The zone running Eagles
How have the Eagles built a Super Bowl participant around dual-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts?
I got “Freezing Cold Takes’d” the other night on Twitter. It’s the second time they’ve hammered me for doomsaying Jalen Hurts back when he was drafted. This was the offending Tweet they pulled up last night after the Eagles secured passage to Super Bowl LVII.
I can assure you that the “103 Retweets” are mostly quote tweets from mocking, triumphant Philly fans who’d probably never heard of me before.
I’m actually mostly unapologetic for doubting Jalen Hurts. Even in the Conference Championship Game he averaged 4.8 ypa and his running was limited. In my other Cold Takes moment I suggested I thought Hurts could have a long career in the NFL…as a running back.
Once again, I think I managed to be deeply right but ultimately completely wrong at the same time. The Eagles have done an amazing job building a zone-option offense around Hurts’ athleticism, toughness, and cheaper rookie-scale contract. Consequently, the Eagles have a Super Bowl team and are not doomed. At least not unless they give him a $200 million dollar contract in the coming year or so, in which case I may prove ultimately right.
The Chiefs keep chugging along, despite losing key pieces Tyrann Mathieu and Tyreek Hill from their previous contenders. Mostly because of Patrick Mahomes and also in large part due to Travis Kelce. The Eagles feature his brother Jason Kelce at center, and between the two of them you have building block pieces for how either team builds around the quarterback. I’ll explain both offenses and why they won their conferences, today we’re going to focus on the Eagles.