Jalen Hurts needs leadership help from younger Eagles like A.J. Brown, Haason Reddick, DeVonta Smith

The Eagles lost their last two games because their play lacked urgency. Don’t blame their coaches. Blame the players. They are responsible for their own preparation and motivation. They lead each other.

The players aren’t 18-year-olds anymore, worried about acne and calculus. They’re not 22-year-olds, worried about the NFL draft and agents. They’re grown-man millionaires, hired to perform at or near their peak just 17 days a year.

If the Eagles hope to succeed both this season and beyond, then the team can no longer be Jason Kelce’s. Or Fletcher Cox’s. Or Brandon Graham’s. They’ve served well, but their time has passed, and their best efforts have failed pretty much all year. The Eagles are 10-3, but they haven’t played particularly well all season, and the playoffs loom like inevitable failure. Four games remain to salvage what should be a second straight Super Bowl season. If that is to happen, then the leadership torch must pass this week.

Sure, it’s already Jalen Hurts’ team. Hurts needs lieutenants. Young lieutenants. A posse that can ride with him for years, not months.

This must become A.J. Brown’s team, too. DeVonta Smith’s team. Landon Dickerson’s team. Haason Reddick’s team, or Josh Sweat’s team, or both.

They are the cornerstones. They’ve been coasting on the coattails of their mentors and peers, but now they must take the lead.

You can blame the coaches for poor schemes or predictable play-calling, but the coaches didn’t false start twice on the opening drive at Dallas on Sunday night. The coaches didn’t cough up three open-field fumbles by Hurts, Brown, and Smith, three guys making a combined $375 million — guys whose No. 1 directive is to not fumble.

Brown’s postgame response?

“[Bleep], man, we’re trying to make plays, man.”

That is the opposite of accountability. For his part, Hurts took full responsibility for his fumble on the first possession. Therein lies the difference between leadership and its absence.

» READ MORE: ‘Hungry Dogs’ dominated by Dallas as undisciplined Eagles fly back to Philly, their tails between their legs

Brown also committed an offensive pass interference penalty on the play that preceded Hurts’ fumble. Smith had the same penalty the week before, when the Birds lost to the 49ers. There hasn’t been much discussion about the egregious errors from the stars.

That’s the biggest difference between Doug Pederson’s teams that went to the playoffs three times in a row, beginning with a Super Bowl title run in 2017. Unlike Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, Pederson played in the NFL, and he charged his players with policing themselves. That’s the culture Sirianni inherited when he replaced Pederson in 2021. As Kelce, Cox, and Graham age, that culture is diminishing.

Again: Professional athletes don’t listen to coaches, and they do not care about fans. Players are accountable to players, and players only. They either form bonds that galvanize them or they play for a paycheck. Since the middle of 2016, when the players found unity through mutiny against Pederson, who’d criticized the effort of Zach Ertz and Rodney McLeod, the Eagles have been galvanized. Kelce, Fletch, BG, and a handful of others stormed the coach’s office, complained about his accusations, and left understanding that they were their only allies. They formed a bond that won a Super Bowl.

That bond is weakening.

The Eagles were mostly Malcolm Jenkins’ team until he left after the 2021 season. It never fully was Carson Wentz’s team, and that’s OK. It never fully was Donovan McNabb’s team, either, but that’s OK, too, since those teams belonged to Brian Dawkins.

Dawkins had McNabb and Jon Runyan and Tra Thomas and Jeremiah Trotter. Jenkins had Wentz and Cox and Kelce and Graham and Ertz and Lane Johnson.

Dawkins and Jenkins had help. Hurts can’t do everything.

» READ MORE: The Eagles should hire Frank Reich to save their season

Hurts needs Reddick to step in and speak up and stop worrying about being underpaid as one of the league’s best pass rushers. Maybe that can be Sweat instead; after all, after Sunday’s demolition by Dallas, Sweat told The Inquirer, “I’m not used to our group not taking care of each other when it comes to pressure.” That’s a form of leadership. So, too, was the report from JAKIB Sports reporter Derrick Gunn that unnamed players told him that the offense has become too “predictable.” At least they’ve recognized the core issues and vocalized their feelings to the public.

Now, they need to do that to each other.

Hurts needs Brown to stand down; Brown’s sideline antics are the opposite of leadership. He needs Smith to stand up; he’s going to be making Brown’s money when Brown is gone, so he’d better start earning it when he’s not on the field.

Hurts needs Dickerson to become what Kelce has been. Dickerson has the candor, personality, intelligence, and talent to be an all-time Eagle. The genius of Kelce’s leadership is that he doesn’t lie about anyone’s performance, including the quarterback or the coach. Kelce learned long ago that transparency trumps spin. He knows we get to see that game tape, too.

Occasionally, less and less these days, a professional coach can inspire. Nick Sirianni ain’t that guy.

Sideline theatrics and tunnel taunting undermine any gravitas he might otherwise have earned. He’s not the levelheaded leader in the mold of Bill Belichick or Andy Reid. He’s not their caliber of motivator; nobody’s running through a brick wall for the T-shirt coach.

Sirianni refuses to change, convinced that his “authenticity” resonates more than would measured reticence. Maybe he’s right. After all, he’s 35-16 including playoffs, with that Super Bowl appearance. His method is working.

This, here, has to come from the players. The younger players.

The long-term future of this franchise will be influenced by what happens in this short-term stretch. By the third week in January, we’ll know better what sort of leaders the Eagles have, or we’ll know for certain what sort of leaders they still need.