Coming out of college, one of Jalen Hurts’ strengths was his leadership ability, and after his MVP-caliber season in 2022, his teammates continued to talk about what Hurts brought to the table as a leader, which was all positive.

However, after starting 10-1, the Eagles would lose seven of their last eight games, including a loss to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

After the season, reports surfaced that some players questioned Hurts as a leader. In addition, some people reportedly said Hurts was different after getting the big contract last offseason.

At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni discussed Hurts’ leadership in 2023.

“There’s not a book that is written on ‘this is how you lead,’” Sirianni said. “People lead in different ways. One thing I learned early about in leadership is that you have to be yourself, because if you lead and you’re trying to be somebody you’re not when you lead, that gets seen through. That’s the same scenario I was put in when I became the head coach or an offensive coordinator or whatever it was. Everybody has to lead their way, and Jalen has special qualities that people will follow and people will want to follow. And he’s got to do what he needs to do to lead in that way. Some people’s leadership style is loud and aggressive; some people’s leadership style is by example; and some it’s a mixture of both.

“So, Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, right? And [WR] A.J. [Brown] needs to lead how he needs to lead. Whoever it is. [CB Darius] Slay’s got to lead how he needs to lead. Because that’s leadership, right, is being who you are and leading by example. At the end of the day, if you’re leading by example, that’s a great style of leadership. So, Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, and I think he’s done a great job of doing so. And he’ll get, just like he has done in other things, he’ll get better at that part of his game, and he’ll get better, just because I know he’ll continue to work on getting better no matter what part of the game he needs to work at.”

Last season was an off-year for Hurts as he was one of the league leaders in turnovers(20). He wasn’t at his best in 2023, and Sirianni was asked what Hurts needs to improve in 2024.

“Jalen’s obviously had high moments of success,” Sirianni said. “Last year, in 2022, a runner-up for — obviously up there for the MVP award. And through the first 11 games [in 2023], the same thing here, and then we had a falloff as a team. It’s not just Jalen. It’s not just me. It’s our team, that we had a falloff as a team those last six weeks that we all need to get better from.

“But Jalen’s played some really outstanding football. Here’s what I know about Jalen: whatever we see that he needs to work on or he sees that he needs to work on, he’s going to get better at that because he puts everything he has into it, and that’s a form of leadership too.

“Like Jalen sees something that he feels is a weakness of his or we feel like is a weakness of his, he’s going to dive everything that he has and pour everything that he has into it to get better from that. Like that’s leadership. That’s a form of leadership.”

When Hurts was winning, he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but when he started losing and not playing well, he’s one of the worst quarterbacks ever; the bottom line is this: winning cures everything, so if Hurts is playing well and winning, everything will be okay again. 

Despite everything that’s going on, Hurts is still only 25 and growing as a player and a leader; he’ll get better in all those areas, but it might take time.