Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had his best practice of camp so far throwing the ball on Monday, hitting passes on all three levels of the field and showing off his arm strength on a number of different throws.
Hurts best throw of the day came during a seven-on-seven drill, hitting receiver Quez Watkins down the field for what would have been about a 40-50 yard touchdown in a game. Watkins got behind the defense and Hurts hit him in stride, allowing Watkins to run into the end zone without having to stop or adjust to the pass.
Hurts also displayed his arm strength on the first pass of the day, hitting receiver Travis Fulgham on a 15-yard out in which the receiver was covered well by cornerback Steven Nelson. Even with Fulgham covered Hurts got the ball out quickly to Fulgham and into a space where only he could get it. The pass required a strong arm and Hurts had no issue making the pass.
Hurts' next pass was to tight end Zach Ertz, making essentially the same throw on the right side of the field that he just made on the left side on the prior play to Fulgham.
Hurts started the day completing nine-of-his-first-10 passes, one of the best displays of passing he has had since camp started.
The major difference between Hurts on Monday and the rest of camp was where he was doing his damage in the passing game.
Hurts made a number of impressive intermediate throws on Monday, which was a change from what we have seen so far from him in camp. Hurts has mostly been either checking the ball down or going deep. On Monday, however, Hurts had no issue completing passes in the middle of the field.
Hurts was not perfect on the day, however, as he made two noticeably bad throws. The first was during an 11-on-11 drill when he had a chance to hit Fulgham in the back of the end zone. Fulgham was covered, but with a better throw it would have been a touchdown. Instead, the pass was behind Fulgham and it fell incomplete. Hurts also missed a chance to hit Jalen Reagor down the left sideline during a 7-on-7 drill, but the pass was way too far to the side and sailed out of bounds.
Still, overall, the Eagles likely felt pleased by what they saw from Hurts on Monday. The quarterback has gotten better each day of camp so far, and considering this is his first training camp as the starter, that has to be encouraging for the coaches.
The next challenge for Hurts will be doing it when the pads come on — which will happen for the first time on Tuesday.
Stats: 14/19, 1 TD, 0 INT
Grade: A-
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
