August 12, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Jalen Hurts has been looking better as Eagles training camp progresses.
Jalen Carter dropped some weight in the offseason – about 10 pounds, he said, on a challenge from defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
So the star defensive tackle showed up to Eagles training camp this summer feeling better, and faster.
But then he would get into the backfield and start chasing after quarterback Jalen Hurts, and that wasn't easier.
"I had him coming out of a little play-action rollout, and chased him down a couple times where – he be movin'," Carter told the press on Tuesday. "Like, I don't know what it is, but when I'm watching him, I'm running, it's like a movie. I feel like I'm going slow, but he be movin', man."
And Carter isn't the only one seeing it.
"I think Jalen's having a good camp," Fangio said Tuesday morning ahead of the Eagles' practice down at the Jefferson Health Training Complex. "I think he looks faster. Obviously, we can't touch him during practice, so there's always that debate whether you had him or not, and I think there's been a few times where our guys think they had him and they really didn't.
"I think he's moving good, and I think he's doing a nice job with the new offense."
And that's some high praise for Hurts, who, despite already being well accomplished as an NFL quarterback (and far more than the league's more popular star QBs), enters yet another season under a ton of perceived pressure.
But so far, he looks up to the challenge.
Play action is expected to be a greater part of the offense for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles this season.
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Hurts and the Eagles reported back for camp a couple of weeks ago after a burnout of a 2025 season that quickly led to an offseason overhaul of the offense, along with waves of criticism, rumors, and leaks from everywhere regarding Hurts' capabilities as a QB.
Star receiver A.J. Brown was lined up to be traded to the Patriots, Kevin Patullo was fired as offensive coordinator after one season was enough to see that he was in over his head, longtime and beloved O-line coach Jeff Stoutland left the organization, and in their place came Makai Lemon as a rookie wideout from USC to fill out a new receiving duo with DeVonta Smith, Chris Kuper as the new voice for a veteran O-line, and Sean Mannion as the next offensive coordinator to bring on a modernized West Coast system that Hurts would be running.
Mannion's system, though, was expected to require Hurts to spread the ball around more, throw over the middle more often, take more snaps from under center, and utilize motion and play action more consistently to read and expose defenses – all tasks that, at one point or another during the past several months, many wanted to argue that Hurts couldn't do, or wouldn't.
Training camp, however, has been proving otherwise.
Jalen Hurts has been spreading the ball around more in camp reps.
It took about a week, and the acceptance that Fangio's defense is already well established and tough for anyone to beat, but Hurts started finding a rhythm.
He's been taking snaps both from the gun and under center without issue, he's been making accurate and effective passes, and when he senses pressure coming or sees an opening in full 11-on-11 reps, he will keep the ball and run it himself, like he's done when he's at his very best, which usually coincides with the Eagles going on a Super Bowl run.
And Hurts is making it all work, mind you, with Smith and Lemon both sidelined with hamstring injuries. He's getting the ball out to Darius Cooper, Elijah Moore, and Dontayvion Wicks as his first-team receivers in practice, and the offense is still effective against a defense that is generally believed to be among the best in the league heading into the new season.
If Mannion's system is taking hold, Hurts has been doing well to make it go, and though the quarterback wouldn't show his hand about anything being different this summer when it was his turn to speak to the media on Tuesday, the vitals of the Eagles' defense from the other side think otherwise.
They can see it.
"You know, a lot's been made about him, all these coordinators he's been with, but it's basically been the same offense every year," Fangio said of Hurts. "This is different, and I think he's done a great job with it."
"He's been working hard," Carter later added. "He's the one, fo-sho."
MORE: Jalyx Hunt used to be the Eagles' secret weapon. Now, he's just a weapon.
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