Like just about everyone associated with the Eagles, quarterback Jalen Hurts found himself under the microscope after the team’s collapse in the final weeks of last season.
After an 10-1 start, the Eagles went 1-6 and crashed out of the playoffs against the Buccaneers in the Wild Card round. Hurts went from being an MVP candidate over those first 11 games to being criticized for the team’s offense slowdown and hearing questions about whether he’s going to be able to turn things back around.
On Tuesday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni held a press conference in Indianapolis expressed confidence in Hurts’ ability to rebound.
“Here’s what I know about Jalen, whatever we see that he needs to work on or he sees that he needs to work on, he’s going to get better at that because he puts everything he has into it, and that’s a form of leadership too,” Sirianni said. “Like Jalen sees something that he feels is a weakness of his or we feel like is a weakness of his, he’s going to dive everything that he has and pour everything that he has into it to get better from that. Like that’s leadership. That’s a form of leadership. I’ll keep some of the things we all talked about, what I need to get better at, what he needs to get better at, to ourselves. But I know this, that he’ll put everything he has into getting better as a football player, being better as a quarterback so we can win more games as a team.”
If Hurts can’t get the Eagles moving in the right direction, Sirianni’s chances of making it to a fifth year in Philly aren’t going to be great so the two men have little choice but to count on each other as they move into a pivotal season for both their careers.
