Which Jalen Hurts Will We See When Eagles Open in the Postseason?

Which Hurts will we see in the postseason? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Thoughts about Jalen Hurts’ health, a ridiculous Jason Kelce fact and the real Eagles single-season receiving record holder.

Here’s our bye week edition of Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations.

1. The biggest question facing the Eagles a week before they begin play in the postseason is what type of Jalen Hurts should we expect? Will he be the guy we saw against the Giants who was so limited in everything he did? Will he be the Jalen Hurts we saw before the injury in Chicago? Somewhere in between? Here’s why I think he’ll be OK. By the time the Eagles play next weekend, Hurts will be five weeks out from suffering that shoulder injury on Dec. 18. While ideally the Eagles would have wrapped up the top seed against the Cowboys or Saints and Hurts could have sat out last weekend, I don’t think anything happened in the Giants game to set him back significantly. The Eagles went into that game with one goal: Win the game with a minimum of energy expended while keeping the offense as vanilla as possible and protecting Hurts as much as possible. And while he was credited with nine rushing attempts, four were kneel downs, and on the others, he was as careful as you could possibly be while still playing professional football. It was encouraging to see Hurts out at practice Friday throwing, and he’s still got another week to rest and heal and recover. Hurts and Nick Sirianni are being intentionally vague, but my hunch is we’ll see a pretty close approximation of the Jalen Hurts we saw the first 13 weeks of the season by next weekend. And if they’re going to put together a deep playoff run, the Eagles need a Jalen Hurts who has all his abilities at his disposal. When he does, this offense is virtually unstoppable. When he doesn’t, we know what that looks like, too. Hurts won’t be 100 percent. But I'll be surprised if he's not close.

2. The Eagles have never lost at home in the conference semifinal (or “divisional”) round. They’re 5-0 with wins over the Vikings in 1980, Falcons in 2002, Packers in 2003, Vikings in 2004 and Falcons again in 2017. They’re 3-7 in the conference semifinal round on the road with the wins coming in Pittsburgh in 1947, Chicago in 2001 and vs. the Giants in 2008.

3. Congrats to A.J. Brown for surpassing Mike Quick’s club record for yards in a season, but let’s not forget that Ben Hawkins is still the real Eagles single-season receiving record holder and has been for 55 years. Hawkins led the NFL with 1,265 yards in a 14-game season in 1967. That’s 90.4 yards per game, and that’s the highest in Eagles history. Quick is second at 88.1 and Brown third at 88.0. Pete Pihos (87.4), Terrell Owens (85.7 in 2004) and Pete Retzlaff (85.0 in 1965) are also at 85 yards per game or higher. Brown gets the record for most yards, but when it comes to yards per game, a more accurate representation of a player's performance, the Newark, N.J., native is still the best in Eagles history.

4. Jason Kelce racked up his fifth 1st-team all-pro honor this week, which is remarkable. What’s even more remarkable is that he didn’t get his first until his seventh season. As a 6th-round pick out of Cincinnati, Kelce came into the league with no hype, no reputation, no name-recognition. Guys like that routinely get snubbed in Pro Bowl or all-pro voting early in their career because unlike 1st-round picks that everybody's heard about for years and come into the league as ballyhooed high-profile rookies, it takes years before the NFL even notices them. Kelce is one of only two players in NFL history to make five 1st-team all-pro teams despite not making any in his first six seasons. The other was Bears linebacker Chuck Howley, a rookie in 1958 and an all-pro five times from 1966 through 1970. Kelce is literally one of the best football players ever.

5. Over the last 30 years, the Eagles are 2-12 in the postseason against Hall of Fame quarterbacks (or future H-of-F QBs) and 14-4 against non-Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The only Hall of Fame QBs they’ve beaten during that span in the postseason are Brett Favre in the 2003 conference semifinals and Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII. The only non-Hall of Fame QBs they’ve lost to are Kerry Collins of the Giants in the 2000 wild-card round at the Meadowlands, Brad Johnson of the Bucs at the Vet in the 2002 NFC Championship Game, Jake Delhomme of the Panthers at the Linc in the 2003 NFC Championship Game and Tony Romo in the 2009 wild-card game at AT&T Stadium. The only Hall of Fame locks they could see this postseason is Tom Brady and you’d probably already put Patrick Mahomes in that class, too.

6. If the Eagles face the Chargers in the Super Bowl, Cameron Dicker would be guaranteed a Super Bowl ring before the game begins. Dicker, who made a game-winning field goal vs. the Cards in his only game as an Eagle, finished 21-for-22 for an NFL-best 95.5 percent. That’s the highest field goal percentage by an undrafted rookie in NFL history. The previous record was 93.8 percent by Michael Badgley, also of the Chargers, in 2018.

7. The Eagles haven’t had a 100-yard wide receiver in their last 14 postseason wins. Last time they had one was the 58-37 wild-card win over the Lions in 1995, when Fred Barnett had eight catches for 109 yards.

8. In the 47 years before Chip Kelly hired Jeff Stoutland as Eagles offensive line coach, the Eagles had two 1st-team all-pro offensive linemen – Shawn Andrews in 2006 and Jason Peters in 2011. In the 10 years Stoutland has been the Eages’ o-line coach, the Eagles have had nine 1st-team all-pro offensive linemen – Peters once, Evan Mathis once, Jason Kelce five times and Lane Johnson twice. The Eagles are the only NFL team with three different all-pro offensive linemen since 2013, and their nine total all-pros since 2013 is also an NFL high. Stoutland is an o-line God.

9. In the Eagles’ last eight home playoff games, their quarterbacks have thrown 11 touchdown passes and one interception – the Michael Vick INT at the end of the Packers wild-card loss in 2010. That’s one INT in 228 home postseason pass attempts (by Donovan McNabb, Jeff Garcia, Michael Vick, Foles, Carson Wentz and Josh McCown).

10. I was pleasantly surprised James Bradberry got the nod for the all-pro team over Darius Slay. Even though he generally didn’t face the opposing team’s top receiver, he played better, he was more consistent and he deserved it. Since Week 10, Slay allowed 24 completions in 32 targets for 298 yards and three touchdowns with no INTs. That’s a 134.6 opposing passer rating, and that was 2nd-worst in the league among starting cornerbacks over the final eight weeks of the season. For the full season, Bradberry had a 49.4 opposing passer rating – second-best in the league – and Slay finished at 79.9, which ranked 27th out of 91 corners (minimum 30 targets). The Eagles definitely need first-half Slay in the postseason instead of second-half Slay.