Eagles’ Jalen Hurts Isn’t As Elite as You Think
As the Philadelphia Eagles sit at 8-2, atop the NFC East by a couple of games and riding a 6-game win streak, many outlets have already beforehand painted them as underdog Super Bowl contenders. The Eagles’ offense has been mighty on the ground, using their newest weapon of former Giants RB Saquon Barkley to help accomplish that 8-2 record. However, one problem exists with that style of play- what about fellow star QB Jalen Hurts and his usually dependable receiving corp?
Jalen Hurts has been a kind of MVP for the Eagles in the last few seasons, including a trip to Super Bowl 57, one of the only times Philly ever made it that far. However, in seasons since, he’s done kind of average at best. 23 touchdowns is nice, but pair that with the 15 interceptions he also threw, and you start to see why the 26-year-old Alabama QB doesn’t seem like MVP material all the way. And this season is no different.
Through 10 games this season, Hurts has 12 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, which is only good for a 62.4 QBR. Most signal callers would want their rating to be near the 100s, so that’s one major red flag. The other concern is how Hurts just flat-out isn’t throwing to his receivers as much with Barkley in the mix. Last season, they had DeAndre Swift, and he bagged way more rushing yards than Hurts and the rest of the team did. Clearly, the Eagles have been much more of a rushing team than a passing one, which would be fine if they didn’t stick to one technique all the time like they’ve been doing.
And who is Hurts causing pain to the most with the lack of passing game after game? AJ Brown for one has 600 recieving yards off 33 receptions in 7 games with just 3 scores, while his backup, Devonta Smith, an Alabama teammate of Hurts, has suffered even more, having 516 yards off 41 catches and 4 touchdowns. That’s just not right for the backup to have a slightly better season this far than the starter, regardless of whether or not said starter missed time with injury. Just last season, both had 7 receiving touchdowns each and both had over 100 receiving yards total. Now their numbers have significantly dwarfed.
This man is tired of Hurts disrespecting his receievers, especially because he is a proud owner of Devonta Smith, who like was just mentioned, had a stellar 2023 season, totaling 1066 yards on 81 catches and the aforementioned 7 touchdowns. On the other part of the offensive attack for the Eagles, Barkley has already well over 1000 rushing yards on the season, and he most likely did that just a couple of games prior, while Smith and Brown have done not nearly as much. And even TE Dallas Goedert has thrown the equation off, making almost as many receptions as Brown this season!
Now Hurts has added some rushing prowess of his own, with 11 rushing TDs on the season, but shouldn’t a QB throw for more touchdowns than run for them? A QB generally only runs when he can’t throw it downfield, and while it’s not the wrong thing to do so for 6 points, it really should be done if necessary before leaving it to the RBs. Hurts actually has the 2nd most rushing TDs this season in the entire league– and he’s one of just 3 QBs in the top 25.
Everyone else is an RB, and some are the consistently good ones, like Joe Mixon of the Texans, who had 3 more yesterday, Buffalo’s James Cook, one half of Detroit’s dynamic run duo in David Montgomery and even Barkley- Hurts’ own teammate! Even on paper, that doesn’t sound like a good thing. And it’s not like Hurts needs to run all the time anyway- he just does it because he can’t throw the dang ball at all. The 62.4 QBR he has right now? That’s only 8th best in the league and by a considerable margin, behind guys like Patrick Mahomes, who has an even worse TD-INT ratio at 15-11.
Other like Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Arizona’s Kyler Murray, Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Washington’s Jayden Daniels, a rookie no less, have better ratios themselves. Clearly, Jalen Hurts isn’t the elite QB you think he is, despite being the signal caller for a division leading Philadelphia Eagles team.
