QB Jalen Hurts was reportedly so desperate to fix the 2023 Eagles that he called ex-Giants DC Wink Martindale

The relationship between Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts came under intense scrutiny heading into the 2023 season for one simple reason: It didn’t seem to be working. Despite a 10-1 start, the Eagles imploded late in the season, losing five of their final six regular-season games and falling out of the wild-card playoffs. The stench of dysfunction wafted from the Eagles like they’d been sprayed by a skunk.

ESPN’s Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler shed light on what happened between Sirianni and Hurts during the 2023 season in an in-depth exposé published Wednesday. Sirianni’s hands-on nature with the offense reportedly caused Hurts to receive mixed signals from Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. That, in turn, reportedly caused Johnson to shelve his own plans for the offense to please both Sirianni and Hurts.

But Hurts wasn’t happy, and he probably wasn’t for much of the season. One factor was mixed messages from Sirianni and Johnson, which reportedly led to Hurts improvising during games to take ownership of what was happening. But nothing really worked, at least in part because the Eagles failed to recognize that defenses had figured them out due to their consistent lack of pre-snap motion. Per ESPN, they finished 2023 with a pre-snap motion rate of 10.9%, last in the NFL and a shocking 11% below the NFL average.

Another reported factor was the massive $255 million contract extension Hurts signed before the 2023 season. A team source summed up the situation succinctly to ESPN: “He was trying to prove he was worth $250 million with every pitch.”

That’s a mindset that routinely leads to failure, so it’s not hard to imagine Hurts desperately trying to make things work.

Eagles fans have wild imaginations, they could never have predicted what Hurts did before the playoffs began in mid-January. In his quest to fix what was ailing him and the Eagles, he reportedly called up defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who had recently parted ways with the rival New York Giants.

Martindale told ESPN he was surprised Hurts called him, but also impressed that he was willing to do something so unorthodox. Via ESPN:

Whatever Hurts got out of that decision, it didn’t seem to help him or the Eagles when the playoffs began. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers swept them in the wild-card round.

Despite what a disaster the 2023 season was, the tone and attitude at training camp has reportedly already improved. Sirianni has been much less involved with new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and has become more involved in other areas as a CEO coach should. He also reportedly prioritizes “team leadership and camaraderie, meeting regularly with different groups of players, informally and formally.”

Will it work? Will it hold up? We won’t really know until they take on the Green Bay Packers in Brazil on September 6. At the very least, it has to work well enough to keep Hurts from getting so desperate that he calls someone like former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett for advice.