Packers Super Bowl champ concerned for Jalen Hurts over Kellen Moore's coaching - "When he leaves, quarterbacks get better"
Jalen Hurts is facing a new offensive situation with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. Instead of an unproven commodity at running back, he has an already-made star in Saquon Barkley. He will have a new center to take snaps from after Jason Kelce's retirement, with Cam Jurgens and Matt Hennessy competing for the right to start with him.
But most of all, he will also have a new coordinator in Kellen Moore, best known for his eight-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys as both player and coach. And for former Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones, it should be a cause for concern. On Wednesday's episode of SPEAK, he mentioned Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert as examples:
"I am worried about this because every quarterback Kellen Moore gets, when he leaves, they get better.
"I don't know if he's the (coordinator) that Jalen Hurts needs. He has not shown that he can adapt his offense and dumb it down or condense it to the quarterback."
For context, during Moore's four seasons as offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, Prescott hit double-digit interceptions in three of them, including a league-high 15 in 2022. That number decreased to just nine in 2023 under Brian Schottenheimer.
Herbert, meanwhile, set career-lows in completions (297), yards (3,134), and touchdowns (20) in 2023 - and that was before a finger injury ended his season four games early.
Jalen Hurts committed to learning Kellen Moore's new offensive system
Lately, there has been much speculation about Jalen Hurts' relationship with his coaches, Nick Sirianni in particular. But unusually, the head coach is going hands-off for 2024, delegating playcalling duties to coordinators Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio.
And with the former, the one-time Pro Bowler and conference champion is hoping to "master" the team's new offensive scheme and refine his game. Speaking to The Athletic's Brooks Kubena during last month's OTA's, he said:
"It just comes with time. You know, I think (making the system my own is) the overall goal in the end. Everybody in the building knows who the game runs through.
"The goal is to learn as much as I can and master and see how they look at these plays... Over time, it’ll naturally take care of itself."
The Eagles begin their preseason at the Baltimore Ravens on August 9. They begin the regular season against the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.