PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts has had 21 games now as the Eagles’ starting quarterback, and their 24-7 victory over the Vikings on Monday night was his finest hour in those 21. He threw for 333 yards and a touchdown, ran for 57 yards and two more TDs, was sharp and commanding in every regard. It was a brilliant performance, and it was almost enough to make you forget that he wasn’t supposed to be the Eagles’ quarterback Monday night. The guy they face this Sunday at FedEx Field was. The guy they had to get rid of was. Carson Wentz was.
As it turns out, this is an ideal time to have the Eagles play Wentz and the Washington Commanders — not ideal for the Eagles necessarily, but ideal for everyone who roots for and follows them. Everyone around here remembers 2020, the year it went bad between Wentz and the Eagles: the drafting of Hurts, Wentz’s lousy play that season, his benching, all of that turmoil leading to his trade to the Colts in February 2021. The likely inflection point then was the ESPN story that broke on the night of the Eagles’ final game of the 2020 season, a story that said Wentz’s relationship with Doug Pederson and the team, less than two years after he signed a massive contract extension, was “fractured beyond repair.” Oh, yes, everyone remembers that.
Here’s what everyone might have memory-holed: Five years ago, Wentz was Hurts. Wentz was in his second full season as the Eagles’ starter, just like Hurts is. Wentz was the young leader of a team that had the look and feel of a Super Bowl contender, just like Hurts is. Wentz dazzled the nation on Monday Night Football with his arm and his legs and his toughness, just like Hurts did.
