David Carr Thinks Eagles Should Rest Jalen Hurts
After a tough loss to the 49ers, David Carr thinks that the Eagles should bench Jalen Hurts until he is fully healthy. He suggests that Marcus Mariota would be the better option for now to ensure that Hurts is healthy for a deep playoff run.
“Clearly, Jalen isn’t comfortable reading through a defense in a drop-back pass scenario,” Carr said. “Some would say he’s not even good at it. And I think that when you look at this team, you have to have a serious conversation if you’re Philly. And you have to really say, ‘Is it better for us to play Marcus Mariota right now and let Jalen get fully healthy?’ Because I would argue that it does not matter if they’re the number one seed. Because if the 49ers come into Philly again, they do not care.”
Although I think this is a dumb idea overall, I’ll play both sides.
The Potential Positives of Resting Hurts:
The Eagles are still the number-one seed and currently have a 99.9 percent chance of making the playoffs. It would take a miracle for them to not make the playoffs. Nothing has been disclosed, but it has been a bit obvious that Hurts has been playing through a knee injury.
Obviously, at this point in the NFL season, everyone is playing through some kind of pain or injury. It’s just the way the sport goes–whoever is able to outlast everyone and stay as healthy as possible usually prevails. However, if the knee problem is as bad as Carr believes it is, then maybe resting him wouldn’t be the worst idea.
The Potential Negatives of Resting Hurts:
We will get the obvious one out of the way: The team would lose their leader and there is no chance that Mariota could operate this offense better than Hurts would.
On top of this, the Eagles would very likely lose the No. 1 seed if Mariota stepped in. That’s important, not only for home-field advantage, but also because the entire team gets a first-round bye which equals more rest. Being able to rest that late in the season gives the team an incredible leg up. Willingly giving that first-round bye to another team would be idiotic.
I also think that people are overreacting. The Eagles take one good loss and people are freaking out over it. They are still one of the best teams in the league, and Jalen Hurts is still playing at an MVP-caliber level even if he does have a knee injury. I feel like resting him would throw this team in limbo at the wrong time of the year. They say the real season doesn’t start until Thanksgiving and this is not the time for the Eagles to run an experiment at quarterback.
My Take:
I think the Eagles need to put their best foot forward. They clearly win a lot with Hurts as their starter and I don’t see any reason to change that. The Eagles have another important game this Sunday in Dallas against the Cowboys.
Starting Mariota against Prescott just wouldn’t make sense and I think it would be tough for the Eagles to come out on top. Overall, I see what David Carr is trying to get at, but it’s still a bad take. Moves like this can’t be made at Week 14 of the NFL season If the Eagles don’t play the end of this season right, they could lose the division which would put them on the road the whole postseason.
