Historic Pains

The Philadelphia Eagles made the decision to bench their struggling 128 million star quarterback Carson Wentz in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts.

Philly had lost six of their last eights games before they decided to make the switch at quarterback. Wentz had shown significant regression in play from his previous four years. The fifth year QB leads the league in turnovers with 15 interceptions, 10 fumbles, and a 49.3 quarterback rating.

Jalen Hurts is a winning college quarterback, who was benched in the National Championship game in 2017 because of the lack of accuracy of his throws. The second round player has shown drastic improvement from a few years ago, his abilities were on full display Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

Hurts led the Eagles to a 24–21 victory over the New Orleans Saints, and during the process became the first quarterback in 70 years to pass for over 150 yards with a touchdown and 100 rushing yards in his first career start. His final stat-line was 17 of 30 completed passes for 167 yards with a touchdown, passer rating of 83.6 to go along with 18 rushing attempts for 106 yards.

“It was a new experience for me, for sure, my first NFL start out there. But I’m excited that I was able to do it with this group of guys, with this team. We’re ready to get back to work and fix the things we need to fix,” said Hurts.

Doug Pederson praised Hurts’ historic performance a day after the team’s throttle of New Orleans on SportsRadio94WIP, but had not yet made a decision on the starting quarterback going forward.

“There were some really, really good plays,” Pederson said of Hurts’ performance. “He played well. He managed the team, he did everything we asked him to do. He played smart, he played physical, with the run. Some of it was designed runs, some of it was just him being him and what he can do. It’s going to be a really good film for him to look at and learn from and get better, but I thought he did a really nice job.”

Many points can be made in favor of why both Wentz and Hurts should be the team’s starter, but with Philadelphia having only three games remaining, two being against divisional opponents Washington and Dallas, the eagles should look towards the future to see what they have in the rookie. The deciding factors should be at the top of coach Pedersons and the front office thinking, ball security and durability. Something Wentz hasn’t been great at in his short career.

On Monday afternoon just hours after the WIP radio appearance Pederson announced Wentz the week 15 starter against Arizona.

“After going through the film and really looking back even to last week and the preparation and everything, I’m going to continue with Jalen this week as the starter,” Pederson said.

With Philadelphia playoff hopes still alive it’s great that the Eagles front office put the team first rather than the quarterback they extended just last year.