Will Jalen Hurts still be running his style of offense in the 2026 season? A year ago, the answer would probably have been yes, given the guaranteed money remaining in Hurts’ contract. This year, however, the equation has changed for a couple of reasons. First, Hurts is now entering the final fully guaranteed year of his deal. Second, earlier this offseason, ESPN published a report highlighting the quarterback’s role in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ offensive struggles.

However, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has since claimed that the report was intentionally leaked by the Eagles organization shortly after the owners’ meetings in Arizona to send a clear message to Hurts.

“People who used to yell and scream at Chris Simms when he was pointing out the flaws he noticed from studying film in Jalen Hurts game got very quiet and or loud in their agreement that Hurts may be the problem,” Florio said. “And remember the leak, the story, it landed perfectly. It felt coordinated by the Eagles. The long ESPN conversation that took a closer look at Jalen Hurts’ role in the offense and his role in the struggles of the team, it came out just before everybody left Arizona.

“So, Nick Sirianni wasn’t there. Howie Roseman wasn’t there. Jeffrey Lurie wasn’t there. Big Dom wasn’t there. There was no one to be asked questions about it. Once we went wheels up from the league meetings back to Philly, that’s when the story landed. I don’t think that was an accident. I think it was a message that was sent and used the media to do it, and I think I saw someone report that basically the message has been received.”

Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million contract extension, with $180 million guaranteed money ahead of the 2023 season. However, the Eagles structured the quarterback’s guaranteed money over multiple years. At the time of his signing, he received $110 million guaranteed immediately.

From there, another $16.5 million vested automatically in March 2024, as Hurts remained on the roster, taking his guaranteed money to $126.5 million. Then, on the third day of the 2025 league year, the remaining $30.8 million of his 2026 compensation became fully guaranteed. Fast forward to the third day of the 2026 league year, and another $22 million of his 2027 compensation vested, bringing the total guarantees to roughly $179.3 million.

Now, that’s where that ESPN report comes in. According to ESPN, Hurts was labeled as the kind of quarterback who was hard to manage, run his own style of offense, and would deliberately change plays during the games. Florio, meanwhile, believes that because of the quarterback’s guaranteed money, there wasn’t anything the Eagles could have done about that situation.

However, Hurts is now entering the final guaranteed year of his contract with just $696K remaining for next year to bring the total to $180 million. That means when the question arises of whether Jalen Hurts will continue to run his style of offense, the answer may not be as straightforward this time. And according to Florio, the ESPN report and Hurts’ contract situation are closely connected.

That said, Hurts is signed through the 2028 season. But does that mean his future is secured in Philly? That’s a big question mark!