Eagles GM Howie Roseman says ‘magnitude’ of reaction to Jalen Hurts draft pick was ‘a little surprising to us’

Back in 2020, it seemed like Carson Wentz was the surefire quarterback of the future for the Philadelphia Eagles. Wentz had played at an MVP level during the 2017 season, and even though he ended up missing the playoff run due to a torn ACL, the Eagles were good enough to win the Super Bowl that year.

He returned from the injury and played at not quite the same level, but he was still pretty good — enough to earn a significant contract extension from the franchise. In two seasons following his ACL tear, Wentz completed 66.2% of his passes at an average of 7.1 yards per attempt, with 48 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.

And yet, the Eagles saw fit to choose another quarterback with a second-round pick in 2020, nabbing Jalen Hurts at No. 53 overall. The pick came under an intense amount of criticism, even as Eagles general manager Howie Roseman defended it by noting that the team wanted to continue developing players at the league’s most important position. 

“We believe (Wentz) is a guy to lead us to our next Super Bowl championship,” Roseman said at the time. “For better or worse, we are quarterback developers. We want to be a quarterback factory.”

Obviously, we know what happened next. Wentz took a significant step backward. He was eventually benched in favor of Hurts, who took over as the team’s starter. Hurts had a solid, if unspectacular sophomore campaign, then fully broke out in Year 3 and was an inner-circle MVP candidate himself. He led the Eagles to another Super Bowl berth, though the team ultimately fell short against the Kansas City Chiefs. He played well enough over the past two years to earn a massive contract extension of his own. 

Looking back, Roseman said the reaction to the pick was surprising. 

“I think the magnitude of the reaction was a little surprising to us, and I think that just the conversation around it for weeks and months to come kind of surprised us a little bit,” Roseman said, per The Athletic. “I’m not saying we would not have chosen (Hurts) if we had known that. We were just surprised by how much life it took on.”

Roseman noted that part of the rationale behind the Hurts selection was about the future of the quarterback position itself. We have seen over the past few years how important it is for passers to be able to win with not just their arm in the pocket, but their legs and ability to create outside of structure. 

“When you look at where the quarterback position was going, with these multidimensional talents who could create plays with their arms, their legs and their minds, we were trying to predict where we were going with the position,” Roseman says. “Carson had that ability, too.”

Three years after coming under fire for doing it, the Eagles certainly have to be happy they selected Hurts. And it probably won’t be long before they select another quarterback in the draft. That won’t mean they aren’t committed to their guy — just that they know it’s important to always have options under center, and think ahead to a day when your guy might no longer be your guy.