PHILADELPHIA — With the Eagles bringing in Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator, the expectation was that Jalen Hurts would be under center more often, use more pre-snap motion, getting the ball out of his hands faster.
In fact, it’s what the team emphasized in training camp. But since the opener in Brazil, when the Eagles put up a season-high 34 points, most of those Moore trademarks haven’t happened.
The offense has bogged down and, after Week 1, averaged just 18 points per game, leading many people to believe this is still head coach Nick Sirianni’s offense, not Moore’s.
“Coaches adapt to the things that their players do well and try to maximize their potential.” Sirianni said Friday. “I think that’s been the thought of us since we’ve gotten here: How do we maximize? OK, we’ve never run Play A to (WR) A.J. (Brown) before. But man, A.J. had a lot of success with that at Tennessee. We need to start running that more.
“I think that’s the same thing with who your right guard is. Mehki (Becton) is new at right guard, different than (C) Cam (Jurgens) at right guard. And who’s your center, and who’s your tight end? Because everybody has skillsets, right? Nobody’s skillsets are exactly the same. You do what your players can excel at. That doesn’t mean you don’t dabble in new things.”
Considering some bad injury news the Eagles received on Friday, they’ll need to dabble in shorter dropbacks and not hold the ball so long, which would be helpful anyway.
Left tackle Jordan Mailata (hamstring) was placed on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss at least four weeks. And tight end Dallas Goedert (hamstring) was officially ruled out against the Giants on Sunday.
This year, Jalen Hurts has been holding the ball an average of 2.5 seconds per passing play, which is tied for fourth-longest among starting NFL quarterbacks.
Moore argues that keeping Hurts in the shotgun formation, which has been a factor in him holding the ball too long, has its advantages.
“I think there’s an element of game plan and flow with that,” Moore said. “There are times where under center can be very advantageous for us. Trying to put ourselves in the best position to be successful as far as an offense, and with Jalen’s ability to run, there are some components to being in the gun and the pistol that kind of keep that threat alive in some of those cases. But that’s something that we put some time and effort into this offseason to utilize and we’ll continue to find different spaces to do that.”
While he’s always a dual threat, Hurts isn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard running the ball, averaging just 3.5 yards per carry.
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In positive injury news, defensive tackle Jalen Carter (shoulder), who sat out of Thursday’s practice, was back in full action Friday. Cornerback Darius Slay (knee) and safety Sydney Brown (knee) were also full participants.
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NOTES >> The Giants’ defense has allowed the fewest yards per game (286.8) in the NFC. The Bears (299.5) are second, followed by the Eagles (302.7). … The Eagles’ Josh Sweat has the fifth-best QB pressure rate (18.3 percent) in the NFL. He has 24 pressures through five games. … The Eagles are 13-3 in their last 16 meetings with the Giants.
