Jalen Hurts has been good enough early in his NFL career to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to two Super Bowls and be named MVP of one of them, but it sounds like the team might want more from the quarterback position.
In ESPN’s latest NFL buzz column that was published on Wednesday, Jeremy Fowler reported that there are people around the league who believe Eagles general manager Howie Roseman could look to select a quarterback fairly early in the 2026 NFL Draft. One prediction is that Philadelphia will draft a QB on Day 2 and keep Hurts for a while longer while developing his eventual replacement.
As one source told Fowler, there is a scenario where the Eagles might push Hurts out the same way they pushed Carson Wentz out when Hurts started flashing his potential.
Fowler added that the rumblings about Philadelphia’s 2026 draft plans existed before Hurts turned the ball over five times in Monday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
“The Eagles know that their passing game struggles largely because Hurts has limitations. The reality is the 2024 season was an aberration because Saquon Barkley and a dominant O-line were breaking off big gains weekly, opening up play-action and downfield shots for the passing game,” Fowler wrote. “This isn’t the same offensive line, which means the Barkley gains aren’t as frequent. That places the spotlight on Hurts, for better or worse. We saw the good in glimpses against the Chargers — an 11-play drive late in the first half was run-heavy and set up a pair of 11-yard completions for Hurts. But the game featured Hurts in straight dropback situations often, and that can lead to problems.”
Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million contract extension prior to the 2023 season. The guarantees on the deal will become less of a burden in 2027, which is when the Eagles would be able to — in theory — work some salary cap magic to position themselves to move on from Hurts.
The Eagles are 8-5 and still in prime position to win the NFC East. They are also the defending Super Bowl champions for a reason. The question is whether they could be even better with a different quarterback. There have been signs that even some of Hurts’ own teammates might be starting to lose faith in him.
