David Carr, a former NFL quarterback and current NFL Network analyst, believes the Philadelphia Eagles should start Marcus Mariota over Jalen Hurts in the future.
‘I’d say he’d be a better quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles,’ Carr said of Mariota. ‘He would be more productive right now. We’ll see you in the playoffs later, Jalen, when you’re healthy.’
‘Clearly, Jalen isn’t at ease reading a defense in a drop-back pass scenario. Some might even say he’s not very good at it,’ Carr continued.
‘If you’re Philly, you have to have a serious conversation. And you have to ask yourself, “Is it better for us to play Marcus Mariota right now and let Jalen recover fully?”‘ Carr said.
Carr proposed the idea while the Eagles are clearly in the playoff picture and are not in real danger of dropping below seventh place in the NFC.
Hurts left Philadelphia’s game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday to be evaluated for a concussion, and Mariota took his place.
Carr attributed Hurts’ unique benching to the bigger picture for the Eagles, who have a primary goal of winning the Super Bowl and should rest their star quarterback in games with no win-or-go-home stakes.
Carr believes it won’t matter whether Philadelphia is the No. 1 playoff seed or not, as evidenced by Sunday’s loss to San Francisco.
The Eagles have not declared Hurts injured and have not stated that the man they signed to a $255-million extension this offseason will not start Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Philadelphia also has games against the Seattle Seahawks, the Arizona Cardinals, and a pair of games against the New York Giants remaining in the regular season.
