I was very impressed with the Eagles first practice today and the biggest thing that I saw was I saw a Jalen Hurts who is making quick and decisive decisions with the football. He was getting the football out of his hands and throwing accurate passes and making good decisions. It’s very important that Hurts relies on his decision making and getting the ball out of his hands because it’s going to make their passing game very effective, especially when you team it up with an outstanding running game.
I thought Hurts took what the defense gave him. He was getting the ball to his running backs and getting the ball to his wide receivers but he was making these decision in one or two seconds. He was taking short throws. There’s nothing wrong with taking short throws because it will eventually force the defense to bite on the short throws and that will open up the intermediate throws. The completions on the intermediate throws will inevitably open the deep throws.
The Birds started off their practice with the offense battling the defense in the red zone. You could see that Hurts has been working with number one receiver A.J. Brown. You could also see that he’s been working with Devante Smith and Dallas Goedert because all those guys were involved in the offense. I stress again that Hurts was making quick decisions in the pocket and getting the ball out of his hands. If he plays like that I think we’re headed for a big year, but of course it’s still very very early, but I was really impressed with what I saw the Jalen today.
I thought second-year running back Kenny Gainwell stood out and I was I wasn’t surprised. Gainwell is going to be a very effective weapon in this offense. Starting running back Miles Sanders was having trouble again catching the ball cleanly. We saw him bobbling catches. If he were hit those balls would be incomplete. We’ve got to see better out of him. Of course he looks good when he’s running with the ball had because he’s big and fast. he still course has all those capabilities
A.J. Brown pulled down a touchdown throw. Quez Watkins made a nice catch for a touchdown. Devante Smith almost came down with a spectacular one-handed catch from a nice throw by Hurts. Again Hurts is putting the ball on the money and getting the ball out of his hands and letting these guys make plays. That’s definitely what he wants to do and I think that this is our offense is going to be very explosive if he continues to play that way. I think Hurts threw 15 passes and completed 12 of them. He had four touchdowns with one interception. I thought this was a good day for him and a very good start for Nick Sirianni and his offense. I couldn’t have asked for more.
This is what I want to see from our quarterback who is not relying on his legs but relying on his decision-making and his arm, especially with the weapons he has at his disposal. So, I thought that the first day of Eagles practice was outstanding. Hopefully, we will see additional days like that, but it was definitely the way you want to see them get started. Keep it up Jalen Hurts.
