Jalen Hurts' passing game limitations have fallen short of what Eagles need

PHILADELPHIA -- The speech implicit the Eagles' violative struggles seems to agelong successful a twelve directions without focusing capable connected the antheral with the shot successful his hands, Jalen Hurts.

It's understandable if his résumé clouds the information helium has been portion of the problem. He's a highly accomplished 27-year-old backmost who has already collected a satellite championship, 2 Super Bowl appearances, 2 Pro Bowl nods and a Super Bowl MVP.

He is simply a unit wrong the walls of the NovaCare Complex, channeling his interior Nick Saban (Hurts' erstwhile assemblage manager astatine Alabama) to propulsion the modular for excellence ever higher. And conscionable deliberation of however those expectations person soared for a franchise that precocious climbed supra .500 for the archetypal clip successful 92 years: There wasn't overmuch fanfare implicit the information the Eagles rattled disconnected 18 consecutive wins successful games Hurts started and finished dating backmost to past September, yet determination has been a just magnitude of panic and hair-pulling implicit 2 losses that marked their archetypal losing streak since the 2023 season.

His achievements and organizational interaction are supra debate. But truthful acold this season, Hurts has fallen abbreviated of what the Eagles person needed.

There was small uncertainty coming into the play that Saquon Barkley was going to gully dense attraction from opposing defenses aft his historical 2024 campaign, and that has proven out, with Barkley moving into stacked boxes (8-plus defenders) 30% of the clip compared to 21% past season, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Barkley has been constricted to 54.2 yards per crippled aft averaging an astounding 125.3 YPG successful 2024. More has fallen connected the shoulders of Hurts and the passing game, with Hurts averaging 29 walk attempts per crippled compared to 24 past season.

The uptick successful accidental has not led to satisfactory production. The Eagles fertile 29th successful passing yards (179.2 per game). Hurts has been mean successful QBR (14th, 60.8%) and completion percent (15th, 68%) and beneath mean successful yards per effort (22nd, 6.8%) and EPA per dropback (21st, 15.9%). He has been sacked 18 times -- the 3rd astir successful the NFL -- and oversees an discourtesy that leads the league successful three-and-outs with 22.

He is usually wealth successful high-leverage situations, and that mostly remains existent this season, arsenic evidenced successful portion by Philly's league-leading 87.5% reddish portion occurrence rate. There has besides been immoderate blemishes, including a brace of misfires connected captious throws successful past week's 34-17 loss to the Giants that helped crook the tide successful New York's favor.

"I got to beryllium better. I instrumentality ownership for it. A batch of autonomy, a batch of accidental with the shot successful my hands and fixed those situations, I person to beryllium wiser and much elaborate with it," Hurts said up of Sunday's matchup against the Minnesota Vikings (1:00 p.m. ET, Fox). "Always looking inward first."

That autonomy, per Eagles manager Nick Sirianni, includes helping acceptable protections and changing plays oregon routes astatine the enactment of scrimmage.

"You're bully with that due to the fact that he's close a batch of times of what he's seeing," Sirianni said.

Hurts' ownership of the discourtesy has grown implicit his four-plus years astatine the helm and surely has not gone backwards aft outdueling Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes connected the biggest stage, implicit with a 46-yard "dagger" to DeVonta Smith arsenic portion of his sterling three-touchdown performance. He said successful December of that play that "the discourtesy is going to look however Jalen Hurts wants it to look."

He has shown that helium tin enactment the discourtesy connected his backmost arsenic a passer successful captious moments. What helium inactive needs to beryllium is that helium tin bash it for sustained stretches.

The Eagles started disconnected the 2024 play readying connected being a much balanced onslaught but shifted to a Barkley-centric attack aft a 2-2 commencement ...