Concern over Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ leadership style has shockingly grown in recent weeks. Over the last month, the All-Pro quarterback has been called “not approachable” by anonymous sources within the organization with others frustrated at the signal-caller’s lack of change in personality after dropping six of the final seven games in the 2023.
Those reports all seemed to come to a head Tuesday afternoon when NBC Sports’ own Barrett Brooks cited a previous conversation with Eagles punt-returner Britain Covey as another reason why Hurts’ leadership has been called into question on the National Football Show with Dan Sileo.
“Covey said, well, I’ve always had the time to go in and talk to any coach. An open door policy,” Brooks told Sileo. “But I didn’t because I was scared to death to go in there. He equated that to the same thing as Jalen Hurts. I believe I can go talk to him, but I never did because I was scared to death.”
Less than a day after having his name dropped in a piece disparaging his quarterback, Covey made sure to set the record straight and refuted the report. “Normally I don’t respond to things like this because I hope that people don’t believe everything they hear/read. Jalen is the best leader I’ve ever been around. So you can hear it straight from me, not someone else,” Covey responded in a tweet. “I NEVER said he was unapproachable, or I was scared of him.”
Covey later said that Hurts would “eat lunch with the ‘lowest’ ranking guys on the team” and called him a great teammate. Having a teammate go out of his way to correct a report by someone who has been in the locker room with the organization all year is just the latest turn of events Philadelphia has dealt with in recent weeks.
Joe Santoliquito on the Bleeding Green Network reported earlier this week that several people inside the organization believed “Hurts should have been a better leader—and is capable of being a better leader. He shuts himself off from others and he defers to A.J. Brown.” Santoliquito also made it clear that people within the NovaCare complex described Hurts as a “like a prima-donna (bleep).”
So who is to be believed? Covey is one of the first teammates to publicly defend Philadelphia’s franchise quarterback. Brooks’ comments were also corrected based on the Philadelphia Inquirer article written by Jeff McLane. Regardless of what the future holds for the Eagles entering an important 2024 offseason, Philadelphia isn’t moving on from Hurts just yet. And it might make the team closer after all these different rumors have flown around.
