'Look around the NFL sometime and count the coaches who have been unable to do the things that Nick Sirianni has done in his first 19 games,' writes ByDavidMurphy. The Eagles and Jalen Hurts are in good hands.
in Week 1. But let’s not diminish the significance of the whole winning part. The Colts did not win their Week 1 game against the Texans. The Packers did not win their Week 1 game against the Vikings. Same goes for the Bengals and the 49ers. The Eagles? They are 1-0 for a second straight season.
It’s perfectly fair to wonder about the physical toll that such pounding will take on Hurts, who missed a game last year with an ankle injury that required offseason surgery to correct. We simply do not see NFL quarterbacks occupy the kind of role that Hurts has carved out in Sirianni’s offense. There have only been five quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era who have had even one game of 17-plus rush attempts. Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, and Bobby Douglass all did it once.
“Obviously, I never want Jalen to take unnecessary hits, but we have to remember, too, what makes — one of the things that makes Jalen special,” Sirianni said. “That’s his ability to create when something is not there or when we have one more guy than we can block. ... You never want him to take too many hits, that’s for sure. But that is one thing that makes him special.