Jalen Hurts was already a pain for opposing defenses. And that was before the Philadelphia Eagles signed Saquon Barkley.
By adding the star running back into the mix, the Eagles have a true pick-your-poison backfield. Sell out to stop Barkley? Hurts can keep the ball and punish teams with his legs. Overcommit to the quarterback? Good luck giving Barkley plenty of space.
“It’s like a two-headed snake,” Saints linebacker Willie Gay Jr. said. “It’s as simple as that. He’ll bite you on this side, he’ll bite you on that side.”
Sunday’s matchup against the Eagles will stress two areas the Saints struggled to defend last year. In 2023, the Saints gave up the fifth-most rushing yards to opposing quarterbacks and ranked 22nd against the run. The Eagles, by contrast, ranked third in quarterback rushing yards and eighth in rushing.
This season, Hurts has 118 yards through two games. That would be 24th among all rushers.
And Barkley, with his 204 rushing yards, ranks fourth.
“Hurts’ ability to hurt you — no pun intended — with his feet makes him a significant challenge to deal with,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said. “They make you play 11-on-11 football, and they do a really good job of it. They’ve got a really tough scheme.”
In the offseason, the Saints tried to address their lack of run defense in several ways. First, in free agency, New Orleans signed Gay — a former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker often used as a spy to defend quarterbacks, including Hurts in Super Bowl LVII. Then, in the draft, the Saints used a sixth-round pick on beefy defensive tackle Khristian Boyd. And just before the start of the season, the Saints acquired another big body upfront when they traded for defensive tackle John Ridgeway III in a deal with the Washington Commanders.
So far, the additions have seen minimal playing time. The Saints haven’t faced run-heavy teams to begin the season, and their offense built such a lead early in those games that opponents tried to make up ground through the air. Boyd has logged 31 defensive snaps (24% of the team’s total), while Gay (20 snaps) and Ridgeway (16 snaps) have played fewer than that.
Is this the week that changes?
Defensive coordinator Joe Woods smiled and said “it’s possible” when asked if Gay could be part of the game plan against the Eagles, adding the Saints want to take advantage of Gay’s athleticism. Allen, though, said the Saints deploy a lot of two-linebacker looks, which can make it hard for Gay — the third guy behind starters Demario Davis and Pete Werner — to see the field.
As much as they run the ball, the Eagles don’t often do it out of conventional looks. According to Next Gen Stats, Philadelphia leads the NFL in snaps out of shotgun — a formation opposing teams rarely counter with their base defense (three linebackers).
The Eagles will design runs for Hurts in shotgun, and the quarterback will make defenses pay by scrambling whenever there’s room available to take off.
“I tell my guys, ‘You have to cover him twice,’” Woods said. “‘You’ve got to cover the initial route and then anticipate there are going to be times where he’s going to scramble to keep the play alive.’ ... That’s what type of game it’s going to be.”
Added Gay: “They spread you out to run the ball, honestly. They try to lighten the box by getting empty, taking the tight ends away from the perimeter. And they try to run the ball up the middle, and things of that nature.”
The Eagles have kept those tendencies in place, even with a new offensive coordinator. After hiring Kellen Moore in the offseason, Philadelphia has faced a light box — fewer than seven defenders — on a league-high 68% of its rushing attempts through two games. In addition to the way they use formations, the Eagles also have dynamic weapons on the outside with wide receivers A.J. Brown (currently hurt) and DeVonta Smith, as well as tight end Dallas Goedert.
Last year, the Saints saw how fast games could change when they failed to properly contain a mobile quarterback. Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, for example, had two runs of 20-plus yards when the Jaguars beat the Saints on Thursday Night Football last October. And in November, then Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs carved up the Saints by escaping pressure and extending plays.
In all, opposing quarterbacks averaged 5.4 yards per rushing attempt against the Saints in 2023 — the most in the league.
“We definitely have got to (have) great rush awareness,” defensive end Chase Young said. “Jalen, he’s a hell of a quarterback. So we definitely know what we’re getting ourselves into.”