Eagles

Jalen Hurts Looked Thrilled to be Doing a Ball Security Drill

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 15th, 2023 · 9:18 AM EST

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When you continue to cough up the ball, the coach makes you do ball security drills:

Earlier this week, Nick Sirianni said Jalen Hurts had to do a better job of protecting the football as he falls to the ground, an “unnatural” motion. But Sirianni said that starts with coaching.

Today at practice, they repped it: pic.twitter.com/7WdDse8srf

— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) December 14, 2023

There are two schools of thought here. One – this is embarrassing to do with your franchise quarterback in mid-December. Two – if you don’t want to do this drill, then don’t fumble the ball.

Case in point, Hurts is 4th in the NFL in giveaways this season. That’s 10 interceptions and 5 lost fumbles. Only Josh Dobbs, Josh Allen, and Sam Howell have more. Hurts only gave the ball away eight times in 15 games last season, and 11 times in 2021, so he’s already cleared career-highs through 13 games this year. The Eagles have a -4 turnover margin as a team, which is 20th-worst in the league, and of course Hurts was not the only guy to cough it up in Dallas. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith had fumbles that were just as bad, if not worse.

As you can imagine, some mouth breathers saw this clip and ran with it:

Maybe the most insulting thing to do to your franchise QB. LOVE IT. The panic is real in Philly pic.twitter.com/58U2f1vFfj

— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) December 15, 2023

We’ll see. If Hurts comes out and throws for 300 and 3 touchdowns in Seattle, and the Eagles go on to finish 14-3, then Carton can stuff his piehole. But these video clips go public and the optics are what they are.