Jalen Hurts unflappable for Eagles: 'He wants that smoke'

He hurriedly slid into some shorts and a T-shirt and headed to the weight room for testing day at the University of Alabama during his freshman season.Hurts had an early final and arranged for a 6:30 a.m. appointment with his strength coach to test his max on the hang clean.Hurts touched his toes a couple times, took to the platform and popped up 315 pounds to his chest."He runs over to the facility, and it’s like freezing outside, and he’s barely wearing any clothes, doesn’t stretch or anything, and he hang-cleans like 315 — like an ungodly amount," recalls Josh Palet, a fellow quarterback and teammate of Hurts during their time at Alabama. The Eagles now have three first-round selections in the upcoming draft, but would be wise to use that draft capital to fill non-quarterback needs with the way Hurts performed in the second half of this season.After a 2-5 start, a scheme change on offense has the Eagles (9-8) back in the playoffs under first-year head coach Nick Sirianni for the first time since 2019, winning seven of their last nine games.The maturity and elevated play of Hurts is the central reason for Philadelphia’s turnaround.In 15 starts, the QB, who starred collegiately at Alabama and then Oklahoma, completed 61 percent of his passes for 3,144 yards, with 16 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. But he lost to the Deshaun Watson-led Clemson Tigers in the national championship.Hurts showed unusual poise and grace in handling his benching a year later at halftime of Alabama’s win over Georgia in the national title game, when Tua Tagovailoa took over.In his junior season, Hurts proved he didn’t shut it down when Saban called on him to help lead Alabama to victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship after Tagovailoa’s injury."That shows his character and just the type of guy he is," said Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith, who played with Hurts at Alabama. Even though Carson Wentz is the guy, he’s going to be the starting quarterback.’"Rick Neuheisel, a college football commentator for CBS, notes that Hurts showed great resiliency through his stops at Alabama, Oklahoma and Philadelphia — something all successful NFL signal-callers need."Nobody has been more willing to work and gotten more from their work in my mind than Jalen Hurts," Neuheisel said.