The Eagles are great with Jalen Hurts. They showed against the Cowboys they might be good enough without him.
It's worth remembering that the Eagles have a long history of surviving, even thriving, after losing their starting quarterback to injury.
There wasn’t much that was aesthetically pleasing about watching Kenny Pickett play quarterback Sunday. He wears gloves, for instance, because he finds that they’re more comfortable and help him better grip a football. But no quarterback who wears gloves appears as graceful and fluid throwing the ball as a quarterback who doesn’t wear them. What’s more, on every pass, whether it was a go route to DeVonta Smith or a screen to Saquon Barkley, Pickett seemed to be putting all his might into every throw. Nothing looked easy for him.
None of these observations meant that Pickett had a poor game in the Eagles’ 41-7 romp over the Cowboys, in the victory that clinched for them the NFC East title and at least the No. 2 seed in the conference playoff bracket. On the contrary, despite some skittish moments early on, Pickett was excellent: 10 for 15, 143 yards, one passing touchdown, one Tush Push touchdown. His style of play was reminiscent of a previous Eagles backup QB, Jeff Garcia, and his production was, too.
Pickett left the game with just less than nine minutes remaining in the third quarter after taking a shot to his already-sore ribs from the Cowboys’ Micah Parsons. But then Tanner McKee stepped in for Pickett, tossed a touchdown to A.J. Brown on a beautiful back-shoulder throw, zipped another TD to Smith later, and the Eagles just rolled along.
“We knew who we had,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “We knew Tanner was good. We knew Kenny played in this offense before, so the comfort was already there. Now you just want to see it put together in the right way, and them boys did it in the right way.”
So hello, 13-3. Goodbye, any worries about Jalen Hurts’ absence. At least for the moment, and it might be only a moment. Had Hurts suffered a knee sprain or bruised shoulder last Sunday against the Washington Commanders, everyone would have a clearer sense of his immediate future. There would be a more reliable and defined timeline for his return. But he didn’t sprain his knee or bruise his shoulder. He was concussed, and though he wanted to get back into action immediately, there’s really no telling when he’ll be able to play again. He might pass the league-mandated protocol in the next few days and be ready to go for the postseason’s first round, in two weeks, or … the Eagles’ medical staff might not clear him at all. Head trauma is that unpredictable, and it demands that much patience and care.
With Hurts at full health, the Eagles are an obvious favorite to reach and, once there, win the Super Bowl. And in most such situations, when a quarterback who is that valuable to his team goes down, that team would be so crippled that it would no longer be considered a championship contender. Take Patrick Mahomes away from the Kansas City Chiefs or Josh Allen from the Buffalo Bills, of course, and those teams aren’t nearly so formidable, and the same principle applies to those QBs who are a tier below Mahomes and Allen: Jared Goff with the Detroit Lions, say, or Hurts with the Eagles.
» READ MORE: The Eagles will be fine ... as long as Jalen Hurts is.
Even Sunday’s lopsided outcome at Lincoln Financial Field doesn’t necessarily mean the Eagles would be just hunky-dory in the playoffs if Hurts is still sidelined. The Cowboys didn’t have Dak Prescott or CeeDee Lamb or Trevon Diggs, and they weren’t exactly tearing up the NFL this season when those three were healthy, anyway.
Remember, though: The Eagles have a long history of surviving, even thriving, after losing their starting quarterback to injury. In 2002, Donovan McNabb broke his ankle, and the Eagles kept winning with Koy Detmer and A.J. Feeley. In 2006, Garcia filled in for McNabb and became a folk hero for his contributions to an out-of-nowhere run to a division title and the NFC divisional round. In 2010, Michael Vick replaced Kevin Kolb and played at a level that he had never approached before. And no one around here needs reminding of what happened after Carson Wentz had his left knee torn up in early December 2017. That overwhelming doubt that usually accompanies seeing a star quarterback limp or stagger to the sideline? Yeah, Nick Foles caused a lot of it to evaporate forever.
Those episodes don’t have much direct relevance to this particular Eagles team in this particular Eagles season. But they do serve as good reminders that, whether Pickett or McKee or Ian Book turns out to be the one taking snaps in another meaningful game, there’s still a chance, maybe a good one, that this team — especially this team, with this collection of skill-position standouts, with this offensive line, with this defense, with the smart and stable coordinators on Nick Sirianni’s staff — can withstand being without Hurts.
“It’s always good to have depth, and that year we won, we had depth,” said Graham, the longest-tenured Eagles player. “You look at it in the sense of, everybody just hopes that when they come in, there’s no drop-off. You want them to win. You want them to look good. You just hope the play is what it’s supposed to be. Man, the boys did a good job today.”
That essential infrastructure is in place. Sunday reaffirmed it. The Eagles have been here before. These Eagles look like they can handle it.