Jalen Hurts still hasn't officially been named the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles yet, even though he's taken every single snap with the first team in training camp and the preseason. While Nick Sirianni won't name Hurts the starter, the Eagles head coach sounded as if Hurts was the QB1 after Thursday's preseason opener.
Hurts was just 3 of 7 for 54 yards, but the stats were deceiving. He was plagued with two drops on the opening series and made a few nice throws on the run when the pocket collapsed. Hurts certainly looked much better than the helter-skelter quarterback the Eagles saw throughout training camp.
"I thought he handled it well," Sirianni said after the Eagles' 24-16 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday night. "He made a really good check and great throw to Dallas [Goedert] for a big play. He saw what defense was coming and checked the play. A ton of credit to him for that and making a perfect throw there. I thought he went with where we wanted the ball to go versus the defenses they were running. He had a couple drops in there, so I was really pleased with him."
this connection could be fire this year
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 12, 2021
Hurts ➡️ Goedert pic.twitter.com/PJ366amztO
Hurts played just 10 snaps, and his throw to Goedert was his best of the night. He just missed Quez Watkins for a 98-yard touchdown, overthrowing the speedy receiver by half a step. Hurts was wise when the pocket collapsed, buying time to find an open receiver or throw the ball away, giving the Eagles more confidence he can be the starting quarterback moving forward.
Despite the many positives for Hurts' performance, he is far from satisfied with his play.
"There's always room for improvement. I'm never satisfied with anything," Hurts said. "I can't have balls on the ground. We have to hit our money balls when we need them. That's always going to be my mentality. Preseason, regular season, whatever it is, we truly have a standard for how we want to do it. We want to do it at a high level all the time.
"I mean, I want to come on the field and complete every pass, score touchdowns every time I touch the field. The competitor in me is like, 'd---.' But I think it was a good day. I think it was, you know, we have to be better on third down, for sure. But coming out there, for the most part, executing. There's a lot to learn from that, always."
