The Eagles QB spoke about the opportunity to play in South America and why he’s so thankful. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts spoke to reporters in Brazil on Thursday, and talked about this unique opportunity, how he’s approaching this year as a leader, and why playing in South America is surreal. “I’m very excited. I’m excited to be here. It’s a beautiful place, and just being blessed and expressing my gratitude for being able to play in general, it didn’t really matter where.” Hurts said that he thinks about growing up in East Houston and trying to find any piece of grass to play and throw the ball around a bit, all for the love of the game, and to see how far that’s taken him — playing internationally —, he has an immense sense of gratitude. The QB talked about the game of football expanding, internationally and with flag football coming to the 2028 Olympics, and how he’s excited to see a game that can be for anybody being introduced more broadly. Hurts acknowledged that it’s very important to come out strong and get a win in a season opener. It’s important that they come out playing fast, and he’s excited to see where this team goes this season, and it all starts with Friday’s game. “I think the number one thing you want to go out there and do is play together, play as a team. That’s the most important thing. No man is an island, you must draw your strength from the next guy. And everyone truly has to do their job for the betterment of the team. So, I’m just excited for that journey, the new roles and new responsibilities we all have on this team. I’m excited to go to work with this group, for sure.” Hurts later emphasized the point of playing together, and explained that is how he’s approached things as a leader coming off the disappointing end of the 2023 season. No individual is going to get it done on their own, they have to do it as a team, but the QB is proud of the work that everyone has done to continue to get better — in the morning, at night, and on off days. His recurring message was how thankful he is for the opportunity, as a kid from East Houston, Texas to be playing American football in South America, and how he’s excited for the atmosphere on Friday night.

The Eagles head coach spoke to reporters in Brazil, and talked about the travel, opportunity, and taking pride in helping grow the game of American football. The Eagles have landed in Brazil, and head coach Nick Sirianni — whose voice has grown more hoarse over the last week — spoke to reporters ahead of their first practice abroad. Sirianni acknowledged that Devin White tweaked his ankle the other day in practice, but said the guys behind him are ready. He wouldn’t confirm that Nakobe Dean will be the starter, but noted the young linebacker had a good, consistent camp and his leadership, playmaking ability, and tackling has shined. The head coach spent most his press conference — that he likened to the ones leading up to the Super Bowl — talking about the opportunity to play in Brazil, his first-ever international game, and admitting they were going to miss Eagles fans in Philly. An international reporter asked about the players who made comments regarding safety concerns in Brazil, and whether there was any misinformation or discussion about security protocols. Sirianni said that everything has been world class since they touched down on Thursday night, noting the hotel staff, airport staff, and people at the stadium have been awesome. “We know how passionate this country is on their sports, and we’re so excited to be here and playing in front of — we like to think that Philadelphia is the best sports town in America, and we know that Brazil is a great sports country, and we’re just getting to know more and more.” The head coach went on to say that the goal is to always keep their game prep the same, whether they are in Philly or traveling, and there were some unknowns in that regard — although he also acknowledged there are unknowns in any city you play that isn’t at home. Sirianni was also asked about preparing the team to play in the warm, dry weather, especially at night, in Sao Paolo. He explained that they’ve had some good hot days in training camp, so they think they’re ready to handle the weather in Brazil. He was excited to be able to use this game to help them prepare for their game in Florida in a few weeks. The head coach talked about it being a home game but not having home field advantage, and made sure to pitch to the Brazilian crowd to be loud when the Packers have the ball, and to be a little quieter when the Eagles have it. But, Sirianni said that they have to be prepared for it to be loud the whole time, and whether it feels like a home game or away game, they have to be ready for both possibilities. “We’re bummed that we don’t get to play our opener in front of our fans in Philadelphia, but we’re so excited.” He was asked what it means to start the season on international soil, and in a place the NFL is playing for the very first time. “This game is awesome. So, the fact that we can spread this game to the rest of the world, I take a lot of pride in that.” Sirianni talked about growing up and how American football players start off playing under the lights on Friday nights, and this game allows them to step back into that moment one more time. He said football is an emotional game, and thinking about getting the opportunity to play on Friday night again gives him goosebumps.

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Predicting the winners of this week’s football matchups. The 2024 NFL season is HERE! Football is back and so are the Bleeding Green Nation writers’ picks. Every week, we’ll predict the winners of every game on the schedule. We’ll tally the results along the way and see who comes out on top at the end of the season. Feel free to post your own predictions or discuss the writer predictions in the comments. You, the reader, can also join in on the fun by voting for who you think will win the games (scroll down for polls). I’ll tally those results in a “BGN Community” section under our picks table generated by Tallysight. The community finished in second place again last year. That was behind John Stolnis as the overall winner. John prevented my threepeat … just like I had previously prevented his. Let’s see if there’s finally a non-BLG or non-Stolnis winner for the first time in a long time! When it comes to this week’s Philadelphia Eagles game, the Birds were three-point favorites earlier this week but that line has since shrunk to two points on FanDuel. Uh oh. For the Eagles’ sake, I don’t like the line moving in Green Bay’s favor. For my sake, I was already taking the Packers to win, so … MAKE YOUR PICKS Vote for your picks below. (If you can’t see the polls, click here and open the article from the front page.)