Doug Gottlieb: “I’ve heard other people say ‘Jalen Hurts is only 23 years old, he’s going to develop and he’s going to get better.’ I agree in that you usually don’t get worse, you should get better, but haven’t we seen enough of Jalen Hurts to know what he is? He started as a true freshman at Alabama, it’s not like the guy hasn’t had the reps at the position. Tua Tagovailoa was better than him. If you talked to people at Oklahoma, by about midseason they were frustrated with Hurts' inability as a passer and he became just a running quarterback who they would have throw. Tua was better, Kyler was better, Baker was better, and none of those guys are exactly killing it in the NFL. Listen to the wins they had: Falcons, Panthers after Christian McCaffrey got hurt, Lions, Broncos without Teddy Bridgewater, Saints after Jameis Winston got hurt, Jets, Washington at the end of the year when they had nobody left, Giants, and Washington again. They beat no one, they lost to the Giants, and got completely pantsed in the playoffs by the Buccaneers. You can win some regular season games that way but you can’t win playoff games. He’s just limited. He’s a really good backup quarterback who could be a spot starter. What happens to some GMs, and it happened to Howie Roseman, is you fall in love with ‘your guys’. You’re so convinced that you found a diamond… The lack of accuracy, the lack of feel as a passer, it just got badly exposed. Roseman is probably thinking ‘look at what they did with Lamar Jackson on that rookie contract, and he can be our Lamar Jackson’. At some point you want to pull him aside and go ‘I understand that they were both very good quarterbacks in college. Lamar Jackson, who also has his limitations, has only won 1 playoff game, and that style has its limitations.’ But Lamar Jackson is a FREAK. He’s a FREAK OF NATURE. He is the best running quarterback we have ever seen and he throws a better ball than Jalen Hurts. Philly played the easiest schedule ever, you snuck into the playoffs and got embarrassed… Russell Wilson could be on the move, Aaron Rodgers could be on the move, and you’ve got three first round picks. They’re blinded by love, that’s the only thing I can think of with the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m not saying Hurts stinks, I’m not saying get rid of him, but to say ‘HE’S THE STARTER, NO OTHER QUESTIONS!’ you put yourself in a hole, and I think they put themselves in a hole because they really believe that.” (Full Audio Above)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb explain why he thinks Jalen Hurts’ NFL future is as a backup quarterback, on the heels of Philadelphia’s embarrassing wildcard loss to the Buccaneers.
Hurts posted an unsightly 20.0 QBR score for the game and the Eagles were at one point down 31-0 before scoring 15 fourth quarter points in garbage time.
For the season Hurts certainly wasn’t bad by any means, raising his completion percentage year-to-year from 52.0% to 61.3%, and adding a 784 yards on the ground, leading all quarterbacks. More importantly, he led a rebuilding Eagles team to the playoffs after a dismal 4-win campaign last year.
Hurts, however, threw only 16 touchdown passes in 15 games, ranked 26th in passing yards per game, and the Eagles beat just one team with a winning record all season – New Orleans – in a game where Trevor Siemian started for injured Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill.
Check out the audio above as Gottlieb details why the Eagles are simply lost in a haze of infatuation for the supposed second round ‘steal’, and foolishly believing that Hurts can be the next Lamar Jackson, who has seemingly began to already regress in his own rite.
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