While any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. THE 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.
SOMETHING has to change, because in football, damage is cumulative. Which is why we’ve seen some players
get old all of a sudden. In two seasons as the Eagles starter, QB Jalen Hurts has played 30 games and run the ball 304 times. That’s an average of 10 times per game. Hurts is just 24. We don’t need him getting old at 26 or 27. So we have to stop running him 10 times per game.
To the Eagles credit, they’ve brought in an Offensive Co-ordinator in Brian Johnson, who is letting the world know, that Hurts will be throwing to his RB’s more. I love this. It’s best NOT to keep that new wrinkle a secret, because it tells opposing coaches, that now they can’t blitz Hurts without paying a stiff price. Fewer blitz attempts mean fewer hits on his body.
Also, when the coverage loosens underneath, it just makes Hurts scramble runs easier for him to get into, with more room to slide. Or dive head-first, as safely as football allows. The smart move would be (excluding QB Sneaks), limiting the OC to calling 3 Hurts runs per game.
Again, that’s called runs, not scrambles or Sneaks. Getting more short passes to RB’s should really cut into his scrambling. Hurts had 165 rushing attempts last year. That’s 11 carries per game. Getting that number down to 5 per game, would mean 85 for a whole season. And wouldn’t it be nice to see him play a whole season?
In prior seasons under OC Shane Steichen, pushing the ball downfield was the emphasis. So those RB Screens that RB Boston Scott was killer at, under Doug Pederson, didn’t get called. Scott saw just 6 targets last year. RB Kenneth Gainwell, who saw 50 targets as a rookie, saw just 29 last year.
While the team de-emphasizing passing to RB’s didn’t hurt our climb to the Super Bowl, overusing Hurts as the primary short yardage alternative to a hand-off, might stop us from going back any time soon.
The idea isn’t to handcuff him, like Rich Kotite wanted to do with Randall Cunningham. Nor do we want Hurts to avoid running, like Donovan McNabb (tried to do). We just need to limit how many high-speed, free shots we give defenses, on our QB. Including more checkdowns will help out with that.
So let’s keep it to 3 called runs per game. Circumstances permitting.
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