Jalen Hurts has grown as a passer, and the Eagles are winning without heavily relying on the run game

The sum of Jalen Hurts’ experience has started to pay dividends.

The Eagles quarterback was named the NFC offensive player of the week Wednesday for his four-touchdown performance against the Washington Commanders, marking the first time he received the honor this season and the third time in his career.

Even with a knee injury clearly affecting his production as a runner and scrambler, Hurts has been putting up career numbers as a passer in the last few games. Against Washington, he completed 29 of his 38 passes for 319 yards and four scores with a career-low four rushing attempts comprised of two kneel-downs, one quarterback sneak and a lone 7-yard scramble.

Hurts’ quarterback rating of 135.7 was the second-highest in his career, coming just shy of the 140.6 rating he put up against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 7 of last year.

“I think it’s just pure execution,” Hurts said. “Just going out there and making it go. I don’t measure numbers and all of that based off of our success, it’s just about winning. Obviously a lot of great things are going on, I can acknowledge that, but it means nothing if you don’t win.”

Hurts had a similarly effective performance against the Miami Dolphins two weeks ago, even when he tweaked the left knee injury just before halftime and put on a brace before the second half started.

He finished the Dolphins game 23-for-31 for 279 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception with just 21 rushing yards.

“We feel like he’s been going to the right place with the football, making accurate throws,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “Making big-time throws in clutch moments.”

Pointing to his experience coaching Philip Rivers with the Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts, Sirianni said Hurts’ growth as a passer is coming partly due to his years of experience playing against a variety of defensive systems.

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That experience might help explain why he’s on pace to set a career high in several categories, including passing yards, touchdowns, and completion percentage. It’s also worth noting Hurts’ success rate, which measures how frequently a pass gains enough yards to keep an offense in manageable down and distance, has recovered after a slow start. He’s at 46.2%, which is essentially identical to his career-best rate last year.

“He’ll continue to get better with the more reps that he gets,” Sirianni said. “I know that’s crazy to say when he’s started for three years now, but it is [true]. It’s this memory bank of all these different plays that he’s run against different defenses and knowing where to go with the football more and more consistently.”

Said Hurts: “I remember sitting here in this same room as a first-year starter. Things weren’t going great, but I said, ‘Experience is the biggest teacher.’ That doesn’t change, that’s the truest thing. When you see these different things out there, when you have more experiences to call on, it’s definitely always helpful.”

After a few dominant rushing performances earlier this season, the Eagles’ running game has hit a snag.

The offense has been held under 100 rushing yards in each of the last three games and logged just 59 yards against the Commanders on Sunday for its lowest total of the season.

Hurts’ absence in the running game while dealing with a knee injury the last two games has been apparent. He hasn’t been featured in zone reads or designed quarterback runs since halftime of the Dolphins game, which is part of the drop in production.

D’Andre Swift, the team’s leading rusher, had 16 carries for 57 yards and a touchdown against Washington, while Kenneth Gainwell logged two carries for minus-4 yards and a costly red-zone fumble.

Sirianni said the heavy reliance on the passing game was to blame for the lack of production on the ground.

“We felt like, last game, to win the game and score 30-plus points, which we did, it was to throw the ball,” Sirianni said. “When you look at it just as stats, that’s fair, but we’re always trying to put ourselves in position to win the game. Period. And if we have to throw it 50 times, we’ll throw it 50 times.”

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It’s fair to acknowledge the offensive production as a whole when measuring the Eagles’ lack of rushing production, but the lack of efficiency is something they’ll need to iron out eventually.

Offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said his group needs to “keep pounding at it” to find a solution. He also conceded that heavier box counts on run-pass-option plays have contributed to fewer running plays as opposing defenses commit to taking away the team’s ground game.

“The beauty of the RPO stuff is it plays out of how it plays out,” Johnson said. “Earlier in the year, when we were calling them, we were getting a lot of handoff reads. As of late, it’s kind of been reversed. We always just talk about playing each play independently when it comes to that stuff and being able to make the correct decision in that game, because there is some gray area.”