Unfortunately, subpar Jalen Hurts play breathes life into the Deshaun Watson rumors. It’s an exercise in inverse proportionality, whereas one thing goes up when the other goes down, and if Hurts doesn’t prove himself to be “the guy” this year, then you’re gonna keep hearing this horse shit about how the Eagles should go out and trade for a guy who faces two-dozen sexual misconduct allegations.

The latest on the Watson front is this, from Chris Simms:

The Crossing Broad stance on Watson, I believe, is something along the lines of “hell nah.” Not right now, while all of this crap remains unresolved. This is a throwaway season to begin with, so is it really that hard to give Jalen Hurts a full year to prove himself? You can give Gardner Minshew a shot in the back-end of the season, and if neither of those guys light the world on fire, then you look at flipping picks for a QB or grabbing one in the draft. You’ve got options here. You don’t need to buy low on a guy with outstanding legal baggage.

I wrote about Watson a few months ago in a story titled Put the Deshaun Watson Rumors Into Jeff Bezos’s Rocket and Launch Them Into Space, and I think this section of the column bears repeating:

One thing I don’t think people talk about enough is the fact that the Eagles have not had a lot of “character issue” guys on the team in recent years. Mychal Kendricks participated in insider trading while playing for the Birds, but nobody knew about it at the time. Nigel Bradham punched that “cabana boy” in the face and brought a loaded gun into an airport. Lane Johnson had the PED suspension in 2016 and there were relatively minor incidents for peripheral players like Josh Huff, while Daryl Worley was booted for his transgressions before playing a single game.

The Eagles, for the most part, put together rosters featuring decent and likeable players.

That’s a big deal. Say what you will about individuals like Carson Wentz and how they jive with the fan base, but the Birds don’t bring in guys like Greg Hardy. They run a relatively clean operation, with players who we’d describe as good people. They don’t need the Watson headache, definitely not this early in the season.