What’s the outlook for the Philadelphia Eagles as the NFL’s 2024 champions prepare to kick off the 2025 season on Thursday night?
“We don’t know who we are right now,” Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said on Sunday, “so we just want to go in and have a really good week of prep and go out there and try and establish what we want to be.”
Amid the unknowns that come with a new season, Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni thinks he has a constant: Hurts will find the way to make it work. In four seasons with three different offensive coordinators and four different leading rushers (including himself), Hurts has led the Eagles to the postseason annually and into the Super Bowl twice.
The former Alabama quarterback has averaged as many as 246.7 passing yards per game and as few as 193.5 and as many as 52.3 rushing yards per game and as few as 35.6 over the past four seasons.
“Jalen was highly efficient as a quarterback last year and won a lot of games,” Sirianni said on Sunday. “But I think that there’s a lot of talk that, ‘Oh, he didn’t throw for this many touchdowns or this many yards.’ Well, he was super efficient, and he won a lot of games.
“And I always admire how selfless he is in those moments, in those situations because all he cares about is winning.”
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Hurts said selflessness is a concept that Sirianni emphasizes.
“The thing that he’s been preaching a lot is contribution over credit,” Hurts said, “and the old sense of, you know, it doesn’t really matter how it gets done, just a matter of getting it done as a team and really buying into that collective. And so I think he’s had a habit of saying that. He’s had a habit of saying that to try and go to that next level, it requires something more of yourself. And so I think he’s done a really good job from a message standpoint. And as a team, we just have to continue to kind of be all in on that and follow his lead.”
Hurts said when he hears that kind of message from Sirianni, “I reflect on trying to find a way to win and it not mattering how it looks.”
Since Sirianni became the Philadelphia coach and Hurts the No. 1 quarterback, the Eagles have joined the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the teams that have reached the playoffs annually.
“I think it’s just the mentality that’s preached and I think it’s the lessons learned over time,” Hurts said about sustained success. “I think all of us in this building have learned a ton of lessons throughout our journeys here, and I know coach Sirianni can speak to that, I can speak to that, as a unit, we can speak to that. And as a unit, we’ve evolved and been able to find different ways to win on both sides of the ball.
“And so that’s what it’s about, really, being able to remain a sponge, remain diligent and learn from all of your experiences. That’s how you grow.”
The Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC East rivalry game to kick off the 2025 NFL season at 7:20 p.m. CDT Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. NBC will televise the game.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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