Eagles QB Jalen Hurts opens up about ‘revolving door' of play callers
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts opens up about ‘revolving door' of play callers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It was a big deal going into the 2022 season that Jalen Hurts had the same offensive coordinator and the same play caller in consecutive seasons for the first time since high school.
“I think it’ll be a big thing,” Hurts said after the 2021 season. “I think it’ll be huge and it’s something that I’m excited for, something I’m looking forward to.
“For whatever reason, since I was in college, freshman at Alabama, every year I’ve had a different play caller. Every year I’ve had all these different changes. I’ve had so much I’ve had to adjust to.
“To have some consistency … that will do us a huge benefit in every aspect of our game and do us a huge benefit as a football team.”
How did that go?
You might remember that the next year – Hurts' second with Shane Steichen as offensive coordinator and play caller - all Hurts did was lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl and nearly win MVP honors.
Steichen then left to become head coach of the Colts and the revolving door was open again.
Let's look at Hurts' history with play callers:
At Alabama, Hurts had Lane Kiffin as play caller and coordinator as a true freshman, then Steve Sarkisian for the BCS Championship Game after Kiffin left for Florida Atlantic, then Brian Daboll for a year, then Mike Locksley in 2018. At Oklahoma, head coach Lincoln Riley was Hurts' play caller.
Doug Pederson was Hurts' play caller his rookie year, then Nick Sirianni for half of the 2021 season, Steichen for the rest of 2021 and all of 2022, then Brian Johnson in 2023 and now Kellen Moore.
Do the math, and that’s 10 play callers in nine seasons.
On Wednesday, in perhaps his most revealing interview since he became an Eagle, Hurts spoke bluntly about how much it would benefit him and the offense to have a play caller over a number of years.
“I think I think as a player, I definitely yearn for the sustainability and the consistency there,” he said. “As coach Stout (Jeff Stoutland) serves for his offensive line room, as a quarterback, I yearn for those things in a play caller and a quarterback coach because you kind of see how consistency in those areas can breed excellence.
"And his track record shows that. So that's definitely something that I desire.”
Stoutland has been the Eagles’ offensive line coach since 2013, and since then the Eagles have had six offensive linemen make a total of 23 Pro Bowls.
Thirteen years – under three different head coaches – is highly unusual. But the Eagles haven’t had the same offensive coordinator for more than two years since Pat Shurmur from 2013 through 2015.
“I find myself in a situation very similar to college in terms of having a constantly revolving door in terms of coordinators and coaches, but I've always managed to have success in it,” Hurts said.
“So that's always been a good thing because you've been able to learn from people and apply it and kind of take what applies to you. But in the end, I think that is important. We are where we are, but some of those things are kind of surface level in terms of what we can really accomplish. So I definitely do desire that consistency.”
Steichen left to become a head coach and who knows, if the Eagles have another big offensive season, maybe Moore will get a head coaching job.
And then we’re back to square one.
“When you win, they're probably going to leave,” Hurts said. “It's just how it goes.”
