Things are going to be a lot different for the Philadelphia Eagles this season.
For the first time since the 2010 season, Jason Kelce will not be the starting center.
The 36-year-old center retired during the offseason and will be missed. Kelce was getting better as he got older, earning first-team All Pro honors in his final three seasons with the team.
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Jason and brother Travis Kelce talked about Jalen Hurts and the new responsibilities he has without Jason manning the line of scrimmage anymore on a recent episode of "New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce."
Travis first brought up what the Eagles quarterback said about what went on in prior seasons.
"(Hurts) take was we had a great player in Jason Kelce who took on a lot of responsibility and as a result of that I was told not to worry about a lot of things and my eagerness to learn over the years was kind of halted." Travis said.
Jason responded with his displeasure about how the Philadelphia media have spun Hurts’ comments into a negative thing.
"There’s a lot of media in Philadelphia that are blowing this into a negative assessment, like he is making an excuse or something like that, and I’ve shared this exact sentiment with Jalen," Jason said.
"I think he’s at the stage now in his career that he can take that next step forward in making a lot of these protection calls and things that I did for him early in his career when he was a young player."
Jason continued about how he thinks Hurts taking on the responsibilities at the line of scrimmage is going to require the quarterback to be more of a leader.
"But I think him taking on this as a responsibility is going to accelerate his game across the board. I think he’s ready for it. One, from a knowledge base, two, I think he’s ready for it just by being a more experienced player."
"He’s going to be more of a leader and needs to be more of a leader and have more of this responsibility on him. I’m excited to see how this goes for him this year."
Travis added that Jason saying Hurts needs to be more of a leader is not a negative thing.
"You can’t take anything negative out of that. All you can take is that he’s taken the next step. He’s getting better, ladies and gentlemen. So don’t take that as a negative thing just because it’s something he didn’t have to worry about that in the years past," Travis said.
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"Understand that he wants to know, and now he’s putting in the work to figure those things out so that he can play better, he can play faster, he can play more confident."
Travis compared what Hurts is going through to Patrick Mahomes' development as a quarterback.
"Pat Mahomes talks about how he couldn’t even read a defense the first year he was in the league and it all it — you have to find that groove of wanting to get better, and really you have to be surrounded by coaches and players and people that’ll tell you exactly how to do that and how to figure things out," Travis continued.
"I just think, I think it’s blown way out of proportion if you’re looking at that as a negative thing. All I see is that he is getting better and that he’s looking for ways to improve in 2024."
Jason thinks that Hurts is ready to take command of the line of scrimmage.
"I think he’s ready to take this next step and I think, in some ways, it is going to help him become a better player. I don’t think you read into this negatively. I think, Trav, you had on it really well as well. I’m excited to watch how Jalen grows as a player."
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The Eagles open their season against the Green Bay Packers on Friday in Brazil, and Jason is unsure of what the Packers are going to throw at Hurts and the offense.
"It’s always interesting to play new coordinators Week 1, especially guys that weren’t promotions from within. The Eagles are playing a coordinator, Jeff (Hafley), I forget his last name. But he spent like a year in San Fran and then, like the last five of six years been in college. It’s like, what is this guy going to do?" Jason said.
"I don’t really know what to expect. The Packers, for the most part, have been a 3-4 system as of late, and this guy’s kind of got a lot of stuff in his veins, so it’ll be interesting to see what it looks like."
The Eagles raced out to a 10-1 start last season but flamed out, losing five of their last six games and losing 32-9 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round.
They especially struggled with handling the blitz down the stretch, and Jason knows that the Packers are going to bring the heat on Friday.
"The (Eagles) coaches have had a full offseason, they know that they are going to get blitzed a lot early this year based on how last year ended. They’ve been focused on different ways to defeat the blitz from getting rid of the football to checks to putting the protection in ways that are conducive for the play called."
"I think all of these things that they’ve been working on all offseason is going to lead to a much more productive offense especially in regards to that."
In his post-playing career, Jason will be appearing on ESPN’s "Monday Night Football Countdown" in addition to his weekly podcast "New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce."
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