PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles wrapped training camp on Wednesday after 17 practices and a handful of walkthroughs, and the tone around Jalen Hurts was clear: the work is done for now, and the real answers are about to start arriving.
For the rest of the summer, the public window gets a lot smaller. Practices will be open only to media, with no fans around for warmups and individual drills, which usually lasts about 15-20 minutes. The team is shifting into its regular-season rhythm, and Hurts is shifting with it.
The quarterback says he’s ready for his seventh NFL season, even if the camp tape didn’t always look tidy. One reporter counted 13 interceptions.
At the same time, Hurts also put up 17 touchdowns. The next meaningful look at him comes Sept. 13, when the Eagles open the season against the Washington Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field.
That opener will also be the first real glimpse of a new offense the Eagles have been building with offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. Through spring and summer, the system has been installed and repeated over and over, but Hurts is honest about where things stand right now: there’s still a lot to learn once the games count.
“When we get into the season, we'll begin to find out a lot about ourselves,” said the Eagles QB. “To this point, it's just been a lot of teaching, a lot of teaching, a lot of opportunity to get on the grass and teaching off of that. Once we put plans together, build identity going one direction, you can see a little clearly then.”
Health at receiver will matter, too, especially with DeVonta Smith and Makai Lemon expected to be part of the picture. Based on the post-practice developmental period, it appears Lemon will suit up Friday night in the preseason finale at home against the Cincinnati Bengals.
After that, the league calendar tightens fast. Every team must cut down to 53 players by Sunday at 6 p.m.
Hurts came away from camp feeling like the team got what it needed.
“I feel like it was a good camp,” he said. “Taking in the coaching, taking in the time and the growth that comes with a camp. Feel like Sean has been great, great to ask questions and a really great camp to learn from.”
He also pointed to the value of repetition, mistakes, and the review process that follows them.
“I think, generally speaking, you learn from every play,” he said. “Regardless how the result is, especially when you're putting in something new.
I think every time we come out here and you get a chance to get on the grass, you wanna take the coaching, go apply it, be aggressive in it. And then once you’ve had those experiences, you reflect on, think about them and you say, ‘Okay, you can play the game this type of way, or you can play the game in that type of way.’”
Now the Eagles move from camp mode to game-week mode, and Hurts says he’s in the right place heading into it.
“I feel like I'm in a good spot,” he said. “It was all about really looking at the experiences.
The experiences don't mean anything until you reflect on them, grow from them, and start to apply them. We're very widespread in what we're doing right now, and I think that's good.
When we can hone it down and kind of see who we are, establish what exactly the identity is for us, we will have a better idea.”
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Eagles Fans Keep Hearing One Backup QB Idea That Makes No Sense
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Some media voices have floated trades for J.J. McCarthy or Anthony Richardson, but former Eagles defender Ike Reese pushed back on the idea and said McKee should stay in place as the No. 2. It is the kind of rumor that makes noise because of the positions involved, yet the fit is easy to question when both McCarthy and Richardson have had issues with completion percentage and interceptions. [Read more 🡒]