Last season, the Philadelphia Eagles did not have the year they wanted. After winning the Super Bowl in 2024/25, the Eagles had significant momentum to repeat, but instead they lost in the Wild Card Round.
Throughout the season, the Eagles’ offense faced criticism, and even when players or staff pushed back, it was to no avail. At the center of criticism was quarterback Jalen Hurts, and with a new offense in place for 2026, pressure is on him to perform.
Jalen Hurts Not Guaranteed To Be Eagles QB Beyond 2026
Since Hurts became the starting QB in Philadelphia, there has been constant criticism of his game. While he did make massive plays that some other quarterbacks could not make, the more consistent parts, such as accuracy, elevating the offense, and throwing down the middle, have been where people blame Hurts for the offensive issues.
Last season is where those issues really showed, and in PFSN’s QB Impact Metric, Hurts finished 15th overall and 21st in completion percentage.
Still, Hurts is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, who won it two seasons ago, so moving on from him would be surprising, but that could change with another underwhelming season. According to NFL analyst Dan Graziano, this is a real possibility, and contractually, the Eagles would not be phased with the potential cap hit. He talked about it on ESPN’s “Get Up”:
“There’s $22 million in guarantees for 2027 in his (Hurts) contract,” Graziano said. “So normally, in the past, you would say that probably locks a guy in, but things have changed with how teams operate in terms of their cash spend and cap spend. The Eagles were at the forefront of this. They traded Carson Wentz when the dead money number was still massive.”
“If it went badly this year and there’s no contract extension done in the meantime, you can absolutely see a situation where the Eagles would be at least talking about moving off of Jalen Hurts,” he continued. “If it goes badly, I do think the Eagles are kind of an organization where change is not off the table.”
As Graziano mentioned, moving off of Hurts would be a substantial cap hit. The QB still has three years left on his 5-year, $255M contract, but if the Eagles feel like they need to make a change, they will.
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Hurts became the full-time starter in Philadelphia when the Eagles moved on from Carson Wentz, and that was a massive cap hit at the time. The difference is that at that point, Hurts showed that he can take over the starting job.
If the Eagles do not have that insurance with one of their backups, such as rookie Cole Payton, moving on from Hurts could become less likely.
