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USA Today via Reuters

USA Today via Reuters

The Philadelphia Eagles performed poorly under their previous Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson. This year, they decided to mix things up by hiring the former Chargers OC Kellen Moore. Last year, the Philly team seemed to have been riddled with offensive problems and mostly their inability to score touchdowns. More so, people were not happy with Jalen Hurts and his efforts.

With a revamped team, there are questions about whether Jalen Hurts and the Eagles can bounce back this season. However, with the team extending AJ Brown’s contract and signing Saquon Barkley as their new RB, the offense of the side looks much more stabilized and ready to play than ever before. Looking into all these details, the hosts of SPEAK did a deep dive into the conversation and a few interesting things came to light.

Jalen Hurts might have a bounce-back season but there are some complications

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Hurts’ 2023 season was cumbersome because of his injured finger, weak defense, interceptions, and lack of chemistry in the team. Despite that, LeSean McCoy and Joy Taylor sided with the QB and backed the fact that Jalen Hurts will have a bounce-back season this year, especially with the team investing heavily in their receivers and backfield players like Brown and Barkley.

But the other hosts on the show, James Jones and Emmanuel Acho, had a mixed bag of reactions to the scenario. While Jones thought that the Eagles might bounce back under some conditions, Acho had a whole new take to offer. Per Jones, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles “have to” show up this year, otherwise, the team will have a hard time catching up.

“He has to, there is no other option, you have to bounce back,” said Jones on SPEAK and clarified, “I understand that Moore is there, Kellen Moore is there in your offensive coordinator, but it’s been quarterbacks that have played better without Kellen Moore there.” He further highlighted how the side had shifted from a “Defensive Football team” to an Offensive one, hence needing their QB to be at his best during this turn over of things.

USA Today via Reuters

However, Acho had a different perspective to put forth concerning Jalen Hurts. For him, the scenario of Hurts bouncing back might not be as easy as getting the offense stocked up was for the Eagles. Per the analyst, the QB is a “good Quarterback” but not an “Elite Quarterback.” His view further was to address how even in his MVP year, Hurts had around a dozen fumbles to his name, showing his performance was not at a massively high level.

Coming back to last year, while the QB managed to give his team a good start in the regular season, the efforts did not fair well for the rest of the time to lead the team to the playoffs. The Tush-Push became outdated, and the team failed to hatch new schemes after everybody was caught up in their shenanigans. Also, at one point in the middle of the season, Nick Sirianni decided to switch Matt Patricia and Sean Desai’s jobs as defensive coordinators, which caused some turbulence in the team as well. However, these were not the only issues surrounding the Philadelphia team.

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The Eagles were backed into a corner last year, here’s why

Passing-wise, Jalen Hurts showed improvement over the year, but he got intercepted more and more as time went by. In the 2023 season, the QB recorded 15 interceptions. Moreover, a handful of fumbles didn’t just ruin one game, they posed a greater threat to the team in the future. The team also lost the last 5 of its 6 regular season games.

USA Today via Reuters

The Eagles managed to grab 8 position in ESPN’s list of top offenses and this year, they can just hope to improve. The court of public opinion says that the Eagles ran a shabby and predictable offense all year long. Jake Elliott scored the majority of the points in most of the games, as the team was heavily reliant on tush push, revealing all their cards from early on.

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Perhaps that’s why the team decided to get Kellen Moore, who brought along Doug Nussmeier, who is a QB coach having worked with Justin Herbert and Dak Prescott in the past. With everything set, new OC in, receivers and running backs secured, and O-Line backed, the team is hoping to have an impactful 2024 season. Do you think they will bounce back this year? Let us know below.

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