Jalen Hurts can be difficult to gauge at press conferences. Most of his pressers have the same message of "keeping the main thing the main thing" and "playing to the standard." There are other commonly used phrases in there, but the message is usually repeated.
When Hurts typically wants something vital out there, it will be said.
After Sunday's loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Hurts had an answer to a question left open to interpretation. Toward the end of his press conference, Hurts was asked if he and head coach Nick Sirianni will discuss what they wanted the message for the Philadelphia Eagles to be entering the bye week and leading into the final 13 games.
The answer Hurts gave was short.
"We have our moments."
"As you enter the bye and you want to find an identity do you two [Hurts and Sirianni] talk about maybe what you want the message to be to the team or how you kind of want to handle [things] as you guys go into the second part of the year?"
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) September 29, 2024
Jalen Hurts: "We have our moments." pic.twitter.com/kUmNr1DtMX
Was this answer an indicator of the relationship between Hurts and Sirianni? The Eagles head coach isn't around the quarterback as much as in years past with a different role than before. Sirianni isn't in the quarterback room as frequent, as that's mainly the responsibility of offensive coordinator and play-caller Kellen Moore and quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier.
Sirianni isn't in every offensive meeting anymore, so his relationship with Hurts has changed. Whether Hurts likes that or not is up for interpretation, but he may have given that away back at the end of minicamp back in June.
Perhaps the Eagles will change some things. Maybe Sirianni goes back to being in the offensive meetings more. Maybe Hurts reaches out to his head coach more over the course of the season.
Sirianni has bigger issues on his hands. The Eagles are 2-2 and searching for an identity.
Right now they are an inconsistent football team. That starts with the head coach.
"I think it's early. I think there's a lot of teams' stories unwritten," Sirianni said, via a transcript provided by the team. "But, to say that we know what our identity is -- I think that's just -- we need to figure out what we do well and try to continue to do that.
"See what we don't do well, try to get out of that, and mesh some things together."
The ongoing relationship with Hurts may be the first thing that needs to be addressed.