One of the things Jalen Hurts needs to do to solidify his position as Eagles quarterback of the future is make “NFL throws.” He needs to go through his progressions, stay in the pocket or step up, and then pick out targets from there.

It was one of the main critiques coming out of college. He just didn’t show a lot on film in terms of scanning the field and finding the open man. Typically he’d vacate the pocket, run, and/or heave the ball after extending the play.

On Sunday, Hurts made one of his better throws of the season:

Great toss.

Denver is bringing five guys here. They play a 3-4 base defense, and on this sequence give the Eagles a wrinkle from the old wide-9 scheme, only this time Eagles legends* Jim Washburn and Jason Babin are not involved. There are two linebackers on the line of scrimmage, Malik Reed (#59) and Jonathon Cooper (#53), and then they run a stunt with Shelby Harris (#96) trying to skirt around Jack Driscoll:

Jason Kelce does a nice job sticking with Dre’Mont Jones there (#93), and Hurts sees the space shrinking, so he steps to his left into the pocket.

That view Jeff shared is the end zone camera from the all-22 film. Here’s how it looked from the broadcast view:

Nice job by the tackles winning their 1v1 battles. Nice job by Jalen Hurts to feel the pressure, step into the pocket, reset his feet, and throw a dart for a first down. A glimpse of the future?

 

*the thickest of sarcasm