MVP favorite Jalen Hurts shows leadership for Eagles as Carson Wentz gets benched in Washington

Jalen Hurts lives leadership every second of his life. He leads by example. He leads by inclusion. He leads with love.

Carson Wentz wouldn’t know leadership if he worked beside it for three years, and he did, considering Nick Foles and Jalen Hurts were his backups for three of his last four seasons in Philly. He wouldn’t know leadership if it gave him his chance in the NFL, and it did; Wentz repaid Doug Pederson by getting him fired.

It was fitting, then, that on the day Jalen Hurts’ star rose higher than ever, Carson Wentz’s career as an NFL starter likely came to an end.

Hurts broke the Eagles’ franchise rushing record for quarterbacks last Sunday with 157 yards, and it’s a franchise with the best stable of running quarterbacks in NFL history: Michael Vick, Randall Cunningham, and Donovan McNabb. Hurts moved his team to 10-1 for the fourth time in franchise history. Hurts cemented himself as an MVP favorite, along with Patrick Mahomes and a dynamic former college teammate.

Wentz forced a trade from Philadelphia to Indianapolis in 2021 after he was benched in Game 12 of 2020. After failing in Indy, Wentz was dumped to Washington in March. Now he’s been benched. Again.

He went on injured reserve after Game 6 this season, when the team was 2-4. He watched Taylor Heinicke go 5-1 as his replacement. Wentz was eligible to be activated from IR last week, but the Commanders didn’t bother. He might be active Sunday at the Giants — he’s been ill this week — but Wentz won’t play again this season unless there’s an emergency.

Wentz has become a $28 million backup.

He’ll probably be holding a clipboard for the foreseeable future, but almost certainly not in D.C. Under his current contract he’d cost the Commanders around $26 million in 2023 and $27 million in 2024.

Meanwhile, Hurts, his unheralded, unappreciated backup in 2020, is looking at a $250 million payday.

» READ MORE: Is a contract extension for Jalen Hurts inevitable? Even the Eagles don’t know, but here are some possible answers.

Why?

Because, in almost every way, Hurts is the anti-Wentz.

In Hurts’ eyes, he’s the least important player in his locker room. In Hurts’ eyes, every coach can help him improve. In Hurts’ eyes, nothing matters — not stats, not style, not his Pro Bowl profile — besides winning the next play.

Not the next game. The next play. Winning the game might follow if the next play is won. And he believes that he cannot win by himself; not the next play, or the next game.

Unlike Wentz, he is no hero. Unlike Wentz, he trusts his teammates.

This truth was never more evident than last Sunday night. He’d set the record and he’d won the game, and, in a rare moment of passion, Hurts was willing to reveal how:

“This team enjoys the feeling of winning,” he said. “We’ve talked about some of these things. Execution fuels emotion. You go out there and you talk about something or your coach is on your butt about something throughout the week — ‘You need to do it this way,” or ‘You need to do it like this,’ — you go out and execute it at the most important moment of the game, execution fuels emotion.”

Hurts does his job. You do your job. Everybody benefits. Everybody invests. And everybody matters every minute, because no one is promised tomorrow in the NFL.

“We do all of this stuff together. We go to work every day together, we lift together, we run together, we feel pain together, we feel these joyous moments together,” Hurts continued. “I know, in a profession where things change all the time, we really want to appreciate the time we are having now and just take advantage of our moments, take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves, and just play ball the way we want to play ball.”

For context:

This was an answer to a question about the offensive line, and how it likes to run-block. But Hurts has one message:

Be your best, and I’ll be my best, and if we win, WE win.

This is in jarring contrast to Wentz.

In 2017, as Nick Foles led the Eagles to the Super Bowl after Wentz shredded his knee, Wentz pouted so pointedly that veteran running back Darren Sproles had to reprimand him. In 2018, Wentz ignored certain teammates and bullied his coaches. By 2020, he was angry that the Eagles drafted Hurts in the second round to serve as his backup, and his freelancing on the field and his aloofness off it made his teammates eager for him to leave.

Wentz’s main complaint lay in the Eagles’ clear lack of faith in him. He admitted that he was convinced he wanted out of Philly as soon as he was benched. So, after halftime of Game 12 in Green Bay — a game with playoff implications and a game Wentz might have had to re-enter — he already was checking out.

That type of selfish pettiness contrasts sharply with Hurts’ history.

Nick Saban benched Hurts at halftime of the 2017 national championship game, and Hurts watched backup Tua Tagovailoa lead Alabama to the title. Hurts could have transferred after that season. He didn’t. He served as Tua’s backup and supporter. Then, when Tagovailoa left the SEC championship game with a leg injury, Hurts entered and led a two-touchdown comeback over Georgia.

Tagovailoa is now an MVP candidate for the Dolphins.

Carson cared most about Carson. He’s not unique. Most NFL quarterbacks are narcissists. Wentz is just nothing like his successor.

Consider how Hurts handled Jordan Mailata in Mailata’s worst moment.

Mailata gave up two sacks Nov. 3 at Houston. After the second one, Hurts found Mailata on the sideline. This is the moment where Tom Brady or Peyton Manning would scream at their left tackle. Not Hurts. Quietly, Hurts encouraged Mailata to trust his technique, then told him, “Give me one more second.”

Mailata has given up one sack in the three games since, and he averaged an outstanding 77.0 pass-blocking grade, according to profootballfocus.com, his best stretch of the season.

“I like Carson,” a former Eagles lineman told me this week, “but I can’t see Carson doing that.”

That isn’t necessarily a criticism of Wentz. Not many quarterbacks would approach that moment the way Hurts did. Wentz likely would have ignored Mailata, but then, so would have Cunningham. McNabb and Vick might would have given Mailata a little pat on the rump.

Jalen Hurts? He made sure he led Mailata.

He made sure he loved Mailata.

Jalen Hurts is just ... different.