Surprised by Jalen Hurts’ ascent? Former Eagles QB Josh McCown saw it coming three years ago

McCown, the last Eagles quarterback to play a home playoff game, shared a room (virtually) with Hurts at the start of his rookie season and could tell Hurts had what it took to stick.

Eagles quarterback Josh McCown throwing a pass against the Seattle Seahawks in a wild-card playoff game on Jan. 5, 2020.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Matt Breen

Published Jan. 16, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Josh McCown listened to the Eagles’ offensive meetings from his kitchen while packing lunches before sending his sons to school. He was one of the team’s backup quarterbacks for the first eight weeks of 2020 season, but the veteran held his place on the team’s practice squad while living at home in Texas.

He worked out on his own — McCown kept his arm loose in case the Eagles had a coronavirus outbreak and needed an emergency quarterback — and returned in the afternoon to watch a recording of the team practicing in South Philadelphia.

That is when McCown saw enough to be certain that Jalen Hurts, still an unknown after being selected before the season while the Eagles seemed committed to Carson Wentz, had a future in the NFL. And Hurts wasn’t even throwing a football.

McCown noticed Hurts on the video feed standing behind the play in practice and going through the motions while Wentz ran with the starters. Hurts, instead of simply watching the play from the sideline, took an imaginary snap, moved his feet, and acted as if he was executing a handoff or throwing to a receiver.

“I remember texting him about it,” McCown said. “I just loved that. My encouragement to him was just ‘Don’t lose that.’ To me, that’s where the desire matches what you believe in yourself. Like ‘I believe I’m a franchise quarterback. I’m going to start behaving like that right now.’ I was just so impressed.”

McCown’s virtual seat that season in the quarterback room — “I had my Microsoft Teams working,” he said — offered him a glimpse of the start of Hurts’ career.

The player who will lead the top-seeded Eagles into Saturday’s divisional-round game now appears to be the team’s franchise quarterback. But back then, Hurts was a backup to Wentz, who had signed a $128 million contract a year before Hurts arrived. That image from practice was enough for McCown to think Hurts was more than just an insurance policy or gadget player.

“There’s a little bit of humility that goes with that,” McCown said. “Like ‘I’m going to go back here and am I going to look like Tommy Try-hard back here doing the reps.’ But it’s like ‘I don’t care what anyone thinks. This is what I need to do.’ That was my encouragement to Jalen that season, ‘Find your process. You’re not expected to lead the franchise right now. Be a sponge. Soak it up. What are you going to do to be great in this league?’

“That’s what I loved from Jalen. This dude’s comfortable in his skin. He was like ‘This is what it’s going to take for me to be great. I don’t care what anyone else says. I’m going to do my process.’ I think that’s what that first year is so useful for, to cultivate that process.”

Hurts became the starter later that season, five weeks after McCown was signed off the practice squad by Houston.

Hurts’ production — QB rating, passing yards, and completion percentage — increased in both 2021 and 2022 as he improved both seasons as a passer after seeming limited in his rookie season. And even that development didn’t surprise McCown as he watched Hurts practice on TV before the 2020 Senior Bowl.

“I had no idea he was going to be in Philly, but I remember making notes to myself and saying this guy can play,” McCown said. “I remember watching him throw a circus route to the sidelines over someone and being like ‘Man, there’s a pro throw right there.’ It intrigues you and you want to learn more.”

McCown, 43, broke down Hurts’ play earlier this season on Scheme — the podcast he hosts with Josh Norris on the Underdog Fantasy network — and said two months ago that the Eagles were his favorite offense in the NFL.

He loves their quarterback, offensive line, wide receivers, and play calling. As the Eagles enter the playoffs, McCown still thinks the Eagles are dangerous. And it’s because Hurts can do more than just run.

“They’ve done a great job of growing him,” McCown said. “Those first years were tough, but they’ve done a great job of growing him and letting him learn football and utilizing his athleticism to move the football but not necessarily wholesale ‘We’re just going to run you.’ It’s not sustainable. It’s a violent sport and these guys will keep up. You have to be able to win from the pocket, and I think starting with Doug Pederson and then Nick Sirianni and Shane Steichen and the guys he’s with now, they’ve trained him and he can win from the pocket. That’s what’s so scary.

“It’s a perfect recipe for his skill set. They don’t overdo it as far as running him too much. When I watch him play, he’s sliding when he needs to and trying to avoid the hits. I was bummed about the shoulder getting dinged up, but that’s part of this game and part of the balance as they move forward and try to utilize him. He’s developed so much as a passer that that’s encouraging because I think that’s the sustainable winning model in the NFL.

“When we talk about winning late in the playoffs and winning NFC championship games, and winning all these things, it’s going to be in third down and two-minute drills. It’s going to be in those moments that you have to throw the ball to win.”

Until this weekend, McCown can say he is the last Eagles quarterback to throw a pass at a home playoff game. And the Eagles hope he’s still the last one to say he played one with a torn hamstring. McCown’s 24 passes in the 2018 wild-card loss against Seattle in relief of Wentz were the final throws of his career.

He played the next season for the Eagles and Texans but did not see any action. That wild-card loss, McCown said, was a fun day. But how was it fun playing with a hamstring that tore off the bone?

“Here’s why,” McCown said.

He reached the postseason in 2008 as a backup with Carolina and then narrowly missed the playoffs in consecutive years with Chicago. He grew up idolizing John Elway and Dan Marino, dreaming of one day being a franchise quarterback like them and playing deep into the postseason.

“When that doesn’t happen, you kind of refocus and shelve things,” said McCown, who played for nine teams after entering the league in 2002 as a third-round pick by Arizona. “Like ‘I’m not going to play in the playoffs.’ It just wasn’t for me.”

He retired after the 2018 season, took an analyst job with ESPN, and then left when the Eagles signed him during training camp in 2019 to back up Wentz. Five months later, he was on the field in a postseason game. He was 40 years old with a torn hamstring, but the dreams he tucked away had come true.

“To be in that moment was special for me because I really thought that had passed me,” he said.

McCown can still feel how crazy the crowd was that afternoon at the Linc. This weekend, the quarterback he watched act like he was the starter will experience that for himself. And McCown saw it coming from 1,400 miles away.

“The success for me isn’t surprising,” McCown said. “It’s not like ‘Oh, man. Jalen is so good.’ No he was doing this stuff and laying the foundation for this to be his future because he really believed in himself and put the work in. He had some bumps early on like every young quarterback does, but it was clear that after he got through those bumps, he was going to take off because he laid a foundation of ‘This is what it’s going to take for me to be great and I’m not going to waver from it because this game didn’t go well.’”

And McCown’s hamstring?

“It’s good,” he said. “If someone needs about 17 snaps, I might be able to give them to ‘em.”