The 2020 NFL Draft appears to be full of surprises, with the Philadelphia Eagles being the next ones. There were plenty of raised eyebrows when the Eagles selected Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round.
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Also bearing in mind that the NFL franchise handed Carson Wentz a four-year, $128 million extension in June 2019. Naturally, nobody expected them to use this high of a pick on another quarterback. However, the Phillies are extremely serious about investing heavily in the QB position.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman insisted that the decision to draft Hurts was not dependent on Wentz’ contract extension. He assured Wentz fans that Carson’s position is not under threat in any way.
“We have shown how we feel about Carson by our actions, by the amount of picks we put into him, and we showed it by the contract extension,” Roseman said. “We believe this is the guy to lead us to our next Super Bowl championship. But for better or worse, we are QB developers.
“When we make these kind of decisions, we always go to our principles and who we are and what we believe in, and right or wrong, this is who we are.”
Was this the reason why the Eagles picked Jalen Hurts?
However, it does beg the question on the Eagles‘ eagerness to snap up Jalen Hurts. A possible reason is that he successfully pulled off a Philly Special during his college football days. For the uninitiated, The Philly Special was the brainchild of Philadelphia Eagles players Corey Clement, Trey Burton and Nick Foles. The trio performed this trick play on fourth-down-and-goal toward the end of the second quarter of Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018.
Quarterback Foles moved up behind his offensive line and the ball was directly snapped to running back Clement. Clement pitched the ball to Burton, who passed the ball to a wide open Foles to score a touchdown. As a result, Foles became the first player to throw and catch a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.
Evidently, Oklahoma player Jalen Hurts also tried the same stunt and succeeded. Admittedly, a number of Philadelphia faithful did not appreciate an outsider performing their own move. The good news is that if Hurts wants to pull it off again, he can finally do it in a Philadelphia Eagles jersey