Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni decline to name Jalen Hurts the Eagles’ starting quarterback

There were a number of takeaways from the Eagles’ pre-draft media availability featuring Howie Roseman, Andy Weidl, and Nick Sirianni (and we’ll be diving deeper into those here on BGN) but perhaps none bigger than what was said about starting quarterback position.

Or, rather, what wasn’t said.

Here’s the exchange of the Eagles being asked point-blank if Jalen Hurts is their starter for the 2021 season:

Q: How [the trade down to No. 12] relates to the quarterbacks in that maybe you wouldn’t have gotten one at No. 6 and are we to take this as an endorsement of Jalen Hurts as the starter for next season?

ROSEMAN: Well, I’d say that when we get the call and we’re having the discussions with Miami and we’ve got to be able to figure out who they’re trading with to answer their question, whether we’d move back. And so once we found out that it was San Francisco, we knew three quarterbacks were going to be off the board in the first three picks. So, it allowed us to lock in even more on who the guys would be that would be available at 12. Like we talked about when we had our last media opportunity, we’re going to evaluate every player and nothing is off the table.

Q: I’m sorry, on Hurts, though, we didn’t get an answer on Hurts. Maybe Nick can answer that?

SIRIANNI: Yeah, I mean, to name any starters at this particular time, we’ve been working with these guys for two days. Right? My biggest thing is competition. We’ve talked a little bit about my core values, it’s my second core value, it’s this team’s second core value, competition is a huge thing, and we’re going to have competition at every position.

There will be those who claim there’s no benefit to the Eagles officially naming Hurts as their starter. And there’s some truth to that.

In theory, at least, the Eagles should want other teams to think they still might take a quarterback to prompt a trade up ahead of Philly’s pick and push another non-passing prospect to No. 12.

One might also suggest it’s best for the Eagles not to just hand Hurts, clearly an uncertain NFL commodity, the starting job on a silver platter. Make the young guy truly earn his role.

Those are fair points. But it’s also probably fair to acknowledge that the Eagles aren’t even close to being sold on Hurts as a franchise quarterback. I mean, Roseman and Sirianni wouldn’t even mention him by name.

Such a takeaway doesn’t come as a shock. Hurts has much to prove, and he very well might get the opportunity to do just that this season. At least, he should. The Eagles better not waste time by trotting Joe Flacco out there.

If Hurts excels in 2021, great! The Eagles found their new franchise quarterback and they have an extra first-round pick (or two) next year to further build around him. If he doesn’t, well, they probably won’t hesitate to use those resources to pivot to a new starter.

Or maybe that potential pivot comes even sooner depending on how the Deshaun Watson situation unfolds.