Saturday was not the best day for Jalen Hurts, who had his worst session of the nine Philadelphia Eagles training camp practices thus far. The Eagles offense was going against the first-team defense, and Hurts was at the center of a bad day for the offense.
Hurts threw an interception to linebacker Eric Wilson and almost tossed another in the session. He struggled to complete passes, missing a wide open Jalen Reagor in the middle of the field. Philadelphia was missing two receivers, as DeVonta Smith and John Hightower are week-to-week with injuries -- part of the issues occurring on that side of the ball (Reagor and Quez Watkins started on the first team).
Another point worth mentioning was the first team offensive line. Andre Dillard was the left tackle and Sua Opeta and Jack Driscoll were also on the first team due to injuries. Hurts didn't have his full arsenal with him, but there's reason to be concerned with the inconsistency of his throws.
The Eagles view it another way.
"We talk as a group of how do you get better every single day, and this is my conversation with Jalen, and this will be my conversation with all the players," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said earlier in the week. "And we talk about our core values: Our connect, our compete, our accountability, our football IQ, our fundamentals, and then what are the distractions that don't allow you to get better every day?
"And the distractions are different for everybody. They are different for everybody. Some are -- and I won't get into that. Everybody's distractions are different and everybody's going through something different. The message is clear with everybody: What are we doing to get better every day and what are we willing to eliminate from our life that is not allowing us to accomplish that goal?"
Saturday certainly provided Hurts some film to watch, evaluate, and potentially correct his mistakes going into Sunday's open camp practice at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles have four days (after Saturday) until their preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first true test for Hurts.
"I think (Jalen is) doing a great job of understanding the offense and learning the offense and getting the reps of the offense," Sirianni said. "But now as we get in...that will come even more when we start to repeat plays even more as we come into this next week."
