Don’t Believe The Hype
Franchise QBs are created by success, not appointment
The Eagles wanted what they were badgered into believing was mandatory in 2016, so they threw two first-round draft picks, a second, a third and a fourth at the Cleveland Browns and bought themselves the right to draft Carson Wentz.
Predictably, they were praised by the public, bowed to by the press and characterized as all-knowing by draftniks, TV talkers and a generation of sports fans conditioned to believe that if certain personnel-selection rules were followed, success would be guaranteed.
Four years later, the Eagles would spend the 53rd overall pick in the draft on Jalen Hurts and be roundly characterized as clowns for straying from flimsy, magazinerack draft lists that might have recommended they hire a tackle.
But Jalen Hurts was the better quarterback in college.
And Jalen Hurts is a better quarterback for the 2020 Eagles. And Jalen Hurts will be a better quarterback for the Eagles for the next 10 years.
At whatever risk of vandalism to their reputations, select visionaries were willing to say as much at the time. They would not, could not and never would be dragged into a 21st-century cult-think that demanded every NFL organization should have a … Franchise Quarterback.
A phenomenon born from the sportstalk explosion of the earliest part of the century, and particularly out of the eternal screaming of TV panelists determined to cram any topic to one easy-to-carry solution, the search for the Franchise Quarterback became something of a solemn obligation. An NFL team either needed to land one, or at least give an honest effort to land