It’s Dallas Week — and there’s plenty of drama. But it all seems to be focused on the 8-2 Eagles, not their sub-.500 opponents on Sunday, the Cowboys.
Despite a four-game winning streak and a 3.5-game lead over the Cowboys for first place in the NFC East, most of the discourse surrounding the defending Super Bowl champions has come off the field.
From the fallout following a report that there have been internal frustrations with Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown’s continued disappointment with his contributions on offense, here’s what they’re saying about the Birds ahead of their upcoming game against the Cowboys …
‘So disrespectful to Jalen Hurts’
During Sunday’s postgame show with former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner, longtime Eagles reporter Derrick Gunn said “there’s a lot of people in that organization that are frustrated with the quarterback situation right now.”
When Hurts was asked to respond to the comments, he held himself accountable and said the frustrations haven’t been brought to him directly. Although Hurts didn’t voice his own frustrations with the report, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky called it “disrespectful” toward the QB.
“What’s going on with Hurts is so disingenuous and disrespectful to Jalen Hurts,” Orlovsky said on ESPN’s Get Up. “And I’m not the biggest Jalen Hurts fan. All this dude does is literally, everything that everybody begged every other quarterback to do — or knocks them for not doing.
“All he does is win. All he does is be obsessed with football and winning and doing what’s best for the team. And we’re just finding ways to knock him and take shots at him or report this about him or that about him. We heard this stuff last year about him being disliked in the locker room and he never wavered. He never flinches. And it’s this constant attack.”
Since the 2022 season, Hurts has recorded a 51-15 record, made two Super Bowl appearances, winning one and earning a Super Bowl MVP. Despite his success, the quarterback still seems to face plenty of scrutiny.
“We kill guys — Joe Burrow doesn’t win enough, Dak Prescott doesn’t win enough, Mathew Stafford didn’t win enough in Detroit, Josh Allen doesn’t win enough, he can’t win the big game — and all Hurts does is everything we beg those quarterbacks to do,” Orlovsky said. “And all we want to do is kill him because it doesn’t look the same way, or the way that we want it. And I’ve done it [criticized him] before in the past as well.
“I don’t understand why we are obsessed with trying to knock Jalen Hurts right now when he does the only thing that people actually care about.”
‘I hate seeing this’
Orlovsky isn’t the only one upset hearing about the drama that’s reportedly taking place within the Eagles. Former center Jason Kelce responded to the Gunn report on 94 WIP and shared some insight about what it’s like inside an NFL locker room and the emotions at play.
“I think that there are frustrations within a team that build up, continually,” Kelce said. “And I think Jalen gets a lot of the highlighting of that, again, because he’s the quarterback. … Lane [Johnson] and I didn’t talk for an entire offseason. Lane is like one of my best friends. Like, I love that guy. And this is part of being on a team. There are so many ups and downs. I’ve gotten into yelling matches with Jeff Stoutland, a guy that I consider like a second, almost like a father.
“This thing brings out emotions and sides of people because you all want to win so badly. I hate seeing this, and the only way out of this, and I mean this fully, you talk to people. You be accountable, you try and work this out. I mean, it’s not that much different than what you do in your marriage, right? You try to be accountable to what you’re doing wrong, what you’re failing in. You try to take accountability to alleviate the burden off of other people. These are the ways you maintain relationships and maintain a team functionality.”
‘[There’s] something else going on’
Leading up to the report, there was plenty of drama surrounding star receiver A.J. Brown — from cryptic social media posts to voicing his frustrations on a Twitch stream with Janky Rondo. Former Eagle DeSean Jackson believes there’s something more going on between Brown and Hurts.
“You can tell when the interest ain’t there, it ain’t there,” said Jackson on the House of Action podcast with Clinton Portis. “It’s something else going on. And I got a great relationship with [Brown]. I respect him. I can’t say it. But I know it’s something else going on. It’s not all about football, it’s not all about X’s and O’s. I’ve been there. I’ve had situationships with QBs that I didn’t necessarily like. I’m just going to be honest. And when it ain’t there, it sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s all I’m going to say.”
‘Take away winning and it’s a muck down there’
Despite their 8-2 record, the Eagles haven’t found their identity offensively. The passing offense has been inconsistent and Brown hasn’t put up the same production as past years. On the ground, Saquon Barkley is on pace to finish with just over 1,100 yards, after finishing with 2,005 last year.
On ESPN’s First Take, former quarterback Cam Newton discussed what he perceives to be massive problems hidden behind the team’s winning record.
“You don’t get reports like this from thin air, they’re coming from somewhere,” Newton said. “When you’re not getting opportunities to make plays, the frustration then comes to say like ‘Yo, we’re an offense that is well capable of producing way more. Are we winning the football games? Yes. Is it becoming a distraction that I’m voicing my opinion because I want to hold my team accountable and there’s an expectation here to dominate? Yes.’
“The Philadelphia Eagles have been able to mask a lot of their deficiencies because they have been winning. Take away winning and it’s a muck down there.”
