Jalen Hurts Camp Update — August 31: No Backup Named Behind Him

Philadelphia kept four quarterbacks on the roster it announced Sunday — Jalen Hurts, Tanner McKee, Andy Dalton and rookie Cole Payton — with the backup order still unannounced, per Olivia Reiner at the Philadelphia Inquirer, who also has Nick Sirianni's only word on the room: "I feel good about both guys. I feel like it's a good room." Asked after the finale to name a backup, Sirianni declined — "We'll have to go back and look at everything on the tape," he said, per Vince Carey at the Northeast Times. The finale is why the question is open. McKee started Friday's 30 to 13 loss to Cincinnati and went 12 of 22 for 55 yards with an interception, completing nothing longer than five yards to a wide receiver; Dalton went 12 of 19 for a hundred four yards and a touchdown, capping an 11-play, 76-yard drive with a five-yard score to Carson Steele. Reuben Frank at NBC Sports Philadelphia scored the summer this way: round one a push, round two to McKee, round three to Dalton. Columnist Marcus Hayes at the Inquirer went further the day before the game, writing that the Eagles lack a real backup for a second straight year — his opinion, clearly labeled as one.

Hurts, meanwhile, ended the preseason where he spent it: on the sideline. No starters played in the finale, per Reiner and Jeff McLane at the Inquirer, so the answer to the first thing we said we'd check — whether he'd take any preseason snaps — is no, zero all summer. Asked about Hurts' roughly eight camp interceptions — that count is Jimmy Kempski's framing at PhillyVoice, not ours — Vic Fangio said: "It's good for the defense, which is good for the team. He's learning a new offense." The second thing we were watching, whether DeVonta Smith would get back to full team work, came back not quite: Smith reached seven-on-seven with a toe-tap touchdown at the last camp practice, per Kempski, while rookie Makai Lemon worked with the first-team offense that day and stayed for extra post-practice throwing with Hurts. The timing got better. It is not fixed, and no source in the window charts Smith, Dontayvion Wicks and Lemon taking team reps together.

One update we owe you: coming out of the Foxborough week, our Eagles episode told you McKee had made the backup job look decided. The finale reversed that, and the team has declined to rank the room — so that read is dead. The June frame on Hurts himself — seventh among quarterbacks in total production last season, roughly 30 percent of it on the ground, with the new passing offense as the risk — is unchanged, and the risk half now walks into Week One against Washington without a single live rep behind it. We'll be back once the opener gets close.

_Data via nflverse._