Jalen Hurts Throws 1 Of The Best Deep Balls In The NFL

Jalen Hurts gets a lot of crap for his passing stats. If you compare him to other QBs by yards or passing TDs, he does not quite stack up. But those numbers are misleading. The context they leave out is how little the Eagles actually throw the ball. They had the fewest passing attempts in the NFL.

There are a few reasons for that. For one, the Eagles led late in a lot of games, making them run the ball even more late in games. But they also had the best running game in the NFL, which Hurts is part of, and they quite smartly decided to stick with running the ball until someone stopped it. The Passing Game looked pretty good in the Super Bowl when the Chiefs forced them to throw.

But look past those counting stats. Look at the metrics that are measured by attempt, and you see a different story unfold. Namely, a pretty efficient passing game and an elite ability to throw the ball deep.

Pro Football Focus recently did a whole piece on the best deep passing teams in the league. Now I do not put much stock in PFF's grades. There is no clear explanation of how those grades are even measured. But the site itself has some really interesting stats. Namely, they measure yards per attempt, yards per route run, and EPA. You can even put in filters and measure stats on throws of over 20 yards down the field.

The Eagles had the highest EPA Per Play on passes 20 yards down the field in the league. EPA stands for expected points added. It is designed to measure how well a team performs compared to their expectation on a play-by-play basis. The Eagles' EPA Per Play on deep passes was .941. Over .1 points higher than the next best team.

If EPA is too nerdy of a stat for you, how about completion rate? Hurts led the NFL in completion rate on those deep passes (49.1%). Despite having the 5th fewest attempts for qualified QBs, he had the 3rd most TDs on those throws with 9. He threw just 3 interceptions on those deep passes, 2 of which came in the 1st two weeks.

Maybe you dont like stats at all. You might prefer to go by the eye test. Well then, just watch this throw, and tell me he doesn't throw a great deep ball.

That one is from 3 years ago. If you want a more recent example, check out this TD from the Super Bowl.

How about this one?

Or this one?

Are the WRs making great catches on some of these balls? Yes. But Hurts has the touch to put the ball where his WR can make the play. He has that connection with Brown and Smith where he can throw it up to them, where only they can go and get it. That is not just good WR play, it is good QB play.

Does Jalen Hurts have flaws as a QB? Of course. Every QB does. Sometimes he holds the ball too long and takes bad sacks. Sometimes he is too quick to leave the pocket.

But when he does stay in the pocket, he is an elite pocket passer. When he uncorks a deep ball, almost no QB throws a better ball. The stats back that up, and so does the eye test.