ThePhillySportsBlog

I’m confused.

How can the blindly-loyal Eagles Stepford fans continue to say that the Eagles aren’t giving up on this season?  Tanking. Waving the white flag.  Punting on the season.  How can they think GM Howie Roseman is trying to win this season after his recent trade of Cam Jurgens?

A team that thinks it is a legitimate Super Bowl contender doesn’t react to the retirement of its future Hall of Fame RT by trading away a young, two-time Pro Bowl center.  They just don’t.  I don’t care what draft picks you get in return.  The Jurgens trade is all the proof that we need that the Eagles organization knows they can’t win this season.

The Eagles are 2-2 and everyone who points to the 2024 season, where the Eagles were also 2-2 before winning the Super Bowl, are straight up delusional.  That team had a bye in Week 5 and had the time to make drastic changes to the offense. Those changes were initiated by that Hall of Fame RT, Lane Johnson.

In 2024, Johnson led a group of offensive linemen who told the organization that they simply couldn’t win with QB Jalen Hurts turning the ball over constantly and not being able to carry the offense.  That led to the switch to running the ball constantly with Saquan Barkley.  The difference is, that team had the best offensive line in the entire NFL and they set the record for most yards in a season (regular season and playoffs) in the history of the NFL. This team’s O-line is in shambles, thanks to injuries, retirement and the aforementioned trade.

The only linemen remaining from that 2024 Super Bowl team are LT Jordan Mailata and LG Landon Dickerson, although Dickerson is on IL and might never be the same due to his recent back issues.  Of course, the Eagles were only able to draft Dickerson in the 2^nd round in 2021 because of his extensive injury history in college. Roseman definitely should have drafted an offensive lineman in the first round last season, instead of a WR who looks overmatched in the NFL.  (Side note: Is Devonta Smith the only WR that Roseman has ever drafted that hasn’t sucked?)

So, along with Mailata at LT, the Eagles will be starting an under-sized, undrafted 2^nd year player at LG (Willie Lampkin), an undrafted rookie at Center (Jake Majors), since Drew Kendall is hurt, Tyler Steen at RG and 3^rd round rookie Markel Bell at RT.  Did I mention that Bell gave up 3 sacks in his first NFL start last week?  Yeah, this is not the O-line of a Super Bowl team.

Look, I get what Roseman and the Eagles were thinking in trading Jurgens.  The team looks bad this season and the injuries are piling up after years of almost no injuries. Plus, they got a 5^th round pick next year and a 2^nd round pick in 2028.  That’s a lot for a center.  WR Devonta Smith and Barkley are also out with injuries, although neither has been put on the IL. The big offseason acquisition on defense, Jonathan Greenard missed the first three games of the season and is injured again.

This all makes the Eagles a younger team, by default.  But if the Eagles are going to go with a youth movement, then they might as well go all-in with that plan. 

How? 

Trade Jalen Hurts.

Unfortunately, trading Hurts would create issues with the salary cap, but if the Eagles don’t think they can win this year, why not just rip off the band-aid and do it either now or in the offseason. 

The Eagles now have two 1^st round picks and two 2^nd round picks in the 2028 draft, after the AJ Brown and Jurgens trades.  And that draft is looking like it might just have a few QBs worth drafting.  Honestly, I think that is exactly what Roseman is thinking.  He has to pay a few more of his young players on defense, especially Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell.

Additionally, Roseman can see what the Stepford fans refuse to admit.  He knows that Hurts can’t carry an offense and he sure as hell can’t run this new west coast offense the team just installed.  Actually, everybody but Eagles fans can see that Hurts is an average-at-best QB who was literally carried to the Super Bowl.  Sorry, Eagles fans, but Hurts is Eli Manning, except that Manning won TWO Super Bowls.  And there isn’t an Eagles fan alive who thinks Manning is a great QB.

Former Eagles Chris Long and Nick Foles recently said on their separate podcasts that Hurts isn’t playing well.  Foles actually compared Hurts to a high school player and not in a complimentary way.  He was mentioning how Hurts wasn’t seeing wide open receivers that any QB should see and isn’t throwing with any anticipation.  And Long wasn’t even that nice in his criticism of Hurts.

And let’s not forget that new Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion was about the Eagles tenth choice for OC.  All of their top choices wouldn’t even interview for the job because they know Hurts isn’t good.  Is Mannion any good?  I don’t know, but it’s hard to tell when you can see that head coach Nick Sirianni is interfering in the offense, since they are hardly ever under center and we were told there would be plenty of that under Mannion. 

Hurts refuses to run anymore and the Tush Push no longer works.  So, if he can’t run and we’re only left with Hurts throwing the ball, that is an issue.

Here are Hurts’ passing yards since 2021 when he became the full-time starter for the Eagles.

                              Yards                  NFL Rank

2021                   3,144                       21^st

2022                   3,701                       10^th

2023                   3,858                       14^th

2024                   2,903                       20^th

2025                   3,224                       16^th

So, in a league where good QBs throw for 4,000 yards and great QBs throw for 5,000 yards, Hurts has never even thrown for 4,000 yards.  He’s only been in the Top 10 in passing yards once in his entire career and he hasn’t even been in the top half of the NFL the last two years.  That’s not good.  Even worse, Hurts has thrown for less than 200 yards in 51 of his 86 games.  That’s pathetic.

It’s even worse when you realize that Hurts is being paid like a top QB.  He’s getting paid $32 million in 2026, $42 million in 2027 and $47.5 million in 2028.  He’s due $97.5 million in 2029, but that is one of those dummy voidable years Roseman loves to throw into contracts.  Now I suppose the dead cap hit of an estimated $139 million (which would be prorated for this season depending on when he would be traded) this season would be too much.  But that dead cap hit drops to $67 million next season.  Considering that the Dolphins took a $99 million cap hit last offseason to dump Tua Tagovailoa and the Broncos took a $85 million cap hit the year before to rid themselves of Russell Wilson, nothing is out of the question.

I know Eagles fans don’t want to admit that the team is in for a year or two (at least) of rebuilding.  Who would?  But it’s a lot easier to build a winning roster when your QB is on a rookie deal.  It’s time for the Eagles to embrace that reality.  Maybe they already have by trading a starter for future draft picks.

Without Hurts, the Eagles would have to turn to Tanner McKee or some other retread QB this year and/or next, which would inevitably lead to more losses.  That, in turn, would lead to better draft picks.  That’s better than getting a few meaningless wins this season with Hurts when you know (or SHOULD know) the team isn’t winning anything anyway. 

Sorry, Jalen.  We’ll always have that Super Bowl where you were the QB of a team carried by the best rushing attack in NFL history and a dominating defense.  But it’s time for you to go.