PHILADELPHIA — Two things are true in football:
You need a quarterback that can elevate the personnel around him, and carry the team when everything isn’t perfect.
However, you also need competent weapons to fully maximize that quarterback’s full potential.
The Philadelphia Eagles don’t fully know if quarterback Jalen Hurts can be a guy who elevates a team as a passer, but the organization has certainly surrounded him with the talent to help become that player.
If anything, those weapons are going to elevate him.
A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert create one of the most talented trios of receivers in the NFL, but they are also a perfect group for a quarterback that needs seasoning as a passer.
Hurts needs to see growth in areas like throwing with anticipation, utilizing the middle of the field, using his legs to extend plays for the pass, and giving playmakers a chance downfield even when they aren’t “open” yet.
It will be hard to find many teams across the league that have the dependability that Brown, Smith, and Goedert provide.
Need a top-tier route-runner?
A deep threat?
Need dependable hands in traffic with contested plays? Over the middle? Along the sidelines?
Need that run after the catch ability?
These three pass catchers check all those boxes.
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Some offenses have strong skill position groups, but the styles of each player vary. Look at the 2017 Eagles for example.
Alshon Jeffery, Nelson Agholor, and Zach Ertz were instrumental to the elite success of both Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. Yet, each player was very good at producing in a specific way. It's tot that they had very limited skill sets, but Jeffery and Ertz certainly didn’t beat defenses with run-after-the-catch ability. Agholor wasn’t a top-tier route-runner himself.
Smith, Brown, and Goedert certainly have their strengths and weaknesses as well, but they are much more “do-it-all” type of weapons in comparison to that 2017 trio.
That is a big advantage when your best pass catchers can win any way necessary. They become a quarterback's security blankets.
For a few years, some around the Eagles saw a security blanket almost as a weakness.
Remember when an anonymous source said Wentz was throwing to Ertz too much in 2018?
While part of the frustration was justified since it came from the fact that the passing game was not able to attack a defense in many ways, having a security blanket and players with strong chemistry isn’t a bad thing. It is crucial to success.
When those security blankets cause problems for a defense at every level, there will never be complaints about over usage.
Hurts has grown a strong bond with these three receivers, both on and off the field.
It could go a long way in his development, and it will go a long way towards the team's production in 2022.