Jalen Hurts remains one of the favorites to win the league’s MVP award. If the Eagles clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC, there’s a pretty good chance Hurts will win.
That doesn’t stop an analyst and former NFL quarterback from making an aggressive suggestion.
NFL Network’s David Carr, the brother of Saints quarterback Derek Carr, said Tuesday that the Eagles should consider benching Jalen Hurts for Marcus Mariota so Hurts can get fully healthy.
Carr’s argument is that the Eagles need to get Hurts at 100 percent to get the most out of his abilities.
“It’s obvious Jalen is not comfortable seeing through a defense in a drop-back pass scenario,” Carr said. “Some would say he’s not even good at it. And I think when you look at this team, you need to have a serious conversation as a Philly. And you really have to say, “Is it better for us now to play Marcus Mariota and let Jalen get fully healthy?” Because I would argue that it doesn’t matter if they’re number one. Because if the 49ers come back to Philly, they won’t care.”
Michael Robinson tried to understand how the conversation with Hurts would go.
“If you’re Nick Sirianni, this is the type of decision and conversation you need to have if you have a big-picture mentality,” Carr said. “And I think you can have that conversation, honestly, with Jalen and sit him down. That’s all Jalen is talking about, the bottom line. And getting to the Super Bowl and winning that thing.”
Carr’s point contains a plausible nuance that most will ignore. Although the Eagles never announced an injury to Hurts this year, he clearly had a knee issue. In the last four games (Cowboys, Chiefs, Eagles, 49ers), Hurts has been the weaker of the two quarterbacks. Although the Eagles won three of those games, Carr believes their best chance of winning the postseason could come from a fully healthy Hurts.
Of course, this assumes that if he hurts now, he will feel better later. There’s also a chance the Eagles won’t even win the division and will have to play at least two rounds of the playoffs on the road if Mariota plays.
The only practical approach for the Eagles is to take it one week at a time. Along the way, they’ll have to hope Hurts takes full advantage of the time between games to get healthier than he has been.