Jeffrey Lurie says he knew Jalen Hurts would be a superstar in the Super Bowl
Sometimes it is better to be lucky than right, but Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie believes the latter applies to the Eagles' decision to draft Jalen Hurts, even though many were skeptical at the time.
Jeffrey Lurie had finished his victory lap, punched his Super Bowl ticket, and now he was ready to set the record straight. He pulled me aside and let me have it.
“I’ve got to correct you on one thing,” he said, taking my arm in his hand and guiding me away from the pack of reporters clustered around him in the locker room after the Eagles gutted the 49ers in the NFC championship game.
Oh great. What now?
“Oh, nothing like that,” he said. “Nothing bad.”
OK ...
“You once wrote we drafted Jalen as a gadget player,” Lurie said.
Yes. Several times. You’d just committed $128 million to locking up Carson Wentz for four extra years, and Taysom Hill was killing it in New Orleans, and Howie Roseman acknowledged the night you drafted Hurts that he had talents like Hill’s.
So, no gadget?
“The opposite is true. It’s completely opposite,” Lurie said. “We thought he had a huge upside. A huge upside, with a live arm, and a great athlete.”
A high ceiling, then?
“HIGH,” Lurie replied, raising his right hand above his head, “HIGH.”
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Fine.
This is easy to claim now that Jalen Hurts, the 53rd overall pick in the 2020 draft, is an MVP finalist. This was easy to claim on Jan. 29, after Lurie and Hurts had shared a stage at Lincoln Financial Field and held the George Halas Trophy together after Hurts had won a third game in a row against playoff teams with an injured shoulder by aggregate scores of 91-30.
Easy to claim ... and hard to not believe.
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To be fair, no one from the Eagles has said, on the record, that Hurts was drafted to be a gimmick player who touched the ball about four times a game. Of course, that’s exactly what he was for the first 11½ games of his career (he replaced Wentz as the starter in the second half of Game 12). He was Wentz’s backup, but the Eagles also designed and called plays where Hurts replaced Wentz on the field and acted, essentially, as an option QB ... who, really, had one option. Hurts threw three passes in his first 11 NFL games but ran 12 times.
What looks obvious and seems logical sometimes simply is not, and Lurie knows this.
Jeffrey has these little heart-to-hearts with me every so often. He’s a lot like a father imparting wisdom; gentle, but firm. He always does his research, and he always refers to the misperception precisely and completely.
And he usually finishes these corrections with a statement that feels like a rap on the knuckles.
“We loved him. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have bothered,” he said, not so gently anymore. “Because you’re right. Draft this guy? As a quarterback? In the second round? That’s messed up.”
To be sure, it seemed overcautious to use a second-round pick on a player you hoped never played. This was doubly true in 2020, when the Eagles needed defensive backs, linebackers, and a running back, and intriguing players like Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn, Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson, and Commanders running back Antonio Gibson remained on the board.
All were drafted within 13 picks after Hurts. All have been productive.
None has been nearly as valuable as Hurts. He was clearly the second-best quarterback in the NFL this season, and, arguably, even more valuable than Chiefs megastar Patrick Mahomes, who should win his second MVP award Thursday.
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Lurie seldom admits that he pays attention to media narratives (they all pay very close attention). He does, however, occasionally steer a few misdirected people in the press, with whom he has cordial relationships, in a direction he considers to be closer to the truth.
Once not long ago, when an Eagles coach had abandoned the pass-first philosophy Lurie so dearly loves and adapted a wildly successful run-first attack, I’d been told by an NFL source that Lurie was conflicted. I wrote it here, and I spoke it everywhere.
Not long after, Lurie let me know that he needed to speak with me. A week later he took the time to tell me that he was not conflicted; that winning was all that mattered, no matter how it happened.
I desisted.
I’ve covered Lurie and the Eagles for 28 years. This happens with me about once every two or three seasons. He has never steered me wrong. He’s never spun me. Never lied.
And, so, I’ll take his latest statement at face value.
The Eagles hoped that Wentz, after back and knee injuries and at least one bad concussion, would hold up for the life of his contract, which ran through 2024.
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The Eagles hoped that Hurts would provide them low-cost insurance for at least four seasons. Considering Lurie green-lighted the deals that cost the Eagles about $9 million a year for the three seasons from 2016-18 to secure Chase Daniel and Nick Foles, Hurts’ four-year, $6 million contract was a superb value — but only if it locked down a real talent.
The Eagles hoped that Hurts was a real talent. In case Wentz got badly injured, which he didn’t, or became unemployable, which he did, Hurts had to have the goods to lead a team of accomplished veterans with Super Bowl rings. They were convinced that Hurts had the goods. That’s why they were comfortable trading Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts and absorbing the largest dead salary-cap hit in NFL history in 2021.
None of this explains why the Eagles reportedly were involved in trade talks for disgraced former Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson each of the past two offseasons. Roseman has not denied that the talks happened, but league sources told The Inquirer in 2021 that Lurie did, in fact, push Roseman to prioritize Hurts’ development in that 2021 season.
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You have to believe Lurie is telling the truth. He hates being cast as a meddlesome owner, but he’s always been very involved in choosing Eagles quarterbacks. He’s had a few misfires, but he’s been right on plenty of QBs, from Rodney Peete to Donovan McNabb to Michael Vick to Foles, twice; to Wentz, pre-injuries; and, now, Hurts. What seemed foolhardy entering the 2021 season — starting Hurts with a pretty good team around him — seems perfectly logical now.
You don’t waste a year of the careers of Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, and Darius Slay on a gadget quarterback. You spend that year hoping your young quarterback climbs closer to his high ceiling.
This season Jalen Hurts had a 101.5 passer rating, completed 66.5% of his passes, accrued 35 total touchdowns, and, most impressively, has won 16 of his 17 starts, the past two in the playoffs.
That high ceiling Lurie saw at the 2020 draft is getting closer and closer every day.