Why Jalen Hurts will have a say in who becomes the Eagles’ next offensive coordinator

PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles’ franchise quarterback and Super Bowl LIX MVP, is entering the second season of his five-year, $255 million contract extension. The Eagles have quite a bit, financially and figuratively, tied up in his success.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hurts, ahead of his sixth year as the full-time starter, will have a say in who the Eagles hire as their next offensive coordinator.

But after Kevin Patullo was removed as the team’s play-caller on Tuesday, head coach Nick Sirianni made something crystal clear on Thursday at the NovaCare Complex.

“At the end of the day, the coaching hires fall on my shoulders,” Sirianni said at his end-of-season press conference. “I have to do what’s best for the team while using all the resources that I have and using my wisdom and my judgment to help make that best decision.”

Hurts will be one of those resources, though, Sirianni said. He’s going to field opinions from Hurts, Howie Roseman, Jeffrey Lurie, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, Lane Johnson and “whoever it may be.”

At Monday’s locker clean-out, Hurts said he would “definitely be available” for “whatever level of inquiry” the Eagles would ask of him when considering the offense’s future.

He added: “My line is open.” And that was before the Eagles fired Patullo, though the writing was on the wall after an NFC Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

The playoff exit punctuated what was a “challenging year,” as Hurts described it. The offense never reached the same heights it did under former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore during last season’s Super Bowl run, and everyone “had a hand” in those struggles, Sirianni said.

When it comes to Hurts specifically, he was good but not necessarily great. He threw for 3,224 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 64.8% of his passes. Hurts’ 55.7 QBR, an all-encompassing quarterback stat created by ESPN, was his lowest since 2021. And his 421 rushing yards was a career low as a full-time starter.

This season’s lasting impression of Hurts was him completing 20 of 35 passes for 168 yards in last weekend’s 23-19 loss to the 49ers. Hurts, Patullo and Co. had a little less than three minutes to drive down the field and win the game. They failed to do so.

And yet, Roseman and Sirianni remain confident in Hurts as their QB, now and in the future. Sunday’s performance and this season overall haven’t changed that.

“I love Jalen Hurts,” Sirianni said. “I love everything he brings to the table. Every time you step on the field, you feel very confident that you can win any game that you’re going to play when you have him as your quarterback. He has shown that to this organization, to myself, to Howie, to the city, that he’s a winner and he is able to do many different things at a very high level.”

“We have won a lot of games with Jalen as our quarterback,” Roseman added. “We’ve won a world championship with him as an MVP in that game.”

Now, it’s on Sirianni and Roseman to find an offensive coordinator capable of helping Hurts and the Eagles back to the Super Bowl.

Will it be Brian Daboll, the former Giants head coach who was Hurts’ OC at Alabama in 2017?

Will it be Mike McDaniel, the former Dolphins coach and play-caller known for his creativity?

Whoever is hired, one thing is for sure: Hurts will have his say.

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