Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie wants Jalen Hurts to be Philadelphia’s first quarterback in 2021, according to a report by Chris Mortensen (via @WordOnTheBirds). The NFL insider had the following to say during a recent appearance on ESPN:
MORTENSEN: “Yes, Jalen Hurts is the guy. Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Eagles, basically sent the message to his human resources department and Howie Roseman that he wants to do everything in his power to help Jalen Hurts succeed and NOT bring in someone to compete for the job not. Now, they have a new head coach in Nick Sirianni, he understands what the owner wants, the owner gets. And I can remind people of this: last year the owner was in favor of setting up Jalen Hurts. This caused a ripple effect. But one thing that happened to the Eagles screaming at me why Ja’Marr Chase should play with this choice is that they did not stay true to their draft speech. And their personnel department has many Ozzie Newsome disciples from Baltimore. Ozzie always stays true to the concept board. Somehow they came off the concept board and on no. 21 they took Jalen Reagor, the wide receiver, instead of Justin Jefferson, who had a higher grade in the Eagles board. How do you explain that? We do not have enough time. But Jalen Hurts is the fullback for this year. They do not want to bring him competition. ”
Here are some things to keep in mind.
- To begin with, we must pay attention to how this intel differs from what Mortensen and Adam Schefter previously published in a joint report after Carson Wentz was traded last month. They said that the “Eagles will probably turn to Jalen Hurts, although they also plan to compete for him. The Eagles’ starting work is not expected to go to Hurts automatically.” Now Mortensen says the opposite: Hurts is the starter and there is no competition.Why the difference? Well, Mort notes that not everyone is necessarily on the same page:
I will not report that Eagles have internal consensus on Hurts as QB1, but sources say the boss, Jeffrey Lurie, has instructed his group to make the priority of making Hurts successful in 2021, as opposed to creating ‘ a real competition.
– Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) March 8, 2021
- Not very comforting to see that the owner is involved in staff decisions. Ideally, you want an owner who hires a good general manager and head coach and trusts that he will decide on the starting quarters. Does not seem to be the setup here.
- The feeling here is that Sore MUST be the Eagles’ starting quarterback this year. What is the profit of the organization to pay and play a dead veteran (e.g. Marcus Mariota, Jacoby Brissett, Tyrod Taylor) instead of him?
- One has to consider the #smokescreen angle of this report. If the Eagles really want to set up a quarterback, they do not want everyone to know that. If you are in that position, it will ruin their advantage for a possible trade-off or motivate teams to achieve the overall number 6.
- Interesting to see that the comment about Jefferson last year was higher than Reagor on the Eagles’ draft speech. This is not the first time we’re hearing this. Jeff McLane had earlier reported the scouts had Jefferson higher, but the coaching staff preferred Reagor. But … it’s not like the coaches had the final say on the decision.
- I was a little confused at first about the fact that the Reagor / Jefferson thing came up, but Mort seems to be the Eagles Chase on no. 6 will choose (if he is there) and will not force a choice on a quarterback because they are going to go back to trust their advice and also to try to build Hurts. Indeed, the Eagles should not enter the concept with the mindset they need to set a passenger at number 6 no matter what happens. At least three quarterbacks are likely to step down from the board before their election, assuming they do not trade.