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Tim McManus, ESPN Staff Writer
Emotions of all sorts were spilling out of Philadelphia Eagles players after clawing their way to a 15-12 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
There was elation over the win; concern about the health of two concussed players, DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson; frustration over a couple of suspect plays by the Saints that led to those injuries; and pride in the unheralded backups who stepped up in their absence. Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson spoke to all of this and more as he passionately held court at his stall to the left of the locker room entrance, oscillating between taking shots at his former team and building up his current one.
On the other side of the room, Jalen Hurts was operating on a different plane. Pumping out of the speakers was one of his favorite songs by one of his favorite artists: “Joy and Pain” by the late Frankie Beverly and Maze, setting an otherwise chaotic scene to a smooth R&B soundtrack. Hurts nestled into that calm wavelength as he put the finishing touches to his postgame attire, nodding his head and syncing his movements to the beat.
He emitted a similar vibe in the late stages of that game, according to some of his teammates, when he engineered a five-play, 69-yard go-ahead touchdown drive to overcome a rough offensive performance and quiet a raucous crowd inside Caesars Superdome.
“[Hurts] is the most poised human being I have ever been around in my life,” running back Saquon Barkley said.
“He’s always got that look on his face like, no need to worry, just keep going at it, keep working and we’re going to be alright. … He doesn’t have to say much, you can see it on his face, you can see it in his demeanor. He’s a winner, he’s a gamer, and he came up big.”
It’s been a rather chaotic start to the season for the Eagles and for Hurts specifically. All three of their games have been of the coin-flip variety, having won two and lost one. Both sides of the ball have wildly veered between dominance and ineffectiveness.
Hurts has been all over the map, too. He’s completed 70.6% of his throws — well above his career average of 63.8%. He is fourth in passing yards (772) and first in off-target percentage (6.5%).
He is also turning the ball over at an alarming rate. Hurts’ six turnovers this season are tied for second most through three weeks. He has 12 turnovers in his past nine regular-season games, the most in the NFL since 2023 in Week 13. And his seven straight games with an interception is the longest streak by a Philadelphia quarterback since Ty Detmer in 1996.
It is in that state of volatility that the Eagles travel to take on the 2-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 p.m. ET, Fox). Raymond James Stadium has been a house of horrors for Hurts and the Eagles. Hurts is 1-3 lifetime against the Bucs with four touchdowns to five interceptions. Two of his three career playoff losses have been in Tampa, including last year’s disastrous 32-9 trouncing in the wild-card round of the playoffs that cemented the team’s 1-6 collapse.
Sunday’s game will serve as another installment of a season-long test to see if an organizational foundation that proved shaky in 2023 has stabilized and to determine whether Hurts can reclaim his spot as one of the top signal-callers in the league. While the overall results have been mixed to this point, there are signs that Hurts is maturing as a quarterback and a leader, offering promise that the Eagles are in a better place compared to the last time they boarded a flight for Tampa.
ONE SIGN OF change came after the team’s lone loss of the season, a 22-21 heartbreaker to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2.
As the team settled into the locker room, it was not the coaches but Hurts who addressed the team postgame.
His message to his teammates was to pick their heads up, and to avoid these kinds of losses moving forward, they as a group must “intensely control the controllables” and hone in on the details of their craft.
“Jalen led everything. No coach said a word,” safety Reed Blankenship said. “It’s a player-led team at the end of the day, and we know what we did was detrimental to us.”
Coach Nick Sirianni later said that Hurts’ message was so on point, he didn’t feel the need to add to it.
“When he started to talk to everybody, it was like, man, this is exactly what you want to happen from the leaders on your football team,” Sirianni said. “When the leaders on your football team are preaching exactly the same things that you know are your core values and are important to the football team, that’s awesome. … I just really appreciated what he said, and the team appreciated what he said. And it started the process of, hey, getting over that loss and going on to the next one.”
Hurts has stressed the importance of following the lead of the coaches on multiple occasions during his interactions with the media this season — key since he and Sirianni struggled to get on the same page for much of last season.
The hope internally was that Hurts would become more outward in his leadership in Year 5, particularly in down times, and that has been the case, according to veteran defensive end Brandon Graham.
“It’s about getting better every year and I know for him, he’s seen some things where he can get better. He’s more vocal,” Graham said. “He was having fun [before] but I think even more now he’s just letting loose. Because if I’m going to be the No. 1 guy and people want to hear from me, I think that’s what he’s embracing this year, like I’m going to make sure they hear me.”
THE KEY IMPROVEMENT on the field has been against the blitz. He threw a league-high eight interceptions against the blitz while posting a QBR of 68.7, which ranked in the bottom half. Through three games this season, he is sixth in QBR against the blitz (67%).
Hurts appears to be equipped with better answers against the blitz under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. He’s also assumed more control over setting protections at the line of scrimmage now that center Jason Kelce has retired — a shift that Hurts has been waiting on and one that has seemingly improved his command in those situations.
The operation will be firmly tested this week against a Tampa team that ranks third in blitz percentage since 2023 (40%) and has routinely given Hurts fits since coming into the league.
“I know Jalen has really played well against the blitz these last couple games, and he’s worked his butt off on it,” Sirianni said. “And just excited about the challenge, but we know there’s going to be challenges against a [Buccaneers head coach] Todd Bowles’ coached defense. Again, we have done a nice job so far, but you’re only as good as your next game.”
For all the progress, the turnovers have really held Hurts and the offense back.
His six giveaways are second to only Will Levis (8). Another interception this week would put his consecutive game streak at eight, which would be tied for the fourth longest by an Eagles player since the 1970 merger.
The Eagles have lost the turnover battle in all three games they’ve played, which isn’t conducive to winning football over the long term, as Sirianni has pointed out.
Yet, the Eagles are 2-1, in part because of Hurts’ steady hand down the stretch to close out games against the Green Bay Packers in the opener and Week 3 against the Saints.
He’s been aided, he said, by the kind of perspective that only comes from experiencing the peaks and valleys of a career over time.
“You’re going to have joyful moments and you’re going to have painful moments,” he said, taking the message from the Beverly song to the podium in New Orleans. “You’re going to have things you like in a game and things you don’t like in a game. But in the end, it’s about how you respond. I think it’s so important to keep the main thing the main thing and don’t ride waves, just control the cruise, and weather it. I’m just so proud of that and I’m proud of how we responded.”
Hurts’ three losses against the Bucs are tied for the most in his career against a single opponent (Dallas Cowboys). This week, he spoke of his respect for Bowles and the opportunities he creates for his defense. Since Bowles joined the Buccaneers as defensive coordinator in 2019, they have blitzed a league-high 37% of the time. That approach has attacked a vulnerability for Hurts, who has thrown 13 interceptions against the blitz since entering the league in 2020, tied for third most over that time.
Hurts was asked if he feels he’s in a better position to handle the Bucs’ heat this time.
“I think I’m wiser, I’m older, more seasoned in some areas,” he responded, “and I think that helps us.”