The Eagles’ quarterback factory continues to churn out players on its assembly line, but head coach Nick Sirianni isn’t willing to move on from Jalen Hurts at the top of his depth chart.
Following Monday’s trade of backup quarterback Joe Flacco to the Jets, Sirianni spoke to the media and reinforced his confidence in Hurts, who has struggled in recent weeks. The Eagles are 2-5 after their latest disappointing loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, and concerns about Hurts’ ability haven’t been quieted over the past couple of weeks.
Still, Sirianni isn’t swaying.
“I have a ton of faith in Jalen,” Sirianni said. “He will be our starting quarterback.”
With Flacco headed back to the Meadowlands for a conditional sixth-round pick, the Eagles will promote former Jacksonville Jaguars starting quarterback Gardner Minshew to the backup spot. Minshew has been a healthy scratch for all seven games this season after being acquired for a conditional sixth-round pick from the Jaguars in August.
Sirianni was asked if he was curious about seeing Minshew enter the lineup ahead of Hurts, and the head coach pushed back at that notion.
“We feel really good about Gardner being our number two,” Sirianni said.
To fill Flacco’s spot, the Eagles claimed former Miami Dolphins quarterback Reid Sinnett off waivers ahead of the trade. Sinnett will serve as a developmental third quarterback behind Minshew and Hurts. Sinnett has never played in a regular-season game, but the Eagles were impressed by his performance this summer.
“Reid had a lot of good plays in preseason this year,” Sirianni said. “We thought we added a good prospect to our roster.”
Sirianni said the Eagles ultimately made the Flacco trade because it was a win-win-win move for the veteran quarterback, the Jets and the Eagles. Flacco didn’t play a snap for the Eagles during the regular season, but he still was able to land them a draft pick in the mid-season swap.
“Joe is just a great person to be around, a great pro to be around,” Sirianni said. “Had a phenomenal preseason, and was really good for our [quarterback] room, but the opportunity arose for him to go and be able to contribute somewhere else, and then obviously, us, we get a pick for that. But our time with Joe Flacco was good.”
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Mike Kaye may be reached at mkaye@njadvancemedia.com.
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