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It Sucks That the “Bench Jalen Hurts” Brigade Was Vindicated Monday Night
By Nick Piccone
Published:
The happiest people after Monday night’s demoralizing and embarrassing loss to the Chargers were not Chargers players nor that one Chargers fan. It was the family and friends of Eagles backup QB, Tanner McKee.
Four picks and a lost fumble is the story of the Eagles’ loss in Inglewood. One of those picks is obviously on A.J. Brown, but that still means Jalen Hurts had three picks where the blame completely lies on him. This is the Hurts we get when trying to appease a high-paid wide receiver who (rightly) knows the offense wasn’t playing up to their full potential.
The Hurts who doesn’t take risks won games. The Hurts who does take risks loses games. Such is life. The life many Eagles fans wanted.
The Birds won’t and shouldn’t bench Hurts unless he’s got some sort of physical injury. He’s more than earned the opportunity to work himself out of the funk he’s in. It’s as if people forget quarterback is one of the hardest positions to play in professional sports. Hurts did it at a high level for years, enough to be in MVP conversations.
But something’s off this season. The 2023 collapse is now fresh in everyone’s minds, and I can’t blame them. Anything that could have possibly gone wrong has gone wrong. The first touchdown called back because of a Jordan Mailata hold wasn’t even surprising. For every good play, there are 15 bad plays. Someone should probably get Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo bigger mirrors too look into.
Nobody loves backup quarterbacks the way Philly does. And plenty of social media posts called for McKee to get the nod behind center coming out of halftime and beyond. It’s just a silly notion to placate a person’s emotional reaction. I know different quarterbacks can see different things and make different reads, but the way fans think McKee is the answer, with the utmost confidence, is just proof of an emotional reaction to a very bad stretch of Eagles football. If the Eagles won’t replace the offensive coordinator or the head coach, the next easiest thing to do would be to replace the quarterback, right?
I was fine with Hurts not taking risks and relying on the defense when the offensive line was hurt (and still is) and his receivers just quitting on routes, but it would have been nice to see his receivers quit on different-looking routes at least. Everything looks the same and every defense knows what’s coming. That’s not on the QB. The coaches are paid to find a way to make their QB comfortable and also get the most out of their high-paid offense. How about calling a play that could set up the next play? Or the play after? It often feels like there is no offensive plan. Just call a play and hope players execute. Bing, bang, boom. Except it’s just not that easy in today’s NFL, no matter what the talent level is. We could talk about how good the Chargers’ defense is, but that’d let a lot of guys off the hook. Imagine if the Eagles had to play the Texans… woof.
Monday night’s loss wasn’t only on the coaches. In fact, Hurts had more of a hand in it than anybody else. People feel vindicated in their belief that McKee is the better option right now. I can’t exactly say that he is or isn’t, because we haven’t seen him much with this first-team offense. I think it’s important to note that a lot of the last three weeks has been emotionally-driven after the collapse in Dallas.
What a wild turn of events. But the thing is, we’ve been here before. The “collapse” isn’t unchartered territory. If anything, we should feel somewhat relieved that many members of this team know what 2023 felt like, right? Right!?
Whatever is broken will not be fixed by the backup quarterback. It’s a much better plan to try and salvage whatever they can with who they have starting now than rely on a backup quarterback after benching your Super Bowl MVP. Then again, that’s what a lot of the vocal social media fans want to see. The odds we’re going to see a top 10 offense without a healthy offensive line is minimal, no matter who’s behind center.
Hurts also has to look in the mirror. He’s been lauded as a great leader, but it certainly feels like he’s trying to make everybody happy at this point. And if you’re trying to make everybody happy, you’re making nobody happy.
Nick Piccone has covered Philly sports and events for over 14 years with various outlets, including PhillyVoice and Philly Influencer. In 2015, he co-launched the Straight Shooters Wrestling Podcast. He's also a producer for Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia and the Villanova Sports Radio Network. He grew up in South Philadelphia and South Jersey, and is a graduate of Neumann University. Contact: picconenick@gmail.com