What are the Eagles thinking drafting Jalen Hurts?

The Philadelphia Eagles pulled a stunner by drafting Jalen Hurts in the second round, but what was the motivation behind the pick?

Few expected the Philadelphia Eagles to be in the quarterback market tonight, but Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman pulled a draft shocker. The Eagles spent their second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts, an intriguing prospect without a clear path to playing time.

Carson Wentz is the Eagles’ franchise quarterback and is on a huge contract, but he has been notably injury-prone. Philadelphia has seen Wentz miss time in two of the past three years and get knocked out of their playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks last year, so having a strong backup quarterback isn’t a bad idea.

Pederson is a very creative play-caller who likes to come up with interesting packages, so there could be a role for Hurts besides backup quarterback. Hurts has tremendous mobility, so perhaps the Eagles can come up with a Taysom Hill-like package to utilize his talents right now.

The problem with this pick is that is a very poor use of draft capital for a playoff team. The Eagles had the opportunity to take players who could help them in a more meaningful way, such as LSU corner Kristian Fulton or Baylor wide receiver Denzel Mims, but passed on them for a gadget player in Hurts.

If the Eagles were set on taking Hurts, they could probably have taken him a round later at least and addressed another position of need. Philadelphia also could have explored trade-back possibilities to add more draft capital, but instead wasted a valuable second-round pick on a backup quarterback who will never really play if Wentz develops into a star.

The mistake gets magnified as the Eagles have watched the Dallas Cowboys hit home runs with their first two picks, landing CeeDee Lamb and Trevon Diggs to address needs. Philadelphia may now be looking up at Dallas in the division and having Jalen Hurts play 10 snaps a game won’t help them win the division.