It's a fine line and how the Eagles will traverse it will be the story of the 2024 season.
Much has been made of Jalen Hurts' comments or lack thereof regarding head coach Nick Sirianni's move away from the day-to-day steward of the team's offense and into more of a CEO role. Still, the quarterback's relationship with the head coach can take a back seat to the new dynamic of Hurts with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Hurts, 25, wasn't himself during spring work after the latest shift in a constant churn during his career dating back to college at both Alabama and Oklahoma.
"I think this whole entire offseason has been about learning, learning and taking in new knowledge, new perspective and the minds that we have in the room," Hurts told SI.com's Eagles Today when referencing Moore as the new offensive chief and Doug Nussmeier as his position coach. "I think throughout the whole entire thing, it’s kind of been the emphasis. You get to a point where you kind of feel, ‘Hey, I’m going to feel comfortable with this. I’m going to like this.’ That time comes when you can rep it, rep it, rep it later on.
"But right now, it’s been a lot of new inventory in, the majority of it, probably 95% of it being new."
Observing OTAs in a vacuum might lead one to believe Moore is going to try to pound the square peg in an ill-fitting hole when it comes to emphasizing underneath throws, quick releases, and ultimately traditional play action when the running game gets involved with Hurts, a quarterback who is extremely gifted in the RPO game and played at a near-MVP level by extending plays and going off schedule better than most.
Practice is practice, though, and the goal is to get better, not necessarily "win" a period or even a session.
Think of it like an ace pitcher in Major League Baseball trying to add a new pitch to his repertoire. It may look ugly at times in the Grapefruit League but when it's time to head north the hurler may have worked the kinks out to the point the toolbox has expanded or scraped it for another day.
If evolution and working on things Hurts needs to get better at was what was going on this spring, that's just good coaching. If Moore was trying to turn Hurts into something he's not, however, you might as well fast forward to 2025 and another new offensive braintrust.
Considering Moore, 35, played the position himself at a high level in college at Boise State and was good enough to be an NFL backup for six years before getting into coaching Dak Prescott and Justin Hebert, you have to believe he's well aware that not all quarterbacks are created equal.
"Ultimately [the quarterback has] a front view seat at this thing," Moore said of his philosophy. "We want to give the QB tools and the ability to make the adjustments necessary at the line of scrimmage while also trying to keep it as clean and concise so he can play fast.
"Ultimately, we want them to have the ability to make the adjustments necessary, but we can't dilute it to the point that he's got 500 million things that he can potentially do at the line of scrimmage and now we're not all on the same page."
The goal of any good coach is to accentuate the strengths and minimize the deficiencies of each player. That differs from Prescott to Hebert and Hurts. In-house it changes from Hurts to backup Kenny Pickett and QB3 Tanner McKee.
It's Moore's job to find the right formula for Hurts, not the latter's responsibility to check the boxes on some preconceived checklist. Right now we have conflicting signals as to what is happening in that regard.
"The number of coaches that I’ve had since I’ve been here, I’ve been able to take in a lot of new knowledge and new understanding," Hurts said. "So I think the goal coming in was to learn Kellen’s offense and master it, and I think that’s been a process.
"And I think by the end of it, I want it to be mine and have it in my own way. I think that’s kind of a credit to the lack of continuity with that, and it being a thing where I’ve kind of had to take all of these new things and new voices, and still go out there and be successful and efficient.
"I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen again."
