The Jalen Hurts Coachability Problem

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler spent weeks talking to more than a dozen sources in and around the Philadelphia Eagles, and the story he came back with puts Jalen Hurts at the center of a problem the team has been papering over for two years.

The Eagles won a Super Bowl last season. The passing game was not the reason. Saquon Barkley and a dominant running game carried them. Rich asks Fowler what's under the surface, and Fowler goes straight at it. The passing offense has struggled for two years. AJ Brown showed his frustration almost weekly. The reporting surfaced Hurts' coachability as an issue at times. He's rigid in what he wants.

Even during the Super Bowl run in 2024, Hurts and Kellen Moore had tense moments when Moore tried to install motions, shifts, and under center work. Hurts either hadn't done those things or didn't want to. That tension carried into this year with a new coordinator.

Fowler says sources told him you never quite know what's coming out of the huddle. Hurts might swap in his own play. He uses hand signals that weren't in the playbook or installed by coaches. Some quarterbacks have that latitude. Aaron Rodgers lives in it. But pair it with a run game that disappeared, a beat-up offensive line, and a slower group at every position, and the whole thing comes apart.

Rich pulls up two plays Fowler used as the frame. First, the fourth down against Green Bay where Nick Sirianni elected to go for it instead of kicking a long field goal. DeVonta Smith said after the game that number one, meaning AJ Brown, and Hurts kind of worked out their own play and decided to go deep. You can see Sirianni mouthing why on the sideline on the broadcast. Sirianni covered for his players publicly. Fowler thinks that moment tells the story.

The second is the season-ender against the 49ers. A huddle played out on national television after a timeout. Season on the line. Fowler's sources say Hurts recommended the play, but one source clarified he was asked what he wanted to run. He got queued up, then offered up four verticals. The 49ers sniffed it immediately. Game over.

Fowler reads the whole year as too many cooks in the kitchen. With Kellen Moore running it last year, they knew what they were. Moore parlayed that clarity into the Saints head job and did solid work with Tyler Shough. Shane Steichen three years before that, same story. When Philadelphia hires a top-shelf play caller and lets him drive the boat, the offense functions. When they go in-house under Sirianni's tree and pair it with a quarterback who likes shotgun and one-on-one routes against man, defenses adjust. Zone coverage dares Hurts to throw. AJ Brown disappears.

Fowler doesn't call Hurts a bad quarterback. He calls him established and good. He also calls him limited in specific ways. With another new coordinator in the building, the train is moving. Hurts has to jump on it.