PHILADELPHIA − The list is impressive as new Colts head coach Shane Steichen has mentored quarterbacks Justin Herbert as a record-breaking rookie in 2020, then turned Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts into a star and MVP runner up last season.
Combined, the two quarterbacks have received second contracts worth as much as a half-billion dollars this offseason. That would make Steichen a Quarterback Whisperer. He has coached the non-mobile Philip Rivers, the rocket-armed Herbert before turning the extremely-mobile Hurts into a dangerous passer.
Steichen, as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator the previous two seasons, helped Hurts go from a QB who barely completed 50% of his passes the season before he arrived into a dynamic runner who completed 66.5% of his passes in leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl.
SECRET WEAPON?‘He’s made a lot of people look silly.’ When will Eagles’ best-kept secret terrorize NFL?
FOR THE BIRDS:🦅 Sign up for Eye on the Eagles, our new NFL newsletter 🦅
Of course, the Colts noticed this and hired Steichen as the head coach to do the same with Anthony Richardson, whom the Colts drafted No. 4 overall next spring.
That doesn’t mean that it will automatically happen, and that could have more to do with Hurts than it does with Steichen.
That will be evident Tuesday in the joint practice session between the two teams. Neither quarterback is expected to play Thursday night in the preseason finale.
Sure, Hurts is, and should be, way ahead of Richardson at this point.
It’s also fair to say that Hurts as a rookie in 2020 going through his first training camp (the year before Steichen and head coach Nick Sirianni arrived) is behind Richardson at this point. After all, Richardson has already been anointed the starter, and Steichen is in the process of building an offense around Richardson’s running ability.
But in 2020, Carson Wentz was the Eagles’ franchise quarterback, and Hurts was mostly seen as a “gadget quarterback.” The offense was geared to Wentz. Even when Wentz was mercifully benched for Hurts for the final 4 1/2 games, Hurts was primarily a running quarterback.
Hurts completed just 51.2% of his passes that season. Hurts was better in 2021, the first year under Sirianni and Steichen, completing 61.3% of his passes and taking the Eagles to the first round of the playoffs. Then the Buccaneers exposed Hurts’ greatest weakness − throwing while running to his left.
Hurts made sure that wasn’t an issue last season. And it’s certainly not this summer as Hurts, by all accounts, might be even better.
And that begs the question: Is Hurts’ improvement more a result of Hurts’ sheer will, or Steichen’s tutelage?
All we can go on for now is what we’re seeing in practice. Hurts hasn’t played in any of the preseason games. But we also know Hurts is a student of the game, as Hurts described what he does while watching backups Marcus Mariota and rookie Tanner McKee play.
“I’m just making the calls myself in my head and listening to the coaching points with the coaches on the headset with them,” Hurts said. “Just learning. I’m a student when I’m in that mode. It’s very valuable. I think about all opportunities I’ve had when I come off the sideline and come off the bench.
“I always want to be prepared for those moments.”
Richardson very well could have all of those qualities. And Steichen is certain impressed with what he has seen so far from his rookie QB.
“You see the upside on film; it just jumps off the tape,” Steichen said about Richardson recently on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Holy smokes, there aren’t many guys that can do the things that he’s doing, so let’s roll.”
Well, there’s one guy − Hurts.
And Steichen knows this too, giving credit to Hurts’ work ethic.
“He’s a grinder,” Steichen said about Hurts last December. “If you want to be the best, you have to prepare the right way … He doesn’t leave the building; whether it’s 9 o’clock at night, 10 o’clock at night, he’s here. He doesn’t stop. I think when you’re obsessed with your craft, you’re going to be really good at what you do, and that’s what he does.”
Richardson has a much longer way to go to reach Hurts’ level. Richardson, an accomplished runner, completed just 53.8% of his passes in his one full season at Florida. Hurts, meanwhile, won a national championship as a true freshman at Alabama, led the Tide back to the title game the next season before he was replaced by Tua Tagovailoa.
After serving as Tagovailoa’s backup as a junior, Hurts played his senior season at Oklahoma, where he completed 69.7% of his passes for 3,851 yards. He also ran for 1,298 yards and was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.
Hurts’ potential as a passer was there. To his credit, and Steichen’s, it translated to the NFL. Richardson is a work in progress.
With the Eagles, Hurts also has a much better supporting cast in wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert, and perhaps the NFL’s best offensive line. The same can’t be said of Richardson. The Colts’ top offensive weapon, Jonathan Taylor, is unhappy with his contract and he’s on the physically unable to perform list.
And he was reportedly granted permission by the Colts to seek a trade.
Even with Steichen leaving, the Eagles kept the continuity on offense by promoting Brian Johnson from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. Johnson has known Hurts since Hurts was 4 years old, while playing in high school from Hurts’ father.
While Johnson might differ in style from Steichen, the message is the same.
“He has his way of doing it,” Hurts said about Johnson. “He asks me a ton of questions about how I like the communication process to go. I think that’s something you adjust with. You want to go in prepared as much as possible, but when you get to the games you kind of find your own rhythm, your own way of communication.
“Going into this year having a new coach in a new role, yet still having the same person in the building, it’s just navigating through all those things.”
Hurts has navigated all of it, and that’s evident to his receivers, too.
“I know one thing − we’re preparing to be better than we were last year, preparing each and every day,” Brown said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but we’re definitely moving in the right direction as an offense.”
There’s no guarantee that will happen over the course of a 17-game season. But the Eagles, because of Hurts, are in a better position to show that than Steichen is with the Colts and Richardson. So if Steichen truly is a Quarterback Whisperer, Richardson will be his biggest test.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
