He is supposed to be your franchise QB....it doesn't matter where you pick him. I get revved up because Jalen Hurts looks like a legit, top 5-10 QB for the long term, not because Howie Roseman took him in the second round.
I am also an Eagles fan (not that you care but I can't wait to move back to the Philly burbs in May 2023). I agree with you here. Once they start performing where you took them is completely irrelevant. Not that you or anyone else here cares, again, but I do a 7 round mock with them every year (we have people picking for all 32 teams - I did the Rams and the 49ers as well) and this year I got
2 of their picks right, Cam Jurgens and Jordan Davis. Pretty proud of my imaginary haul for them: Jordan Davis, Lewis Cine, Arnold Ebiketie, Brian Asamoah, Kenneth Walker, Abe Lucas, Cam Jurgens, Tariq Castro-Fields. Howie might not have gone safety early but a lot of these guys matched his profile. Howie definitely has types and proclivities for certain positions. He likes, as I did, going heavy with picks in the trenches. Honestly, Yam, I am fucking stoked with his actual draft and with how he is running the team. The AJ Brown trade was highway fucking robbery.
How did Jalen Hurts look last year?
And, to be complete, there were rumors that Hurts was on the Pats radar in the 2020 living room/basement draft.
In his first year as a starter working with a first year HC and Coaching Staff? Really good, actually. It's easy to say in hindsight, but I said it at the time: every flaw in his game was eminently fixable. He still has flaws in his game, but he is winning them football games right now. Last year I don't think he lost them many games, but at the same time he wasn't really winning them games (he was very, very good for a 5 or 6-game stretch in the middle of the year, so YMMV, but you get my point).
Got to disagree here and I am not sure you'd find a lot of people who would have predicted Hurts would grow this much. In particular his ability to read defenses post snap and process quickly, his habit for staring down routes, and his lack of throwing to the middle of the field were all considered questionable. He basically was an exclusively outside the numbers or short passes thrower last year. He hardly utilized the middle of the field and sometimes guys NEVER grow there like Russell Wilson. His throwing heat map looked kind of like a smiley face.
One of the main criticisms Robert Mays had of the AJ Brown trade was that Hurts doesn't throw to the middle of the field and that's where Brown does his damage. Digs, crossers, overs, etc. It is like
@Super Nomario says the best guys will improve in those skills over time but not everyone will and most guys don't. When you look at where he was at Alabama and then Oklahoma and then his first 2 years in Philly to this year it's shocking honestly. Most guys absolutely do not progress the way he has. It is a testament to his hard work. He's incredible to watch and a true joy.
And no one cares about him being on the radar. Everyone is on everyone's radar. The Pats had the same opportunity to pick Hurts as everyone else did. He was the 53rd pick for goodness sake.
This is a little unfair to a degree. He was not considered a top 60 pick. Most analysts had predicted he would be taken in the 3rd or 4th round. He was considered a reach. The Patriots don't care about draft position if they like a guy but they do care about where a guy might go so they know they have to take him now vs can get him later. Like for example with Cole Strange - they thought he wouldn't be there in the 2nd round because they heard other teams would have taken him high so they pulled the trigger at 29. That's one example of many. Tavon Wilson is another example that the fans around here can remember oh so fondly
.
Belichick said that year that they got everyone they wanted but one guy. I know Super Nomario and I have a short list of guys we think it could be and Hurts is near the top.
They only had 1 top 50 pick and they took Dugger who was an athletic freak and has been a game-changer for them on defense.
No. Not at all. Mac is nowhere near as talented, with nowhere near the same upside.
Mac is (was?) talented in different ways, at least in theory but this year he's a total and complete mess. Mac still has some mental upside, I guess. Mac has had his own unique set of challenges. He's not like a Hurts or Fields who can spin out of a sack. He's a traditional pocket passer with a limited arm. He knows the answers to the test pre-snap but he hasn't shown he can adjust when the coverage changes. Like he won't realize cover 2 went to cover 6 and throws it deep when there is a safety covering that quarter of the field while he thinks he is hitting a turkey hole. He's locking onto his first read too much which wouldn't be a bad thing if his first read was open but when the coverage changed or the guy didn't win his route... well see the previous example.
I was talking to one of the Pats Pulpit guys about it, Matt St. Jean, and the issues Mac is having vs zone coverage and with locking onto first reads. This was on his tape at Alabama too. I believe of the big 4 Mac locked onto his reads the most, 84% of the time IIRC. Matt Waldman talked and wrote about that too - his post-snap processing has to improve in the NFL. At Bama he could get away playing behind a great line and throwing to fantastic WRs. And if the coverage isn't going to be exotic or rotate much then if you know the answers pre-snap they will likely be right post-snap which won't be the case in the NFL but is often in college. He was also schematically winning against defenses that weren't anywhere near as complex as in the pros. The way they attacked UGA that year for example and their coverage schemes knowing that UGA couldn't just dramatically adjust what they are doing because that's how college football goes is what I mean. If you know you're going to run a ton of zone beaters against a team you know is running zone primarily you're going to look great especially when you are throwing to Waddle, the Skinny Reaper, and Metchie, no slouch himself. The question for Mac was if he could evolve into a guy who knew the answers to the test both pre and post snap especially if the question changed post-snap and right now it doesn't look like that's the case. But he's also in year 1 of a new offense on a coaching staff that isn't doing a very good job right now. And I mean that in the macro and in the micro - they have had a bunch of dud gameplans (macro), and their situational play-calling has been really spotty.
There is a world where Mac can be like a Matt Ryan type and Hurts plateaus and they both end up being around the same top 10-15 range but right now it certainly looks like Hurts is going to be a force and Mac a potential bust.
Is this just a 3 week lull for Matty P and Joe Judge? I am not sure. I am not as confident about the team as I had been to start the season. There is a lot to fix offensively and I don't know if they can reset after the bye and fix their ailments especially going against the defenses they are. It could happen of course but it doesn't look like it is trending that way.
