Jalen Hurts Left Out Of Top 10 QBs In Poll Of NFL Execs

A year ago, Jalen Hurts was ranked amongst the best QBs in the league. A 1-7 stretch, including an embarrassing playoff exit, can change a lot though. ESPN recently polled a group of NFL executives, coaches, and scouts, and had them rank 11 different positions into a top 10. The QB one recently came out, and there was a notable omission, Jalen Hurts.

The Eagles QB came in 6th last season after his MVP-worthy campaign that had the Eagles in the Super Bowl. His down year last season though, which saw him rank near the top of the league in turnovers, pushed him outside of the top 10, and into the honorable mentions.

Jeremy Fowler, who was the main architect behind the survey, joined Get Up and tried to explain the big fall for Jalen Hurts.

The injury part should be clear to whoever watched him last season. He did not have the same mobility he had in 2022. he still was deadly on the Tush Push, but the read Option was nowhere near as effective because he was not the same threat to run. Hurts just lacked the burst that made him so deadly on those plays in 2022.

But as Fowler also mentioned, the problem went beyond even that. That offense he was running, was very stale. Nick Sirianni put his QB in a bad position. Case in point is the lack of a plan against the blitz. Teams would blitz like crazy, but Sirianni's offense kept calling for these long-developing plays that are obviously not blitz-beaters.

There weren't enough quick dump-offs or plays over the middle of the field. The Eagles WRs, despite being among the most talented in the league, ranked near the bottom of the league in average separation per route. That was coaching.

While other teams schemed their WRs open, the Eagles relied far too much on their talent beating the other teams' talent. It sometimes worked because the Eagles' offense had a lot of talent. But there are a lot of talented defenses too. Sometimes great players need help from the scheme, and they just did not get it last year.

That doesn't take Jalen Hurts off the hook. he had his own issues last year, and regressed in areas, often being too quick to bail out of the pocket, or not being fast enough to move off his first read. But Sirianni did not help him when he struggled.

Justin Herbert gets the benefit of the doubt due to bad coaching. It seems Jalen Hurts does not get that same treatment.

For me, it reeks of recency bias. There are QBs above him that have yet to do anything noteworthy in the NFL. Jalen Hurts struggled last year, but he is still better than Jared Goff and Dak Prescott. We have seen Prescott put up impressive numbers in the regular season just to fold in the playoffs too many times now for us to still say he is the better QB.

Hurts has a lot to prove. The actual analysis of Hurts in the piece makes sense. We will see what he looks like this year when hopefully healthier, and with Kellen Moore running the offense instead of Nick Sirianni.

What gets me is the bias behind leaving him out. Several people surveyed told Fowler that Hurts will never be a top 5 QB, despite the fact we saw him be the 2nd best QB in the NFL in 2022.

Is he coming off a down year? Sure. Did he deserve to fall down the rankings a bit? Yes. But the statement that he can't be in that top class is ridiculous. We saw Hurts go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, and arguably play better. Hurts was fantastic in that Super Bowl and over that entire season.

What other QBs in the NFL can we say performed like that in the Super Bowl? Brock Purdy was fine in his 1st Super Bowl appearance. He is not why they lost, but he also did nothing special to help them win. Jared Goff was a complete non-factor the 1 time he made the Super Bowl. Justin Herbert still has yet to make an impact in the playoffs. Playoff struggles have plagued Lamar Jackson.

Jalen Hurts has gotten there and played out of his mind. That should be worth something. But it is clear that because he doesn't fit the perfect mold of an NFL QB, certain people around the NFL will never give him credit. It is on Hurts to step up and prove them wrong this year.

Jalen Hurts is going to be the Eagles' Qb for a while. Coming off his MVP-caliber season, he signed a 5-year extension, making him the highest-paid player in NFL history. While that is a title that may not last long, considering Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are also in line for new contracts, it puts him in that top tier of QBs, which is exactly where he belongs. As expensive as he will be going forward, Jalen Hurts is worth every penny.

Hurts was the runner-up MVP. You could argue he played even better than the Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes. The Eagles lost just two games he played in last season. Yes, one of those was the Super Bowl, but it is hard to blame him for that given how well he played. And contrary to what some people say, he is not just a running QB. He developed into a hell of a pocket QB, with a QB rating over 100 in the pocket last season. Hurts threw 22 TDs with just 6 interceptions playing in the pocket last season. Yes, he can kill you with his legs. But he is just as capable of killing teams with his arm too.

And off the field, it is hard to find a player more beloved than him. AJ Brown came out in the offseason and said if the Eagles didn't pay Hurts, he would follow him wherever he goes. Ndamukong Suh went on the Rich Eisen show to gush about Hurts. You won't find a single guy Hurts plays with who has anything short of glowing praise.

Jalen Hurts is a star. And as much as this deal will cost, he is worth it. In case you forgot that fact, let's look back at some of his best performances from this past year.

Yes, the Eagles lost the Super Bowl. But it was not because of Jalen Hurts. He turned in what may be the best performance by the losing QB in Super Bowl history. 304 yards through the air, 70 on the ground, and 4 total TDs. He had an answer for everything the Chiefs did. When the Eagles trailed by 8 late in the game, he went down, rushed for a TD, then tied it up with a 2pt conversion. And maybe if his defense got a single stop and gave him a chance with time at the end of the game, he may have done it again for the win. 

Alas, that did not happen. The defense couldn’t get off the field. By the time Hurts got the ball back, it was with no time to do anything but a trick play. Still, he did everything in his power to win that game. Even after his fumble that went the other way for a TD, he came right back to get those points back for the Eagles. 

Hurts is a dynamic threat with his legs. But it is a discredit to him to talk about him as a running QB. Because he can be just as much of a threat with his arms. For proof of that, look no further than his performance vs the Titans. 380 passing yards, and 3 TDS. Two of those went to AJ Brown, and the other to Devonta Smith. Both of whom went for over 100 receiving yards.  

While having two dynamic WRs like Brown and Smith helps, they benefit from Hurts just as much. A great play needs both a great catch and a great throw. And that is what we saw on this connection in this game between Hurts and Brown.  

Of course, when Hurts does want to run, he can do so like an elite RB. When he faced the Packers, they thought they would throw him off by blitzing with man coverage. So Hurts just decided to run all over them. 157 yards on the ground in total. His passing numbers in this game did not jump off the charts. But they didn’t need to. The great thing about Hurts is that he can beat you in so many different ways. If you sell out to stop the run as the Titans did, he will shred you through the air. And if you don’t, like the Packers did, he will do this to you. 

If you liked that connection between Hurts and Brown in the Titans game, it happened 3 times vs the Steelers. Hurts had a way all year of throwing the deep ball to the exact right spot where only AJ Brown could make a play on it. That was on full display vs the Steelers. Hurts threw for 4 TDs, 3 on deep balls to Brown, and 285 total yards. It was another example of a game where Hurts didn’t even need his legs to make the other team pay. His arm did all the talking on this day. 

At one point, Carson Wentz was the answer for the Eagles at QB. It did not work out. The Eagles drafted Hurts, and by the next season, he had taken Wentz’s job, and Wentz was traded. A year after that, Wentz was on another new team and was facing off with Jalen Hurts. Hurts won that battle easily. While the Eagles' pass rush tormented Wentz, Hurts tormented the Commander’s secondary. 340 yards, 3 TDs, on the way to a 24-8 win. And most of the damage was in the first half before the Eagles took their foot off the gas.  

Hurts’ looked good in week 1. But it was not quite enough to answer questions people had of him coming into the season. His week 2 performance vs the Vikings did just that though. By the end of the Vikings game, he had thrown for 333 yards, 300 of which came in the first half, and put together some tough runs, to help carry the Eagles to a 24-7 win over the Vikings. All on Prime Time. It was Hurts announcing to the league that he was not the same QB they saw last season. A promise he kept up all season through the Super Bowl.