August 17, 2022
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles looks on during an open practice at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa. on Aug. 7, 2022.
Myself and Shamus Clancy spent 12 mornings over the last few weeks keeping a tally of everything Jalen Hurts did during his team reps (7-on-7 and 11-on-11) during training camp. Looking at the stats, while we must be clear they are completely unofficial, they do paint an interesting picture.
Do the Eagles offer three top notch fantasy football skill players? Will Hurts complete passes at one of the highest rates in the NFL? Will the Birds completely reverse their run-pass ratio from a year ago?
Here are some observations we made based on the data we collected from the Eagles QB1.
• Across 12 practices, Hurts threw 192 passes, completing 142 of them (good for a 74% completion percentage). Last season, he threw more than twice as many passes (432) and had a completion rate of just around 61%.
• Who did Hurts target the most? Well, the "big three" certainly dominated Hurts' attention, combining for more than 66% of throws from the Eagles QB. Smith even missed five practices in the middle of camp. His targets:
| Receiver | Targets | Share |
| AJ Brown | 53 | 28% |
| Dallas Goedert | 42 | 22% |
| DeVonta Smith* | 32 | 17% |
| Quez Watkins | 17 | 9% |
| Zach Pascal* | 12 | 6% |
| Jalen Reagor | 12 | 6% |
| Kenny Gainwell | 9 | 5% |
| Jack Stoll | 8 | 4% |
| Miles Sanders | 6 | 3% |
* Smith and Pascal each missed a handful of practices.
Last season, Smith was targeted 104 times, for 22% of Hurts' throws. Goedert had 16% and no one else was higher than 15%.
• We credited Hurts with throwing just two interceptions in camp, as compared to 19 touchdown passes. The touchdowns came in bunches on days they worked in the red zone and don't really tell us much.
• The Eagles ran the ball 83 times in practices. Compared to their 192 passes thrown, the run to pass ratio during training camp is 30% to 70%. The Eagles ran the ball 52% of the time in 2021, the highest percentage in the NFL. The lack of runs makes sense, as running the ball with no tackling allowed is more or less a waste of time.
• Of those 83 runs, Hurts kept the ball and ran with it in a designed run or scramble situation 30 times. He led the Eagles with 139 rushing attempts for 734 yards last season.
• We had the defense getting to Hurts for a sack 12 times, but that is a grey area as several plays continued despite an obvious sack by a rushing defender. With no tackling allowed, there's no telling how many of these situations Hurts would actually have escaped from, or which defensive linemen may have had a shot at Hurts if everyone was going at full speed.
• Just an interesting observation that I had with the eye test that also adds up with our stats. It seemed like Hurts very often went back to back (or even three times in a row) to the same receiver when he was gaining momentum on a drive in practice. Our notes confirm that 14 times in 12 practices he went multiple times in a row to the same targets.
If you want to take a look at our messy notes from practice the link is here.
Follow Evan on Twitter:@evan_macy
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
