Not Even Your WIP Uncle Would Call for Marcus Mariota to Play Before Jalen Hurts
Here’s a take from David Carr! –
“Marcus Mariota would be better and more productive right now for the Eagles than Jalen Hurts” – David Carr
as accurate a take as a Derek Carr red zone passpic.twitter.com/8bFj2Cg5P8
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 6, 2023
Now in a mostly-futile attempt to be fair, he’s framing this opinion around the idea that Jalen Hurts is not completely healthy, which results in a corresponding limitation in the running and option game. There’s some truth to that, and Carr expanded on the thought when writing this on Twitter – “Jalen struggles from the pocket after the initial read but who cares, if they can run the ball and throw RPO’s go for it. The problem is they can’t/won’t right now.”
We’ve had discussions this year about Jalen progressing beyond A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in dropback passing situations. That’s a legitimate thing to ask about. If they get away from the RPO game, is he the type of guy to scan the field and bomb away? Sometimes that seems like a yes and sometimes it seems like a no.
Thing is, Jalen’s knee has been an issue for most of the year, and yet he’s an MVP candidate, leads a 10-2 team, and has accounted for 31 touchdowns this season. He’s on pace to eclipse or at least match his career highs in almost every meaningful statistical category. So the thought of benching him at all is totally fuckin’ bananas. If Carr just made a point about how the knee compromises some of the schematic things they did well in 2022, then it would be perfectly fine. But sitting Hurts down, with the #1 seed on the line? Insanity!
The other thing to consider is that Marcus Mariota has thrown three passes this season. There isn’t even a sample size determining what Mariota is or is not. This would be like calling for Mo Bamba to start ahead of Joel Embiid. It’s a mostly horrendous take. Not to mention that whenever you discredit or demean a successful black quarterback, you’re gonna have the people who come out of the woodwork to label you a racist, even if the guy you think should start is Hawaiian-born with Samoan and German roots. Not some white Christian from Texas. Doesn’t really matter, though. They see a white dude slandering a black QB on television and that’s all she wrote.