Nick Sirianni has been lucky enough to work with Jalen Hurts for the last four years, and he’d like you to know something about his franchise quarterback.
You might think that quarterbacking a team to two Super Bowls, winning one (and being MVP of the same Super Bowl), and being part of a team that’s consistently in or around the playoffs would be enough to cement your position as one of the NFL’s best signal callers.
Not according to the general narrative surrounding the team, which largely has the team led by the running game of Saquon Barkley and backed up by it’s tremendous defense, while Hurts tries not to make mistakes and play within the offensive system, also known as the dreaded ‘game manager’ label.
Sirianni has heard the narratives, and he’d like you to know what he thinks about them. As you’d expect from the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, boy, did he make his feelings clear.
Nick Sirianni rips ‘b——-‘ narrative around Jalen Hurts, praises quarterback
Speaking to NBC Sports Philadelphia, Sirianni totally rejected the premise that Hurts is a game manager in a very simple way.
“Yeah,” Sirianni said. “That’s b——-. I mean, he plays the most important position in all sports,” Sirianni said. “And it’s the most ultimate team game there is. And what I admire about him is his selflessness in doing anything we need to do to win. Obviously, anybody who plays quarterback is going to want to throw it 50 times a game. But he’ll do anything. If he has to throw 50 times a game, he’s ready to do that. If he has to hand it off 50 times a game, he’s ready to do that.”
Sirianni also attacked the general narrative of there being a kind of ‘Superteam’ around Hurts, saying: “You name me a team that wins and wins consistently that doesn’t have good players around you. Like, you name me a coach that doesn’t have good players around him that wins. Like, you don’t win with bad players, and it’s the same thing you don’t win with bad players as a quarterback either.”
Nick Sirianni is right, and NFL quarterback debates need to change
It’s almost ridiculous Sirianni is even having to comment on things like this. Outside of system-breaking freaks like Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes, which quarterbacks have won without a solid team (at least) around them? Even then, having coaches like Andy Reid or Bill Belichick can put you ahead of the game.
What NFL quarterback narratives often ignore is that throughout NFL history, no badly-coached or badly-run team has ever, nor is going to, overcome both a poor squad and poor coaching to be successful. A good coach may elevate an average squad (you can probably put Bill Belichick on that list, although he did still have Brady), or a great team can elevate an average coach to prominence (facetiously, I’d quite enjoy putting Sirianni in this bracket, but there are probably better examples), but there has to be at least one, if not both, for continued success.
NFL quarterback discourse is broken, however, and you only have to see the debates around the likes of Brock Purdy, Josh Allen, and Justin Herbert for that. These, along with Hurts, are elite players at the NFL’s most premium position, and only one of them can win the title each year. That’s the great thing about this sport, there’s no prizes for second places, no incentives down to fourth place, and no cup competitions.
There’s simply one game, every February, that determines if you win it all. Hurts has, and came within a hair’s breadth of another. Any attempt to minimize that is…well, read Sirianni’s words.
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