While the 11-6 Philadelphia Eagles have a chance to defend their Super Bowl title, their offense is still looking for consistency. One of the factors contributing to the Eagles’ offensive woes has been their quarterback Jalen Hurts’ lack of a running game. Hurts finished the 2025 regular season with just 105 rushing attempts—that’s 45 fewer than his record in 2024. Most people assumed this was a deliberate plan to protect the QB, but Hurts just revealed that Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had other plans. 

“No, the season has just gone the way it is,” Hurts told reporters during a presser on January 7. “The approach this year, and the way the games have been called with this coordinator, with coach KP, it’s just kind of gone that way. I’ve taken it in stride and giving my best with the position they’ve put me in.”

The QB running less isn’t the only issue with the Eagles’ offense. But when he uses his legs, it opens up the passing game. However, this season, Kevin Patullo clearly chose a different approach, and Hurts all but confirmed it. And that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Patullo’s play-calling.

On paper, the shift away from Hurts’ running game seemed to pay dividends, fueling a career-high 25 passing touchdowns for the QB and 1,000-yard seasons for both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Eagles’ tight end Dallas Goedert even set a franchise record for a tight end with 11 touchdowns this season, while running back Saquon Barkley rushed for 1,140 yards.

However, these surface-level numbers masked a deeper inconsistency. In eight of their last 13 games, the Eagles failed to score even 20 points. Those games showed that the Eagles’ offense is still searching for its identity. 

So, play-calling has certainly been a big part of the problem in Philadelphia. But to be fair, it wasn’t all on the OC. Injuries, penalties, and mistakes have also played their part in the Eagles’ offensive woes. Still, Patullo’s biggest failure might have been his inability to get Jalen Hurts and his offense into any kind of rhythm or keep defenses guessing.

So, two days after the Eagles beat the New York Giants 38–20 in Week 8, Patullo was asked why Hurts did not have a single designed run. At that time, Patullo’s answer revealed a cautious approach with the QB.

“I think it just really comes down to, do we need it?” Patullo told reporters. “Do we want to do it? Does it present itself? The way the game unfolded, we really didn’t need it.”

Back then, it made sense not to risk Jalen Hurts in one of the few stress-free wins of the season. After all, Hurts suffered a concussion last year on a QB draw against the Washington Commanders in Week 16. He missed the rest of that game and then sat out the games against the Giants and the Dallas Cowboys in Weeks 17 and 18 while in concussion protocol.

While Patullo’s regular-season caution was understandable, that conservative approach is unlikely to win playoff games, forcing the OC to rethink his game plan for the postseason.

Will Jalen Hurts’ run game increase in the playoffs?

This season, Jalen Hurts recorded just 421 rushing yards, which was about 30% lower than his usual output in the previous NFL season. That decline in the run game helped the Eagles keep him healthy heading into the playoffs. But recently, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni did not exactly rule out more QB runs in the playoffs. 

“You’ve got to have your players available, and you do different things to make sure that happens throughout the year,” Sirianni said in a recent presser. “Jalen, his ability to run, pass, get us in and out of plays, I think he can do a lot of things really, really outstanding. Some of those runs that we’ve done have come off scrambles, some of them have come off of designed runs.”

“Each week calls for something different based off of what you’re seeing, based off of what you do. We will go through our process like we always do and find out the best way we want to attack this particular week against a really good group of players over there and great coaches (with the 49ers).” 

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Sirianni made it clear that everything is on the table in the win-or-go-home situation for the Eagles. More read-options with Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley would put opposing defenders in conflict. With a well-rested offensive line, if Hurts starts running more, too, the Eagles can make a real postseason run starting on January 11 against the San Francisco 49ers.