Eagles: Expect to see more Jalen Hurts during Thursday Night Football

Rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts will see his role increase on Thursday.

Jalen Hurts had a very storied career in college as he was SEC offensive player of the year as a freshman and had only lost two games as a starter at his tenure in Alabama. However, he was notoriously replaced for 2020 5th overall Tua Tagovailoa in the 2018 national championship.

In Hurts’ senior season, he decided to transfer and play under Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. He won a Big 12 title and made a College Football Playoff appearance raising his stock to the second round.

Yet, in one of the more curious moves in the 2020 NFL draft, it was the Philadelphia Eagles who selected the talents of Hurts.

Where Jalen Hurts stands with the Eagles

At the moment, Hurts is viewed as an insurance policy for starting quarterback Carson Wentz who has proven to be injury prone throughout his career. Even though Wentz signed a lucrative 4-year extension last summer, the Eagles have a potential out in 2022 if they like Hurts as their long-term solution at the position.

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For now, Hurts has played very sparingly through the first six weeks. Going into week six, he had only seen 12 snaps total. Nevertheless, this past week versus Baltimore, Hurts saw seven snaps where he had two carries for 23 yards as well as a catch for 3 more yards. The Eagles offense really struggled in the first half and did not convert a first down until there was 5:24 left in the second quarter. The guy who converted that first down? You guessed it, Jalen Hurts.

The Eagles are in absolute shambles as their down to their 5th, 6th, and 7th receivers from the preseason depth chart. The injuries continued to pile up as they lost starting running back Miles Sanders and tight end Zach Ertz.

Could his workload be set for an uptick this week?

With such a desolate skill group, Hurts will see more work come Thursday night. Not only can he see snaps at quarterback but he is athletic enough to be split at receiver and present issues to opposing defenses:

As we see from the play above, even if Hurts doesn’t get the ball, he can be eye candy for the defense and create fits for the opposition.

Through six games, Hurts is averaging seven yards a carry and has been a spark for a decrepit and inconsistent offense. The Eagles are really thin on options in the perimeter, head coach Doug Pederson will need to get creative against the Giants surprisingly stingy defense.

Hurts has provided a spark early on and can be inserted at quarterback, in the backfield and in the slot. He is an interesting gadget piece for Pederson and his usage should be monitored moving forward going into Thursday night.