Jalen Hurts and Co. want the Eagles to block out the ‘rat poison’ while preparing for the Lions
There are lofty expectations for the Eagles this season, but they're looking to block out all the noise and get to work in Detroit.
Jalen Hurts isn’t buying into the hype.
After three seasons with Alabama and one at Oklahoma, he’s familiar with the lofty expectations and external noise that can consume talented teams.
The Eagles quarterback is also familiar with the jarring visual first offered by Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban on the effect that external noise can have on players:
“Rat poison.”
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The Eagles held their first practice of Week 1 on Wednesday, preparing for Sunday’s season opener against the Lions in Detroit. After an offseason full of noteworthy additions, expectations for an Eagles team that went 9-8 last season have reached considerable heights.
Star receiver A.J. Brown figures to add a new dimension to an Eagles offense that was limited in the passing game last season. On defense, edge rusher Haason Reddick, cornerback James Bradberry, defensive tackle Jordan Davis, and defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson headline an influx of talent expected to fit better in second-year defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s scheme.
All of this has contributed to the Eagles joining the conversation of the NFC’s best teams and growing expectations that they could post double-digit wins.
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During their respective news conferences Wednesday, Hurts, veteran center Jason Kelce, and coach Nick Sirianni each talked about the challenge of ignoring the hype.
“Expectations are just that, they’re nothing,” Kelce said. “We have to go out there and play. The moment you’re comfortable in this league, somebody is coming for you. Mr. T in Rocky III, he’s going to be hunting us every single week. We haven’t won nothing yet. We’re not even the champion, so we better work our [butts] off.”
Said Hurts: “There’s a lot of rat poison, in short. It’s all external factors that we don’t want to pertain ourselves to or be involved with. It all comes back to pushing ourselves every day in practice, doing the things we need to do to maximize the day and win the days and to get better.”
Still, Hurts conceded that some of his teammates won’t be as adept at keeping the outside noise on the outside. The Eagles quarterback has been credited in the past for his ability to stay even-keeled regardless of what’s going on around him.
“Not everybody’s built that way,” he said. “Fortunately for me, I’m very familiar with this space. ... All of it means nothing. Expectations are just something you haven’t done yet.”
Kelce is one of the players admittedly aware of the outside noise, but he has a different way of compartmentalizing the expectations and the reality.
“I know everybody expects us to be Super Bowl champions in Philadelphia right now,” he said. “That can definitely happen, but it’s not going to happen being comfortable, I can guarantee you that.”
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Going into his second season at the helm, Sirianni said he’s been encouraging players to stay focused on the details of the day rather than the big picture, something that was reinforced by the Eagles’ trip to Detroit last season.
The Eagles took a 2-5 record into Ford Field and posted a 44-6 win in a game that salvaged the season. The Eagles fully committed to a run-first offense for the first time all year and went on to win six of their next eight games en route to a playoff berth.
“You go about your business every day forgetting what happened in the past or forgetting what somebody says about you,” Sirianni said. “They say we stink; cool, we’re going to work the way we need to work. They say we’re really good; cool, we’re going to work the way we’re going to work. They say we’re average; cool, we’re going to work the way we’re supposed to work.”
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Sirianni said the lesson he took away from last year’s blowout win was to focus on the task at hand instead of looking at the big picture.
“I can’t look at the top of the mountain and say, ‘I have to climb that,’” he said. “Because sometimes the fog, and it’s so cloudy, you can’t see the top of the mountain. It’s just what am I climbing today. I don’t want to say that’s where we said that, but that’s kind of where maybe it hit me in that going into that game last year is like, focus here, be here, only in this part.”
Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino preview the team’s season opener against the Detroit Lions. Watch at Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday