Eagles’ Kenny Pickett comes up just short in relief of injured Jalen Hurts: ‘I think he settled in well’

LANDOVER, Md. — Kenny Pickett may be getting the blame for how the Philadelphia Eagles offense looked once Jalen Hurts exited the game on the 11th play with a concussion. His teammates certainly didn’t feel that way. 

Pickett, a first-round pick just two years ago, entered the game in relief of Hurts once he exited the game to be evaluated for a concussion. The Eagles had a 7-0 lead when Hurts exited, as Pickett finished the 8-play, 57-yard drive by going 3 of 3 for 20 yards and a 6-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Brown to put the Eagles up two scores. 

This was just the beginning of an okay performance by Pickett, just going by the box score. Pickett finished 14 of 24 for 143 yards with a touchdown and an interception (72.0 rating), a game which the Eagles fell to the Washington Commanders by a 36-33 final. 

“I don’t believe in moral victories, but shout out to Kenny,” said Eagles quarterback Saquon Barkley. “He came in and did a really good job putting us in a situation to win a football game.”

The Eagles’ offense clearly wasn’t the same without Hurts, as the Commanders put more defenders in the box to key in on Barkley. To Barkley’s credit, he still had 25 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown with Hurts out — 68 of which came on the touchdown run in the first quarter. 

After that quarter? Barkley had 22 carries for 41 yards — averaging just 1.9 yards per carry. 

“They loaded the box, but we get it each week,” Barkley said. “The dynamic of Jalen definitely helps. A lot of things we do in our run game is designed with Jalen. It’s kind of hard to continue to run the same stuff when he’s not in there. We just didn’t make the plays.” 

The Eagles certainly had their chances to help Pickett out, as there were two crucial drops in the fourth quarter. Barkley dropped a throw on a wheel route that would have went for a big gain and DeVonta Smith dropped a third-down throw from Pickett on a slant that would have resulted in a first down with 2:02 remaining and the Eagles holding a 33-28 lead. 

A Smith catch gives the Eagles a first down and the opportunity to run the clock down to the final seconds. Jayden Daniels‘ heroics do not exist and the Commanders fall to the Eagles.

The narrative is different. 

“He played good, he played good,” said Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith said. “I think he settled in well. I think he made the right reads and things like that. It’s just unfortunate I didn’t make the last play.” 

Pickett finished 8 of 12 for 61 yards with a touchdown and zero interceptions on third and fourth down for a 106.6 rating. He was 3 of 3 for 24 yards on fourth down, two of which were key conversions in the fourth quarter that extended a drive and helped give the Eagles a 30-28 lead with 3:53 left. 

Brown and Smith were targeted a total of 23 times. He had a 78.0 passer rating targeting Brown (which included his interception) and an 85.4 rating targeting Smith. 

“Kenny did a great job of handling everything,” Brown said. “He knew what to do. Hats off to him coming in. He didn’t play with us in the preseason. This is a big game, where they’re changing looks, throwing everything out, blitzing him. 

“I used to feel like I could play quarterback, but I don’t know. There’s a lot of shit going on back there. He’s running for his life. He’s got to worry about the protection, the pass (game). There’s a lot. 

“I’m happy that he came in and got some confidence. Regardless whether we won or lost, God forbid anything happens. He came in and got the experience. That’s what it’s about.”

Unfair to expect the same expectations as Hurts, who has a career win percentage of .708 (46-19 as a starter coming into Sunday). Pickett didn’t play at a Pro Bowl level, nor did he perform poorly enough to be benched. The Eagles scored 26 points on 12 possessions with Pickett, as the 2.17 points per possession is down from their season average of 2.48 — which is to be expected with a backup quarterback (who also played through a rib injury that is getting another X-ray on Monday).

At the end of the day, wins are how players are judged in the NFL. The Eagles badly wanted to get one for Pickett.

And he wanted that one too.

“I’m focused just on the outcome,” Pickett said. “I’m just sitting here just frustrated. I wanted to get that one for our team. We gotta learn from it and move on.”