PHILADELPHIA − It would seem hard for Jalen Hurts to top the season he had in 2022, when he was the MVP runner-up, when he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, and when he firmly established himself as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.
A byproduct, or just reward, of Hurts’ season was a record (at the time) contract extension for five years worth as much as $255 million.
So as the Eagles went through their first practice of training camp Wednesday, it’s easy to question whether Hurts can improve upon the stats he put up in 2022. There are the 3,701 yards passing, the 760 yards rushing, the franchise-record tying 35 total touchdowns, the 66.5% completion rate and the 101.5 passer rating.
But doubt Hurts at your own peril. Like most things, Hurts has a saying for that: “I always said that there is no arrival; there’s only the journey.”
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While Hurts will quickly say that he has moved on from last season, as he did Wednesday after practice, and that it’s about getting better as a team, he also has lofty expectations for himself, too.
“I am embracing the uniqueness of my game, and just being a triple threat out there,” he said. “Just being someone knowledgeable and understanding of what’s going on on the field, and being able to make those throws. And being able to cause problems on the ground as well.”
So really, the question isn’t whether Hurts will get better this season. The question is how much.
“I don’t know what his ceiling is because he just keeps getting better,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during the offseason.
After all, it’s easy to forget that Hurts won’t turn 25 years old until Aug. 7.
Could Hurts become the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 4,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season?
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Consider that Hurts fell 299 yards short of 4,000 passing yards while missing two games with a shoulder injury. Hurts could have come close to 1,000 yards rushing had he played in those games as well.
And the Eagles offense as a whole should be better.
The Eagles have top receivers returning in A.J. Brown (1,496 yards receiving in 2022), DeVonta Smith (1,196 yards) and Dallas Goedert (702 yards). The Eagles lost running back Miles Sanders (1,269 yards rushing) to free agency, but replaced him with D’Andre Swift and Rashaad Penny, both of whom can combine to match or exceed Sanders’ total.
While several quarterbacks have thrown for more than 4,000 yards in a season, the only Eagles QB to do it was Carson Wentz, with 4,039 yards in 2019.
Only three QBs have rushed for 1,000 yards in a season − former Eagles quarterback Michael Vick in 2006 when he played for Atlanta, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in 2019 and the Bears’ Justin Fields last season.
None of them came close to 4,000 yards passing in those seasons.
Hurts, of course, couldn’t care less about personal stats. But he and his teammates know that as he improves, his stats will improve, as will those of his teammates.
“My emphasis has been turning my weaknesses into my strengths,” Hurts said during the spring. “Now, somebody’s going to ask, ‘What are my weaknesses?’ That’s for me to know. But it’s all about getting better. I think about all the different things last year that I did at a high level. And then to my standards that I didn’t do at a high level.
“I think the thing that kind of keeps me going is being my biggest critic. Certain things are allowed. But for me, it may not be.”
The Eagles coaching staff is also working diligently to help Hurts improve. Sure, the Eagles lost offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who was hired as the Indianapolis Colts’ head coach after the season.
But the Eagles replaced him by promoting quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, who has known Hurts since he was about 4 years old when Johnson played for Hurts’ father in high school. They replaced Johnson by promoting assistant quarterbacks coach Alex Tanney.
The only new starters for the Eagles on offense will be at running back and at right guard, where either Cam Jurgens or rookie Tyler Steen will replace Isaac Seumalo.
So there still is continuity, even without Steichen.
“You understand that things have to happen for you to move forward,’ Hurts about about his own improvement. “If you fail, you want to fail (going) forward. We know what our goals are, but it’s a day by day process in that. That’s why times like this, this time of the year, is very important for the foundation of what the team will be.”
Hurts has shown that in each of his previous offseasons, too.
Hurts improved his completion percentage from 51.2% in 2020 as a rookie replacing Wentz for the final 4½ games to 61.3% in 2021 when the Eagles made the playoffs with a 9-8 record, then to 66.5% last season.
Maybe the improvement won’t be as noticeable or as dramatic this season. But from all accounts, it will be there. That’s something new Eagles safety Terrell Edmunds noticed during the spring practices. Edmunds saw Hurts dismantle his former team, the Steelers, last Oct. 30, when the Eagles won 35-13. Hurts threw for 285 yards and four TDs and had a career-high passer rating of 140.6 that day.
“He’s super smart,” Edmunds said. “You can just tell the way he diagnoses a play, what he’s looking at, what kind of keys that he’s trying to check for. And he’s trying to ‘eye control’ the safety so he can get you off leverage and everything.
“He’s as advertised, and he goes out there every day with that hard hat on.”
Hurts isn’t satisfied with getting to the Super Bowl last season. He wants to go back, and he wants to win it. But Hurts has proved that to his teammates during the offseason.
For Hurts, the reason is simple.
“Every team has their own opportunity to do something special, and this is a whole entire new team,” he said. “That’s something that we’re all embracing. It’s something that I’ve embraced. It takes a special type of discipline and work to achieve what you want to achieve.
“You have to completely reset that, but also allow the things that you experienced to fuel you, to fuel that fire, and grow, work every day.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
