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Jalen Hurts missed a couple of games in the final weeks of the 2022 season and the Eagles put themselves at risk of losing the top seed in the NFC playoffs with a pair of losses, so the team knows the value of a backup quarterback.
Thursday night’s game against the Browns didn’t do much to inspire confidence in their current No. 2. Marcus Mariota was 9-of-17 for 86 yards and an interception while taking three sacks and overthrowing his intended receivers on multiple occasions.
“I was sloppy,” Mariota said. “I can do a better job of getting our guys operating cleaner and more efficiently. But that is what preseason is for. Kind of get some of that stuff ironed out. Clean off some of the rust. We’ll find ways to get better.”
Upgrading from Mariota at this point in the offseason would be difficult and Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said the team has to figure out ways to put Mariota in positions to succeed when they have to put the ball in his hands.
“It’s also us finding out what he does well too,” Sirianni said. “What he sees well, what looks good to him. I know he didn’t play the way he wanted to tonight. I wouldn’t say he struggled the last game. You guys might have said that. I didn’t say that. He ran around and made some good plays and moved the ball really well with him in there against Baltimore. So tonight, yeah obviously not up to his standard, but it’s about us finding what works for him. And that’s just us learning him. That’s us working together to figure that out.”
In a perfect world, the Eagles won’t have to play Mariota in games that matter. The NFL is rarely a perfect world, however, and that means there’s some work to do to make sure the train keeps running under any circumstances.
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