When Howie Roseman suggested earlier in October that everything was business as usual for the Philadelphia Eagles, it was easy to believe him at first.
The general manager's decision to trade two-time Pro Bowler Cam Jurgens to the Baltimore Ravens raised some suspicions. It was rare to see a team perpetually in contender mode deal away a starter, albeit a struggling one.
Nevertheless, Roseman insisted the team wasn't toggling to seller mode and pre-emptively punting on what was already shaping up as a trying season. Instead, he maintained he was merely proceeding as he always had: balancing two timelines to try to keep his organization competitive yet flexible.
Now, however, it seems clear that one of those timelines needs to take clear priority
over the other.
With reports Monday indicating that quarterback Jalen Hurts will miss the remainder of the season after being diagnosed with blood clots in both of his lungs, the reality of the Eagles' current campaign is impossible to ignore. Yes, the wide-open nature of the NFC East lends hope to even a 2-4 team. And with so many key offensive figures having missed time during an ongoing four-game skid, it might have been reasonable to expect some kind of late-season swell once the starting lineup was closer to full strength.
Saddled with rampant limitations, however, Philadelphia's offense became something for the team to overcome in recent weeks. And at some point, that challenge became too great.
Amid mounting personnel attrition around him, the three-time Pro Bowl passer had a difficult time getting a handle on first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion's scheme, which pushed him out of his comfort zone with more under-center work and an emphasis on working the middle of the field. Many of those principles fell by the wayside after a 2-0 start, and the offense had a league-worst three-and-out rate of 45.3% through the first five weeks of the season.
But with backup Tanner McKee taking over, Philadelphia's threat is even further minimized. The Eagles all but abandoned their under-center work and play-action looks against the Carolina Panthers so as to put McKee more at ease. The result was a 25-14 loss and a laborious 26-of-45 passing performance in which McKee managed just 215 yards and a touchdown against a secondary missing both its starting cornerbacks.
Coach Nick Sirianni has acknowledged the persistent problem and on Sunday declared "everything is on the table" to fix the attack. With McKee holding the reins for the foreseeable future, however, the upshot is undeniable: An already severely hamstrung attack can't be expected to allow the Eagles to contend in 2026.
Yet simply calling this season a wash and running things back next year doesn't seem like the option it might be for other teams that lost their quarterback for the year. Roseman was already clinging to the vestiges of the Super Bowl 59-winning squad. With things falling apart after the exits of key figures such A.J. Brown, Jeff Stoutland and Lane Johnson, trudging ahead with the team as currently composed doesn't seem like a reasonable path.
But even if he opts for sweeping changes to bring a conclusion to one of the most prosperous runs in franchise history, Roseman could be poised to reinvent his team rather than rebuild. It's a high-wire act, to be sure, but one that can't be fully ruled out.
What's next for Jalen Hurts and Eagles' long-term QB situation?
With his treatment for deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli necessitating blood thinners, Hurts cannot resume contact work until he can be off the anticoagulation medication. Nicole Lynn, Hurts' agent, said in a statement Monday that the quarterback was expected to make "a full recovery" with "no long-term effects."
Proceeding with the Eagles, however, could be its own unique challenge.
Hurts still has two additional years remaining on the five-year, $255 million contract extension he signed in April 2023. His guaranteed money, however, dips to $22 million in 2027, with nothing beyond that.
Establishing some sort of plan of action on Hurts' contract already seemed like an essential offseason task. Now, however, there are no clean solutions to the dilemma.
Extending a quarterback who is coming off a major medical issue – one with a less certain trajectory than a torn ligament or tendon – is a nearly impossible needle to thread, and it might be a full-on non-starter. Even a stopgap solution might be exceedingly difficult for both sides to hammer out.
But a clean break might not be in the cards either. Cutting Hurts outright would incur a $67 million dead cap hit, according to Over The Cap. Even releasing him with a post-June 1 designation would still leave Philadelphia in the red relative to his $42.1 million cap hit next year.
While the Eagles' next step with Hurts might not become clear for several months, one thing should be obvious: It's time to start weighing another serious investment at the position. And even if Hurts does get a chance to come back as the starter next fall, Roseman has to begin planning a potential future without him.
With a potential top-10 pick in hand, the quarterback question becomes impossible to ignore. And with additional first- and second-round picks in 2028 at his disposal thanks to the Brown and Jurgens trades, Roseman has plenty of resources to maneuver the order and target a passer of his liking.
Of course, the Eagles could wait an additional year to use a high pick on a young signal-caller if the right opportunity doesn't materialize. But when Roseman first courted controversy by selecting Hurts in the second round of the 2020 draft despite Carson Wentz's continued presence, he left little doubt that he would continue being aggressive in identifying and developing prospects at the position.
"For better or worse, we are quarterback developers," Roseman said in 2020. "We want to be a quarterback factory. We have the right people in place to do that. No team in the National Football League has benefitted more from developing quarterbacks than the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Time to fire up the conveyor belts yet again.
Is this it for Nick Sirianni?
Any question of widespread change is sure to focus heavily on Sirianni and his future.
Now in his sixth year at the helm, the 45-year-old coach has navigated a good deal of tumult in his tenure. But he also led the organization to its second Super Bowl title and compiled a 61-30 record along the way.
Splitting with a coach just two seasons after winning a championship might seem rash, even by NFL standards. But when Philadelphia fired Sirianni's predecessor Doug Pederson three seasons after a magical Super Bowl run, owner Jeffrey Lurie cited the dramatic dropoff of Wentz and the offense as a whole as a major part of the impetus for the move.
That surely doesn't augur well for Sirianni as Mannion's offense continues to flounder. With the attack sinking even further than the lows it experienced during the one-and-done tenure of Kevin Patullo, there might not be any buttons left to press.
Sirianni proved to be a fine steward of the Eagles' previous era. If the organization wants to embrace a new one, however, it might require a different voice.
Roseman's real challenge extends even further
Replacing a coach and quarterback without putting his team's competitive credentials on hold is daunting enough for any general manager.
Roseman managed to pull off that feat in 2021, when Sirianni came on and Hurts took over as the starter. Even with expectations muted in light of the significant changes, the Eagles went on a 7-2 run to close out the year and finished with a wild-card berth. That would be the first of five consecutive playoff appearances for Philadelphia, which later became the first NFC East team in 21 years to repeat as division champions.
Yet Roseman has work to do beyond settling those two spots.
An offensive line that went from load-bearing unit to a liability must be retooled. The compounding cap debt will have to be sorted out, and it could complicate Philadelphia's hopes of not staying down for long.
The task facing him is sizable, but Roseman has shown himself uniquely capable of responding to a crisis – even if some of it was his own doing. Engineering the turnaround from the strife-filled end of the 2023 campaign to the Lombardi Trophy run was nothing short of a masterstroke. And while reloading is necessary, few teams can match the Eagles' track record for not only identifying young talent but also developing it.
Of course, if the Eagles do opt for an expansive reset, immediate success is hardly guaranteed. But for a franchise known for getting out ahead of moves that others might typically string out, it already looks like the time for change has come.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jalen Hurts' setback could mark end for Eagles – and a new beginning | Opinion
