PHILADELPHIA _ The question before the jury today is what, or rather, who is Jalen Hurts?
Is he Lamar Jackson? Or is he Taysom Hill? Is he, as Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has suggested, a promising young quarterback with a unique skill set brought into the world-famous NovaCare Quarterback Factory to develop into a capable heartbeat-away backup to oft-injured Carson Wentz?
Or is he simply a Hill-like "gadget" guy the Eagles envision using as an occasional weapon in their overhauled offense?
In his draft-night statements after taking Hurts in the second round last month, Roseman insisted that he is both.
He said that while the Eagles drafted Hurts as a quarterback, they obviously recognize his unique skill set as an athlete, and that "it's something we're going to explore."
The 6-foot-1, 222-pound Hurts rushed for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns on 233 carries last season at Oklahoma. But he also threw 32 touchdown passes and just eight interceptions, averaged 11.3 yards per attempt and completed nearly 70% of his attempts. Hill had 12 TD passes and 11 interceptions in his last year at BYU.
"It's all speculation," Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said of suggestions that Hurts is more gadget guy than NFL quarterback. "It'll be a story right now and then we'll go play football and it'll happen the way it's going to happen and it won't be a story anymore.
"Personally, I think it's a compliment. The guy's a gifted athlete. There's a lot of things you're going to be able to do with him. That said, I also believe he wasn't drafted by the Eagles solely to be a gadget guy. That was made very clear by them and every single team that talked to me about Jalen. Not one team saw him in that light.
"Of course you're going to use everybody on your roster that you possibly can to try and win a championship. But the Eagles are excited about him as the athlete, the player, the leader and the quarterback."
