Inside Jalen Hurts’ takeover as the Eagles quarterback and an ‘awkward’ season with Carson Wentz

Jalen Hurts was drafted to be a backup quarterback to Carson Wentz, but from Day 1 with the Eagles, he prepared as if he was the starter.

In most levels of football, backups are taught to train as if they will play, especially at quarterback, when all it takes is one casualty for there to be an elevation. But Hurts, according to teammates and coaches, took that premise to the extreme during his rookie season.

“He was in that building until 11 o’clock at night on many days,” former Eagles assistant Marty Mornhinweg said. “The night before the game, he’d go back into the film room, and I know this because I was with him. And I’d go, ‘Hey, big fella, you better get some … dang sleep.’

“And he’d go, ‘Sleep is secondary to me. Preparation is the key.’ ”

For many, Hurts’ preparedness showed that he would be ready when and if his time would come. But for some, the quiet confidence in his approach unnerved Wentz and played a role — along with many other factors — in his disintegration over the course of the 2020 season.

Wentz, on the surface, had little reason to look over his shoulder. He had signed a $100 million-plus contract extension the year before, was coming off a playoff appearance, and had been given organizational preferential treatment few Eagles, if any, had ever received.

But a perfect storm of increasing pressure, roster miscalculations, coaching malaise, and mounting injuries — not to mention a pandemic — created an environment of unease for Wentz and led to one of the worst regressions a quarterback had ever experienced in the NFL.

The starter-backup relationship often can be a tenuous one, but Wentz’s struggles and Hurts’ natural assuredness altered the dynamic. How could it not? And when Wentz finally was benched for Hurts, there would be no turning back.

“It was a tough year on a number of levels, and then to stack [on] that, obviously, it seems like Carson and Jalen had some — it was an awkward situation, I guess, a little bit,” center Jason Kelce said. “But there was so much going on that year, so many negative things.

“When you go 4-11-1, there’s a lot going on.”

“I could have been better as a person, as a teammate, lots of things that you do take for granted.”

A lot has occurred in the two years since. Wentz forced his way out of Philadelphia and was traded to the Colts. Hurts became the Eagles’ full-time starter. And now they meet on Sunday with Wentz, since dealt to Washington, playing for a divisional rival.

The quarterbacks, of course, won’t be on the field at the same time, but there will be comparisons made. The 29-year-old Wentz has more reason to have “the feels,” considering his five seasons in Philly, which he described as a “whirlwind” on Wednesday.

“We’ll find out,” he said when asked if there will be added emotion facing his old team.

The 1-1 Commanders are home, but fans of the 2-0 Eagles are expected to travel in droves to FedEx Field. It’s certain Wentz will hear boos. He has become a villain to many who once glorified him. It would be convenient for some to paint him as such vs. Hurts, who is currently experiencing a career arc similar to Wentz’s first few seasons.

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The Eagles don’t likely win a Super Bowl without Wentz’s MVP-worthy regular season. But the season-ending knee injury he suffered in December 2017, and many of the other subsequent obstacles he faced, revealed for some at the NovaCare Complex his issues with accountability.

Wentz declined to re-examine why it went south with the Eagles, but he did offer some self-reflection.

“I could have been better as a person, as a teammate, lots of things that you do take for granted,” Wentz said to Washington-area reporters. “And so, I definitely thank God for the experiences I’ve had, though sometimes they’re dark or sometimes they’re not how I envisioned them to be.

“But it’s allowed me to grow as a person.”

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Hurts, 24, hasn’t yet had to endure the scrutiny that comes with time. He did experience a notorious demotion at Alabama. But he seemed to have taken the lessons from his previous travails and applied them to having to sit behind Wentz.

“I learned a lot. It’s something I preach to … the younger guys now,” Hurts said of his rookie season. “Take advantage of the opportunities you have when you’re not playing because it pays dividends in the end. You just have to be patient, be a sponge, and soak it all in.”

COVID-19, of course, made connecting difficult for almost everyone at NovaCare. Hurts “was drafted into the chaos,” as running back Miles Sanders said, and, with no offseason workouts, he didn’t meet Wentz in person until training camp.

Meetings were held virtually, locker stalls were spaced, and both quarterbacks were often preoccupied with their own circumstances during the late summer.

“Jalen didn’t say jack in meetings at the start,” Mornhinweg said. “He was just taking it all in. He didn’t ask questions. Certainly when he became the starter, he engaged more. But he took himself as the backup. He’s diligent. He’s just going to keep his mouth shut.”

Maybe if there were more opportunities to interact, Wentz would have offered more assistance. But he mostly took the same approach Sam Bradford had taken with him five years prior when the roles were reversed: He would try to lead by example.

“Ever since he’s been here he’s had a leadership presence to him. He’s that alpha male. People are drawn toward him. You could see that right away.”

But Hurts often was left to his own devices, particularly by then-coach Doug Pederson and his primary offensive coaches, who had to get Wentz ready for the season. So Mornhinweg, hired that offseason as a senior consultant, took it upon himself, he said, to train Hurts, especially if he was needed.

Asked when they first noticed that Hurts was going above and beyond the norm for a backup, tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Boston Scott recalled Hurts as the last player on the field following Friday’s practices.

“We’d get done practice and while the rest of us were in the cafeteria eating, Jalen would still be on the field going through the script with [assistant Joe Pannunzio] because he only got the scout team reps,” Goedert said. “In case something happened, he was going to be ready.”

While some misinterpreted Hurts’ reserved demeanor as arrogance, Mornhinweg said, some of the younger players who were on the scout team or were drafted in the same class, like receivers Quez Watkins and John Hightower, gravitated to the Houston-area native.

Others noticed, as well. Scott described Hurts as “cool people” because he was approachable. Kelce said he “talked to Jalen a lot, even though Carson was the starter,” partly because it was his responsibility as the center, and also because he was a captain.

But other veterans gravitated toward Hurts because of his charisma.

“Ever since he’s been here, he’s had a leadership presence to him,” Goedert said. “He’s that alpha male. People are drawn toward him. You could see that right away. It was never anything disrespectful. He was just being himself.”

Mornhinweg, who coached in the NFL for over 25 years, described Hurts as an “old school throwback.” He said any time he would hammer the quarterback on a mistake, he’d respond simply with a “yes, sir.” He might not say much, but he had a private confidence that “seeps out of his pores,” per the coach, and players can only respond to.

“Jalen is built like, I don’t care if it happens this year — because this year it won’t likely happen, but the next year or the next — but I’m going to crush whoever my competition is,’” Mornhinweg said. “That’s his mentality. And it’s a great mentality.”

When Hurts arrived in Philly, Wentz had as much clout as any Eagles player in recent memory. In retrospect, the organization gave him far too much, several team sources, past and present, said.

It started early. During his first preseason, Wentz missed a turn on the way from the team hotel to Lincoln Financial Field and was late for warm-ups. Owner Jeffery Lurie and other organizational decision-makers decided that Wentz should have his own police escort to the stadium, team sources said.

It remained that way throughout his tenure, even though no player before and since had ever received such treatment. Star players might get additional security or other benefits, but Wentz had unprecedented sway, and it only increased as the Eagles tried to compensate after Nick Foles stepped in at quarterback and won the title.

The pressures of not eclipsing Foles’ accomplishment multiplied with each season, especially after injuries prematurely ended his 2018 and 2019 campaigns. Wentz got off to a quick start in the first half at Washington in the 2020 opener, but he quickly spiraled and the losses mounted.

The offense had become predictable and Wentz wasn’t comfortable with some of the changes, a source familiar with his thinking said. Pederson had given his quarterback great freedom at the line, but Wentz started checking out of plays and was going rogue in the eyes of some staffers.

His biggest problem was that he wouldn’t take responsibility for many of his mistakes, various sources have said. “He can deflect with the best of them,” one team source said.

Hurts, meanwhile, was on the field for a few plays a game as a decoy or to utilize his mobility. But it became less and less as Wentz’s play dipped even further, and many started wondering if he was worried about his backup.

“At that point, they had just paid him, so I wouldn’t have been trippin’,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “At that point, if I’m Carson, I’m not worried, I’m making sure I’m on my stuff. … But eventually, he did lose his job, and some of it was having an attitude with it.

“You know how it go. You got to be cool.”

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Most in the locker room were concerned about their own performances to get caught up in the controversy. Players just want to win. But Wentz, who still had his supporters, lost a few key members. And when Hurts made his first start against the Saints, the Eagles had their first victory in five games.

“A lot of guys were excited because Carson was struggling,” Graham said. “You just want to win and, at the end of the day, you’re just trying to find a way. And I felt like when he did come in, people at that time just wanted to see what he could do.

“Whenever anybody struggles — shoot, if I’m struggling they got a guy behind me that can get it done — people want to see a change. That’s part of the competition.”

After the season, Wentz made it clear he wanted out. The Eagles obliged and took on the largest salary cap hit in dead money for the 2021 season when they sent him to Indianapolis for what would become a first-round draft pick.

He performed better under coach Frank Reich, but the Colts collapsed down the stretch and missed the playoffs, and Wentz was dealt to Washington. Now on his third team in three seasons, the narrative of his reported stubbornness has seemingly been inflamed.

“I haven’t found that,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said to Philly-area reporters when asked about Wentz’s hard-headedness. “It’s a two-sided thing. You know what I’m saying? It’s not just about the individual. It’s also about the people that are there. And, again, you want to work with people, you don’t want to fight with people.

“And this dude has been nothing but cooperative and been exactly the kind of guy we hoped for.”

Many of the dozen or so Eagles who played with Wentz said they still communicate with him occasionally. Hurts didn’t address whether they still had a relationship, but said there was a “mutual respect between the two of us.”

They’re now both NFL starters, despite the different paths they took.