Chris Simms said he has a ton of respect for Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman and the job they’ve done with the Eagles.
Then he proceeded to tear apart their draft.
Simms, who spent seven years as an NFL quarterback, works these days as an analyst for NBC Sports, hosts Pro Football Talk Live on NBC Sports Radio and hosts the popular Unbuttoned NFL podcast. Simms appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Eagle Eye podcast on Thursday.
He didn't pull any punches when talking about the Eagles’ first two draft picks, TCU receiver Jalen Reager in the first round and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round.
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SIMMS ON JALEN HURTS:
What kind of QB is Hurts?
“As a quarterback, he's a below-average thrower. He does not really want to throw the ball. That was the big thing that I came away with in my evaluation. He’s not a great thrower, accuracy is below NFL average. Lamar Jackson, when you watched him coming out of Louisville, he wanted to throw first. He would sit there and go through progressions. Jalen Hurts, it was like if the first guy wasn’t wide open he was going to put his eyes down and look to run. So there’s a lot of developing to do as far as him as quarterback.”
What about his 40-3 record in college?
NFL
“When you start off the evaluation of a player as, ‘He’s a winner,’ and things like that, that always to me is a little scary because I’d rather hear he has a rocket right arm or unbelievable power or speed and then we can talk about the intangibles and things like that. To me, how gifted an athlete is he? I don’t think he’s as gifted as Taysom Hill. I don’t. But I understand that this is a new thing in the NFL and there’s certainly a little niche to having this type of player in your playbook.”
How is Hurt’s arm?
“The first time they see (Carson Wentz and Hurts) throw the football next to each other, this is going to silence a lot of the (talk about Hurts), I think. Where they’re going to say, ‘OK, all right, he’s a developmental project. He can’t throw the football anything like No. 11.’"
SIMMS ON JALEN REAGOR:
What was your reaction to the pick?
“I didn’t love that pick, either. I thought Justin Jefferson is clearly - head and shoulders - a better football player than Jalen Reagor. I understand what they saw on him and I understand they want somebody who can take the top off and be a deep threat but I think there were better options on the board to accomplish that. And maybe even trade down and still could have had better options on the board. Guys like K.J. Hamler, Chase Claypool, if you took them at the end of the first or early of the second. They fly on film. They are much more explosive than Jalen Reagor. I have concerns about Jalen Reagor.”
What exactly are those concerns?
“No. 1, not a real big guy. He is tough and physical, but his 4.47 (at the Combine), I didn’t watch film and go, ‘Oh, he just had a bad day running, he’s really a 4.3 guy.’ I thought his route running was really shabby. And I’m never a big fan of anybody being picked at 21 who ran a slower 5-10-5 (short shuttle) and 3-cone drill than I did. That to me is scary when your life is about running fast in short areas.”
For the record, Simms, drafted in the third round in 2003, did beat Reagor’s short shuttle time (4.31 to 4.46) but Reagor did edge him in the three-cone drill (7.31 to 7.38), although Reagor did rank 40th of 49 receivers who ran it.
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