It’s July 11th, so we really shouldn’t put too much stock into anything that comes out of summer football practices, or OTAs, etc.

However, this nugget from Derrick Gunn, shared on JAKIB Media’s Sports Take YouTube show last Friday, is making the rounds:

D Gunn:

“I know it’s a controlled environment, and like I tell you guys all the time, I don’t get too hyped about OTAs, mini camp, or even training camp, because it’s controlled. But when I asked a few people back in late May about where Jalen Hurts was in his progress, one person said ‘let me just give you a scenario of what he went through one day in practice – it was a 10-play scenario, he had three picks, four incompletions, and three sacks.’ That was his 10-play series…. and I followed up and said ‘what are you thinking?’ And the answer was, ‘he’s got a ways to go,’ and that’s not very encouraging…”

This is gonna get totally blown out of proportion. If Hurts goes out and plays poorly week 1, people will come back to this quote and see “hey we knew he was gonna be shit!”

No knock on Gunner, because I’d trust D Gunn with any sliver of Eagles knowledge. If it’s coming from Derrick you can believe it. It’s coverage you can count on. He even puts a disclaimer on this entire statement, saying that he doesn’t “get too hyped” about these kinds of things, but the problem is that other people do. We have reporters with tens of thousands of Twitter followers out here logging every snap of OTAs, for Christ’s sake.

The offseason stuff is a little too much, but that’s the product of people caring. It’s the product of the Eagles running this town and claiming most of the headlines and air time. There is high demand for THE BIRDS. It is what it is, so it’s up to the dwindling pragmatic portion of the fan base to help slow these rolls and get everybody to chill out, like Tommy Chong in Half Baked. 

“Chill, Nasty Nate.” 

EDIT 1 –