NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The respect and credit that gets swept under the rug for Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni is problematic at best. How many other head coach and QB tandems have had their type of success over the last 5 years? No problem, I’ll let you head to Google, and I’ll wait for an answer.
You finished?
As you may have seen, less than a handful. Only one can come to mind, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t need Google for that. Yup, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. Not Josh Allen and Sean McDermott. Not Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh or even Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford. Just one. And yet, every offseason, the so-called NFL expert analysts are either calling for Sirianni to be fired or Hurts to be benched and that he’s not a top 5-10 QB. Huh???
We can all agree that stats are not the only measuring stick we look at for the success of a QB. While Allen, Goff, and Jackson could be among the leaders in Passing Yards and TDs, neither has what they covet the most to show for it. Mahomes is that guy. He’s the barometer by which other QBs are judged against. He’s also one of the only QBs, when healthy, to be in the playoffs every season as a starter. And if we’re counting SB appearances, he has 5 to his name to go with 3 wins.
Then you have Hurts. In 5 years as a starter, Hurts has led the Eagles to 2 Super Bowls while winning one and has never missed the playoffs. Hell, he’s 56-22 as a starter. And truth be told, if I had to choose one QB and coach to go head-up with Mahomes and Reid in a Super Bowl, Hurts and Sirianni would be the pair I choose.
They have beaten Burrow and company. Jackson and crew, Mahomes and his boys, and Matthew Stafford and his squad. The Philadelphia Eagles with their QB and head Coach pairing are kicking ass. And yet, what they’ve done is never considered good enough. What more must they do to get the credit they deserve? And what’s more staggering, when you think about it, the Chiefs should be happy the Eagles are not in the AFC. They may not have made it to those Super Bowls if Hurts and Sirianni were in that Conference.
It all falls apart. [Sean] Mannion isn’t up to the task, Hurts doesn’t take to the new offense, and the O-line feels the effects of the departure of longtime Eagles OL coach Jeff Stoutland. … The Eagles miss the playoffs despite their excellent defense. They change offensive coordinators again and decide to move on from Hurts via trade, the way they did with Wentz in 2021.
Every offseason, the talk is they must improve to be considered contenders. When in fact, they have been the NFC frontrunners for the last 3 seasons. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, they are the kryptonite to the Los Angeles Rams. When was the last time the mighty Rams beat the Eagles?
The talk about other QBs is that they need at least 2-3 seasons under an OC to get the system down pat, and then the MVP Season will come. But does Hurts get that type of leash? He’s never played under the same OC in back-to-back seasons, and yet, all he does is win. Only 2 QBs have more regular season wins since 2021, and that’s Mahomes (60) and Allen (57), than Hurts (56).
What it boils down to is this. The Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Sirianni, and Jalen Hurts were not who everyone picked to be in this position. The Eagles were not supposed to win a ring before the Dallas Cowboys broke their drought. They were not supposed to be better than the Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Bengals, or even the Ravens. And yet, here they are season after season.
There was no way Sirianna should have lasted longer than any of the Cowboys coaches. Have more success than the Harbaugh brothers, McVay, and McDermott. What coach has lost more coaches and players after winning than Sirianna and still finds ways to win? And he has done it in one of the most unforgiving sports cities in America.
Then you have the QB no one wanted or believed in, in Hurts, who went in the 2nd round. He’s the QB many called limited, and yet, he continues to defy history with so many challenges facing him every season. Hurts was not the guy picked to win more than Jared Goff, Allen, Stafford, Baker Mayfield, Jackson, and all the others. He was the guy who was supposed to be backing these players up.
Yes, there is no MVP next to his name, but he does have a ring with two trips to the Super Bowl, and what’s even scarier is that he’s not even 30 and supposedly hasn’t reached his prime QB years yet. How do you learn pieces of a new offense every season and still manage to get snubbed from all top 10 lists when all you do is win?
Is Jalen Hurts perfect? Hell no, but he’s the guy who they can’t understand or break. They want him to lose, and he keeps proving them wrong. Hurts should be nowhere in the conversation of QBs on a hot seat. The same goes for Nick Sirianni. How can the Eagles move on from a tandem that’s been proven year after year to be top 2 in the league as far as success?
That’s the media for you. They hate what they have done because they were not supposed to get it done.
