clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Eagles News: NFL insider discusses Jalen Hurts contract extension outlook

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 2/12/23.

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Super Bowl LVII - Philadelphia Eagles Practice Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

Super Bowl week buzz: Top NFL storylines and Chiefs-Eagles rumors - ESPN+
What’s next for Jalen Hurts? I expect the Eagles to work to sign quarterback Jalen Hurts to an extension early in the offseason. They know the price has likely gone to $50 million a year or more, and with Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and the Chargers’ Justin Herbert also extension-eligible this summer, and a Lamar Jackson megadeal still possible, the prices at the top of the QB market could ratchet up quickly. Say Trevor Lawrence and/or Justin Fields has a big 2023 and are in line for an extension next summer, or the Cowboys get something done with Dak Prescott. The sooner the Eagles get their deal done with Hurts, the less time the market has to drive up the price. One of the reasons the Eagles extended Carson Wentz and the Rams extended Jared Goff in the summer of 2019 is that both teams looked ahead to 2020 and (correctly) anticipated big extensions for Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. In Wentz’s case they may not have read the player correctly, but they did read the market correctly and I think that will guide Eagles GM Howie Roseman again in this case. Remember: Since Hurts was a second-round pick, the Eagles do not hold a fifth-year option on him for 2024 as the Bengals do with Burrow and the Chargers with Herbert. So there’s a little more urgency to get Hurts’ deal done

Eagles announce 3 roster moves ahead of Super Bowl LVII - BGN
We mentioned the possibility of Ward getting bumped up when Britain Covey unexpectedly appeared on the injury report this week with a hamstring issue. Covey was officially ruled questionable to play after being limited in practice on Thursday and Friday. Ward’s elevation could mean that Covey is not trending towards suiting up. It’s also possible that Ward was bumped up as a precaution and the Eagles will give Covey a chance to prove he’s healthy enough to go in warmups. We’ll see on that front when inactives are announced at 5:00 PM Eastern on Sunday. If Covey can’t go, Ward is a perfectly cromulent punt return option. He’s not a dynamic threat as much as he can follow in the footsteps of Reno Mahe and manage to field fair catches. Having Ward active also gives the Eagles an emergency quarterback option behind Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew.

Eye on the Enemy #126: Ron Kopp on how the Chiefs plan to Jalen Hurts + AP award winners - BGN Radio
John Stolnis interviewed Ron Kopp of Arrowhead Pride to get the skinny on the Chiefs... how they plan to attack the Eagles defense and stop Jalen Hurts on offense. Later in the show John ran down the AP award winners announced Thursday night and shared his Super Bowl prediction.

The Eagles had the best 2022 offseason in the entire NFL - SB Nation
My name is RJ Ochoa and I cover the Dallas Cowboys here at SB Nation, which makes what I am about to talk about very difficult and not at all fun. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday because they had the best offseason of any team in the NFL. There. I said it. Fine. I don’t feel any better. In all seriousness though, Dallas Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones loves to talk about how you cannot win any games in the offseason, but if you look at the Eagles and the game they are going to try and win shortly, they are sort of proof that you can. This is something that I talked about this week on the NFC East Mixtape, a podcast that Brandon Lee Gowton from Bleeding Green Nation and I host every week where we talk about the best division in football. It is accessible on all of our NFC East blog podcast networks around these parts.

Chiefs-Eagles: 5 things to watch in Super Bowl LVII - Arrowhead Pride
We all know it by now: the Eagles led the NFL with 70 sacks, the third-most in an NFL regular season all-time. They have explosive players off the edge and on the interior, forcing extra attention no matter how well an offensive line is playing. It puts the responsibility on the scheme to help them out. On obvious pass downs, that means running back Jerick McKinnon staying in to help and possibly a tight end chipping. On neutral downs, the Chiefs could go even heavier than usual with multiple-tight end formations; whether they’re traditionally in a three-point stance or bunched to one side, they become natural speed bumps to edge rushers. From a play-calling aspect, quick-hitting plays to the sideline, like jet sweeps and receiver screens, will keep the Eagles’ outside linebackers honest. They’re also easy ways for wide receivers/playmakers Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore to get the ball in space. Of course, the home-run swing of beating a penetrating pass rush is the delayed screen to a running back — something Reid and offensive line coach Andy Heck has perfected in Kansas City. You can expect a few of those; each saved up for the perfect time to call it.

How Jalen Hurts could win MVP of Super Bowl 57 - DraftKings Nation
As long as Hurts can put together a performance that resembles the leap he took in the 2022 season, history should play in his favor. Of the 56 Super Bowl MVPs handed out to date, 46 have gone to offensive players, with a wide receiver having won it eight times and a running back having won it seven times. It shouldn’t be a shock that a majority of the honorees have been quarterbacks, as the offense quite literally revolves around the position. Hurts will most certainly need to play better than he did in the NFC Championship Game, where he completed just 60 percent of his passes for 121 yards with a 72.2 quarterback rating. He’ll likely need to put the offense on his back, throwing for more than 200 yards and tossing at least a couple of touchdowns.

Mailbag: What is the Eagles’ window for Super Bowl contention beyond this season? - PhillyVoice
And yeah, it’ll probably be harder to get back to the Super Bowl next year than it was this year. As you mentioned, they’re going to lose players for sure, and maybe some coaches. I do think that there is a reasonable enough succession plan in place for a lot of positions on the roster that could take a hit in free agency. Players like Cam Jurgens, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Reed Blankenship, and maybe Zech McPhearson could take on bigger roles, should the Eagles lose players at their positions. They also have two first-round picks, one of which is in the top 10, and the Eagles’ front office has done a good job of late filling in roster holes with low-cost free agents. They should still be a Super Bowl contender in 2023 and beyond, as long as Jalen Hurts continues to be a great player. The one thing that would concern me going forward is that it is going to be nearly impossible to match the injury luck this team had this season. They’re in the Super Bowl, and they’re going to have all 22 starters available. That’s incredible.

Super Bowl Eve - Iggles Blitz
Patrick Mahomes is the best QB in the NFL. He’s also a human being. When you read predictions and previews, they sometimes sound like Mahomes is infallible. His Chiefs didn’t win the Super Bowl in 2021 or 2020. In his last three playoff games, KC has scored 24, 27 and 23 points. Mahomes is a great player. The Chiefs have a great offense. They are a good team. But this is not a juggernaut that can’t be beat. They have a great TE. The rest of the offense is solid, but nothing special. Mahomes works his magic and makes this group play at a high level. That’s worked to this point. We’ll see if it carries over to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs needed an insanely dumb penalty by the Bengals to avoid overtime last week. The Eagles are the better team.

2022 NFL season: Five things watch for in Chiefs-Eagles in Super Bowl LVII - NFL.com
Chiefs could have hands full with relentless Eagles rush. By now you know the Eagles feature one of the best statistical pass-rushing groups in modern NFL history. They’ve totaled 78 sacks, most without the benefit of blitzing, in 19 games (counting playoffs); that’s an average of more than four sacks per game. Five more sacks on Sunday, and these Eagles will break the Super Bowl-era full-season mark set by the 1984 Chicago Bears. They roll two units deep up front, too, with Haason Reddick (19.5 sacks, including playoffs), Josh Sweat (12.5), Javon Hargrave and Brandon Graham (12 sacks each) each topping the 12-sack mark, plus they have Fletcher Cox (eight sacks) and Robert Quinn, who had 18.5 sacks in the 2021 season. Patrick Mahomes has been sacked just 29 times in 19 games, but he did have a tough time versus pressure during the regular season, completing only 41.1% of his passes and throwing seven interceptions, according to Next Gen Stats, before turning it around in two postseason games against pressure (60.9% completions, zero picks). The biggest mismatch on paper appears to be Reddick going against Chiefs right tackle Andrew Wylie. In his past eight games counting playoffs, Reddick has 11.5 sacks, 18 QB hits, three forced fumbles and two recoveries. Wylie can struggle with speed and was flagged five times for holding this season, including once in the AFC Championship Game.

Super Bowl LVII roundtable: How the Chiefs or Eagles can win the Lombardi Trophy - The Athletic
Berman: The Eagles have the better roster. The Chiefs have the MVP. That’s what makes this game so fascinating. I’m expecting this to be a close game, as the point spread suggests, and think the over-under of 50.5 points indicates the score could be in the 20s instead of the 30s. It might be too simplistic to say the team that has the ball last will win, but that’s how I see this playing out. Mahomes will put the Chiefs ahead late in the fourth quarter, and it will be up to the Eagles to do what they haven’t needed to do much this season: come from behind. But the oddsmakers have them favored for a reason, and a touchdown in the final minute gives the Eagles a Lombardi Trophy with their winningest coach in franchise history. Eagles 27, Chiefs 24

The Game Plans That Could Decide the Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl - The Ringer
Solak: This is going to be a special game. I believe that in my bones. I think we see everything under the sun, and I think we get a tight fourth quarter and some game-winning plays and some immortal moments—I’m praying for it, man. And if it is going to be a tight, high-scoring game, I trust the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes just a little bit more than all the star power of the Eagles. Give me Kansas City 34-31. [BLG Note: Smh Solak.]

Schematic keys for each team heading into Super Bowl 57 - PFF
This last one is particularly interesting because it’s a concept and route that Brown excelled with in Tennessee. These types of plays and sequences keep the Eagles’ offense moving instead of dropping back and throwing vertically down the field. Philadelphia’s success starts with Jason Kelce, the anchor of the best offensive line in football. They’ve built an offense centered on his power and versatility, layering many concepts — including the simple ones shown above. A center would likely never win a Super Bowl MVP. If the Eagles win on Sunday, though, there is a good chance that Kelce will have been the best player on the field.

What Teams Can Learn From the Eagles Drafting Jalen Hurts in the Second Round - The Analyst
But the overall lesson here is that more teams should use picks on quarterbacks, especially those who trended in the right direction in college and possess valuable tools in the way of mobility, decision-making and accuracy. Hurts has continued to improve over the course of his NFL career, just as he did in college. Hurts’ well-thrown percentage has improved from 74.3% in 2020 to 77.1% in 2021 and 82.1% this season. His passing EVE, which is average yards gained over the expected amount in anticipated passing situations, has increased from 0.50 in 2020 to 0.91 in 2021 and 1.22 in 2022.

Our Eagles vs. Chiefs predictions for Super Bowl LVII - NBCSP
Reuben Frank (15-4). Week 2, I picked the Vikings to beat the Eagles. I really thought they would. I was a little concerned with the Eagles’ defense after the way the Lions scored 21 second-half points on opening day and nearly rallied back after trailing by 17, and the Vikings had easily handled the Packers, winning by 16 points in their opener. Wrong. The Eagles romped, winning 24-7, and I thought, “OK, I learned my lesson. This team is really good.” And I haven’t picked them to lose since. They didn’t win ‘em all, but close enough. If you had picked the Eagles to win every game you’d have a 16-3 record. So why stray from that process now. Both teams are really good, both teams are well coached, both teams score a lot of points, both teams have tons of playmakers, both teams have won Super Bowls in the last few years, both teams have elite quarterbacks. I think this one will be kind of like the last one. A lot of points, back and forth, offenses dominating, and then in the final minutes, somebody in an Eagles uniform is going to do something historic, and then there’ll be a celebration and a parade and maybe another statue or two, and that’s why I keep picking them to win. I just can’t imagine them losing. Eagles 34, Chiefs 31.

Where did Eagles’ Howie Roseman — the NFL’s cockiest GM — get his fearlessness? Why, New Jersey, of course - NJ.com
“He’s strongly focused on achieving what he wants to get to — which is winning,” said Hymowitz, now a chiropractor in the Philadelphia area. Still, Roseman said, “Sometimes, I wish I probably was able to take my foot off the gas a little bit.” But his wife, Mindy, reminds him that “I am who I am.” So he embraces it. Really, this is who he always was — a kid, and then a man, guided by his calling, just like his mom. “I didn’t know anyone in the NFL, but I felt like this was something I was passionate about, and it was something I could do,” he said. “I just always felt that from a young age.” The path he blazed, through decades of work, is “all a reflection on how I grew up.” He saw his parents grind. His dad, 77, still drives four days a week from Marlboro to Brooklyn, leaving home at 5:30 a.m. to work as a high school assistant principal — because he enjoys it. And when Roseman vowed as a kid to become a GM, his friends never said: You can’t do it. He kept them close. Hymowitz and his three kids visit for pool parties with Roseman’s four kids. Hymowitz’s 14-year-old son, Gavin, lists Roseman as “Uncle Howie” in his phone contacts.

Meet Ted Rath, the Eagles’ ‘get-back guy’ who works to keep the team fresh and on the field - Inquirer
Ted Rath patrolled the Soldier Field sidelines on a blustery Chicago afternoon in mid-December wearing a hoodie with the sleeves cut off.The Eagles vice president of player performance’s game-day clothing choices are consistent in all elements, as is his demeanor. He’s often the first to reach fallen Eagles players in the aftermath of a play that spills into the sidelines, sprinting to the action if out of position. He received plenty of skeptical looks from players struggling to stay warm on Dec. 18 against the Bears, but Rath said there’s a method to the hypothermia-inviting madness.“I like this quote: ‘You find self-discovery on the other side of discomfort,’” Rath told The Inquirer on Wednesday. “For me, [I’m] trying to build in the greatest team sport there is. Yeah, in Chicago it was freezing cold. Yeah it’s cold; it was miserable. … There’s no such thing as bad weather, just weak-minded people. They’re weaker than we are. Just trying to create that mindset.”

Remember Grandpa Phil? He’s still cheering on the Birds at 104 years old - PE.com
Josh Potter, then a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, introduced the world to his grandpa – Phil Basser – through a Twitter post. And just like that Grandpa Phil was an overnight sensation ... at just 99 years old. Grandpa Phil was in Philadelphia to watch the Eagles win the NFC Championship over Grandma Millie’s Vikings then was on hand to witness the team’s first Super Bowl Championship over the Patriots in Minnesota’s stadium. “He was overjoyed like every single Philadelphia Eagles fan,” said Grandpa Phil’s daughter, Shari. “He was in person in Minnesota to witness the incredible victory and was overcome with emotion.” As the Eagles suit up for tonight’s Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs, Grandpa Phil Basser will be watching his team play on television at 104 years old – hoping to see a second championship in 5 years after waiting so long for the first Super Bowl. “LET’S WIN THIS GAME!” said Grandpa Phil, who turns 105 in March. “GO BIRDS!”

The McCarthy Chronicles: Cowboys head coach betting on himself in 2023 - Blogging The Boys
If McCarthy is able to pull this off, he will have every round of ammunition he’s ever wanted. To add even more responsibility to his plate and finally succeed in Dallas where so many others have failed would grant him unprecedented bragging rights. But if he continues to slam into the same ceiling that so many Cowboys coaches have also run into, the anti-McCarthy sentiment will reach a fever pitch, and even Jerry Jones may not be able to ignore it. McCarthy is betting on himself in a massive way for 2023, and for good reason. McCarthy knows what it’s like to win a Super Bowl this century; Quinn is the only other figure in the building who can say that. So McCarthy is going to finally do things his way in every sense of the word. It’s a risky gambit, but the head coach stands to gain everything if he can deliver.

Big Blue View mailbag: Saquon Barkley, drafting a center, other NYG free agents, more - Big Blue View
I do understand the various tag scenarios. What you are both missing, though, is that the Giants have telegraphed that they do not want to use a tag on Barkley. Teams can only use one tag. GM Joe Schoen made it crystal clear in his season-ending press conference that bringing back Barkley is secondary to making sure Daniel Jones is a Giant in 2023 — and probably beyond. What the Giants want to do, the way I read their intent, is to have the $32.416 million quarterback franchise tag available in their negotiations with Jones. That way they guarantee they keep him off the open market and know they have their quarterback for 2023. I endorse the strategy. Quarterback is far more important than running back, and quality quarterback play is harder to find than productive running back play. As for a Barkley trade, forget the idea that the Giants could get a first-round pick for Barkley. The Carolina Panthers got a 2023 second-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick, a 2023 fourth-round pick and a 2024 fifth-round pick for Christian McCaffrey. The Giants would not get that much in return for Barkley. Giants fans might not want to hear it, but when McCaffrey is healthy he is a better player than Barkley.

Washington Commanders Sale Update: Two bidders still in and their bids could be lower than $6 billion - Hogs Haven
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is once again brought up in this discussion, as he is the wealthiest potential bidder. There has been speculation about his interest in the team, and he has been linked specifically to to Washington, and the Seattle Seahawks. If the bids do come in lower than $6 billion, Bezos would likely be approached again by Bank of America, and offered the team for that price, and it would be up to Snyder to sell to the man he reportedly hates. Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has reported extensively on the toxic workplace that Dan Snyder has overseen for more than two decades.

...

Social Media Information:

BGN Facebook Page: Click here to like our page

BGN Twitter: Follow @BleedingGreen

BGN Instagram: Follow @BleedingGreenInsta

BGN Manager: Brandon Lee Gowton: Follow @BrandonGowton

BGN Radio Twitter: Follow @BGN_Radio

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bleeding Green Nation Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of all your Philadelphia Eagles news from Bleeding Green Nation