Philly Sports Media Is Going To Be Completely Gutted To Learn That Jalen Hurts Actually Talks To His Receivers On The Sideline After Watching Episode 1 Of Hard Knocks
I don't know if the broadcast producers all have some sort a personal vendetta against Jalen Hurts. Doesn't matter if it's Fox, CBS, or NBC. Every time the Eagles go 3&out where the drive stalls out after a clear miscommunication between Jalen Hurts and his receiver, the broadcast always pans to Jalen Hurts sitting by himself on the bench. His facial expression remains the same as it does 98% of the time. He sits there with his jacket on, and it looks like he's just going to remain there in silence with his own thoughts until the next drive.
So it's tough if you're not physically at the stadium to watch the game. If you're just watching the Eagles from the comfort of your own living room, you'll never see Jalen Hurts talking to his receivers while they're on the sideline. Even if you're at the game, there's so much going on while the Eagles defense is on the field that you're not just going to watch Jalen's every move on the sideline.
But Jalen Hurts is a great leader. You don't win a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP by mistake. You have to be a great leader to get your team to that point, and it's not something that just goes away overnight. So if you actually thought that Jalen Hurts never talks to his receivers during the game, you're either an absolute dunce or you are willingly being an ignorant piece of shit just to stir up drama. It could very easily be one or the other for guys like Spike Eskin.
The issue with the Eagles offense isn't the relationship between Jalen Hurts and his receivers. The issue with the Eagles offense has nothing to do with the amount of talent that's on the field. Saquon Barkley didn't just forget how to run the ball overnight.
The issue with the Eagles offense all boils down to miscommunication, and not being on the same page as each other. There's absolutely no excuse for Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith to not have a common understanding of what a hand motion before the snap is going to mean for DeVonta's route. Jalen shouldn't think he's saying to settle into a spot, while DeVonta thinks he's telling him to keep going on the slant. That all comes down to a lack of preparation and coaching.
For some reason or another, they clearly aren't locking in on all the details they need to be prepared for during the week. This is a team that was addicted to doing all the little things right last season, and this year they are constantly shooting themselves in the dick with self-inflicted errors. Penalties, miscommunications, not being prepared for the Cowboys 5-man front. Whatever they're doing during the week clearly isn't putting these guys in a position to be ready for any situation which could be thrown their way during the game. And that's coaching.
If there's one thing to really takeaway from the Eagles portions of Hard Knocks episode 1, it's that the coaching staff doesn't actually have any answers. Nick Sirianni seems like he's just praying that "going through adversity" is going to make this team better. That somehow things are magically going to click for them, and these tough times are going to be the reason they come out better on the other side. The only issue is that they aren't doing anything to get themselves out of the tough times. They are actively making things harder for themselves, actually.