhat limited this season by a left knee injury.

“If Philly wants to win it all, get Jalen healthy,” Carr clarified Tuesday night on X, the former Twitter. “If not, play your injured qb and watch the SB at home. Really easy.”

Carr’s comments predictably drew a wave of responses on social media, including from NFL pundits at competing networks.

“Jalen Hurts has hundreds of clips of reading a defense in drop back football,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky wrote on social media. Rob Maaddi, a senior NFL writer for the Associated Press, wrote, “There’s no scenario where the Eagles are better with Marcus Mariota over Jalen Hurts. Why is anyone wasting two seconds even debating this?”

While Hurts didn’t have his best game against the 49ers on Sunday, he’s 32-10 as a starter in the regular season over the last three years, leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl for just the fourth time in franchise history, and at least one Hall of Famer would pick him now as this year’s MVP.

“I have a vote, and if I were voting right now I would vote for Jalen Hurts,” Tony Dungy, an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America and Super Bowl-winning head coach, said on Tuesday’s Take Off With John Clark podcast. “I think Philadelphia has been the dominant team. He has been the most important player and the dominant player on that team. ...

“Brock Purdy had a great day against Philadelphia in a tough environment,” Dungy said. “Jalen now needs to go to Dallas and have that same type of day in a tough environment, and then people will say, ‘OK, OK. There might be something to this.’”