Shane Steichen talks Jalen Hurts, Eagles RB rotation, and Dallas Goedert’s contributions

The Eagles offense had an impressive performance in the first half against he Vikings on Monday, but stalled out a bit in the second half. Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen spoke to reporters on Thursday and talked about what he’s seen from Jalen Hurts and his development, how they plan the running back rotation, and how important Dallas Goedert is to the offense

Here’s what the OC had to say:

On Jalen Hurts

“It doesn’t surprise me at all what he’s doing. He’s continuing to grow every single day, every game. We saw it in the spring. It carried over into training camp. We’re in Week 2, he knows that. And he played well. We have to continue to play well individually, collectively, everybody, coaches included. We have a lot of football ahead of us. We have a heck of a challenge going into Washington, a division opponent. We just have to stay on it.”

Steichen said that anytime someone works on their fundamentals, they’re going to become a better football player, and that’s what they’re seeing from Hurts. He emphasized that they need to continue to work on things and improve, and he’s not a finished product — but that’s true of everyone.

“Shoot, one play that really stood out to me in the game, it was two minute right there at the end and we were trying to throw a shot and we had a check down, he hit Dallas [Goedert] on a check down. He just like was in protection and he threw Dallas a diagonal and it went for 30. But the decision to see it as fast as he did and get that ball, they all synced out of there and it was like, here, ball. I was on the sidelines seeing it unfold and I was like, there’s Dallas. Boom. It was right there, and it went for 30 down the sidelines which got us into a good chunk. Then we hit the seam to get points at the end of the half. That was a heck of a drive by him. Heck of a drive by everybody on that two-minute drive.”

Steichen followed that up and said he thinks that Hurts would have made that same play last year, but with the reps he’s had since then, you see more of those quick decisions.

On the running backs

Steichen gave RB coach Jemel Singleton a lot of credit for doing a good job rotating the three backs — Miles Sanders, Boston Scott, and Kenny Gainwell. He said that it’s a combination of what they have planned going into a game and then feeling out how things are going and what might help the offense.

The OC also talked about the development of Miles Sanders over the years and how he’s been able to cut down his number of negative runs. Steichen explained that it all starts up front with the offensive line, but Sanders has shown patience and vision to hit it and get yards when it’s tight.

“He does a nice job of just sticking his foot in the ground and getting through those voids. It might be an ugly two or three yards, but it’s not a negative run. He’s doing a nice job and we have to continue to do that.”

On Dallas Goedert

“He’s been tremendous. He led the team in receiving yards. I think he had 5 for 82. He continues to grow every single week. He’s so strong and powerful. He makes a ton of plays. He was awesome in the run game. Everything he does every day in practice it shows up on Mondays and Sundays. He’s continuing to be a better player every single day. Credit to him. A credit to Jason Michael, our tight end coach, for preparing him every week. He’s been awesome.”

Other notables

• Steichen said that they went a little tempo in the first half against the Vikings, but that's something they can do out of different personnel groups — it just so happened that on Monday they did a lot more 11 personnel.
• Head coach Nick Sirianni took responsibility on Wednesday for taking their foot off the gas in the second half against the Vikings, and while Steichen didn’t go into detail, said that his communication with Sirianni is unbelievable, and they talk about things like that throughout the week and throughout the game.
• With the Eagles having the No. 1 ranked offense in the NFL through two weeks, Steichen that the biggest message to the players is about consistency. They have to stay consistent, and there’s a lot of football ahead of them — starting this week with a division opponent.