by PHILADELPHIA – Dallas Goedert could not believe what he was seeing.
It was training camp in the summer of 2020, and it’s been a little over a year since the Eagles committed to Carson Wentz as the franchise’s quarterback, with a record $108 million guaranteed over four years.
But Goedert couldn’t stop noticing rookie Jalen Hurts during training camp practice.
Remember, this was the first time Goedert or any of the Eagles had seen Hurts in person. The COVID-19 outbreak had closed the facilities of all NFL teams during spring team activities, so everything was done remotely right up to training camp.
9 EAGLES TO WATCH:Rank the Eagles top 9 (not top 9) to guarantee a Super Bowl win over the Chiefs
LAST DANCE?For Eagles 4 legends, super times, uncertain future and how Kelce will know when to retire
A few months earlier, the Eagles had drafted him in the second round, a staggering move considering many assumed Hurts would spend at least his early years as Wentz’s backup or be transferred to another team.
Think Jordan Love, a first-round pick the same year Hurts was drafted, sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for three full seasons in Green Bay.
But Goedert saw something right away.
“He started playing against defense,” Goedert said. “He’d take off and climb and leave everyone in the dust. And I remember everyone being like, ‘Well, he’s not going to be able to do that in games.’
“And well, he does in games. So it was early on that you could tell he was a special player. I think (management) saw that, I think everyone saw that. It was pretty cool, and pretty fun to see all the steps he had taken”.
Hurts didn’t get a chance to “make it in games” until the third quarter against Green Bay on Dec. 6, 2020. Until then, Hurts took the field for gadget plays, coming in for a play as Wentz lined up wide, then exiting the field.
Hurts had attempted just three passes in his first 11 games.
But Wentz was having a terrible season, as were the Eagles, when former head coach Doug Pederson made the switch with the Eagles trailing 20-3.
It would be a fairy tale to say that Hurts lit up the scoreboard and brought the Eagles back to a glittering win at legendary Lambeau Field.
It didn’t happen. Hurts was 5-of-12 passing for 109 yards and the Eagles lost 30-16.
But Hurts’ first pass came on his first series, the Eagles faced a 3rd and 4 from 31 by the Eagles. He found Jalen Reagor, of all people, 34 yards to the Packers’ 35. One drive later, Hurts threw his first touchdown pass, a 32-yarder to Greg Ward, who spent most of his career on the Eagles’ practice squad.
SUPER COVERAGE:What Eagles fans need to know before Super Bowl 2023 begins
SPEAKING THE SPEECH:Brandon Graham talk makes Eagles laugh as they sack QBs; what awaits Mahomes?
“You go back and look, and I think he’s thrown the ball really well since he’s come into this league,” Goedert said. “Obviously he’s improved, and that’s to be expected with a player like him.”
The following week, Hurts became the first Eagles quarterback since Michael Vick in 2010 to throw for at least 100 yards and rush for at least 100 yards, when he led a 24-21 victory over a Saints team that had won 9 straight games .
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox noticed something else about Hurts that year. It wasn’t so much his pitching or running as it was his leadership.
“I was in that position when I was a rookie, and you don’t know what to say to guys,” said Cox, which is in its 11th season. “You have to learn your teammates. But when you’re the starting quarterback, you have to learn really fast, and I think that’s something he did.
“When he talks to us (now), even if he’s one of the older guys in the room, listening to a kid in his third year…the way he talks and the way he approaches his teammates, and you say , ‘Dude, this dude really wants it.’
“He wants the best for the team and not the best for Jalen.”
However, there were questions. Hurts barely completed 50% of his passes in those 4 1/2 games. Even after the Eagles fired Pederson and hired Nick Sirianni, then traded Wentz in the spring of 2021, Sirianni had Hurts compete with veteran Joe Flacco for the starting outfield job.
The competition didn’t last long, of course.
Then, even after last season, there were rumors that the Eagles were looking to trade Russell Wilson and/or Deshaun Watson.
“Obviously, there was still speculation that (Hurts) was being traded and we were looking to get someone else,” Goedert said. “But I think it was more speculation from the outside. I think everyone in the building was happy and comfortable with where we were with Jalen.”
Through it all, Hurts continued to improve and the Eagles continued to get better players around him. He went from a 51% completion rate in 2020 to 61% in 2021 when the Eagles drafted wide receiver DeVonta Smith in the first round. Hurts led the Eagles to a 7-3 finish and a first-round playoff loss.
Then Hurts improved to a 66.5% completion rate, went 14-1 during the regular season, and became an MVP finalist. That’s after the Eagles traded for wide receiver AJ Brown, Hurts’ best friend since college.
The two trained together a week before the draft night trade, just as they had in previous years. And Brown remembers one day in particular.
“We all got together in the morning, and it was pouring rain, and we were running up a hill, and it let the team know how serious we were about this,” Brown said. “We are working regardless of the circumstances. We will make it.
“Most kids in the NFL today wouldn’t show up to a workout like that, or (go) home.”
Hurts showed up, just like he always does. Hurts is well known for arriving at the practice facility before anyone else and staying later. As Sirianni said recently: “he’s always here”.
Here, now, is Phoenix, Arizona for the Super Bowl. There are no more questions about Hurts’ future as an Eagles quarterback. The only question is how much he will make on his next contract, which could start in the $45-50 million a year range.
Did the Eagles imagine that when they drafted him? Someone?
“When we drafted him, he was the silver lining we were counting on,” said Eagles president and CEO Jeffrey Lurie. “We thought he had a huge advantage. It takes a couple of years. And someone as dedicated as Jalen and such a great teammate will inevitably maximize everything that he has, and that’s what he’s done.”
And maybe what he’ll do again, maybe this Sunday when the Eagles take on the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Hurts was asked last week what he thinks was his best play of the season.
Hurts smiled, thought for a second, and then replied, “My best play of the season? The season isn’t over.”
Contact Martin Frank at [email protected] Follow @Mfranknfl on Twitter.
This article originally appeared in the Delaware News Journal: Why the Eagles knew Jalen Hurts would be great even with Carson Wentz as QB
