The NFL world is finally acknowledging Jalen Hurts as a rising star for the Philadelphia Eagles. The team’s early success has focused the spotlight directly on No. 1. After all, he is the quarterback, normally the head honcho of the football team, and these birds are the only undefeated squad in the NFL at 5-0.
This Eagles’ roster is loaded from top to bottom, and while that has played a significant role in their early-season success, Hurts is currently in the MVP conversation nationally.
And everybody is recognizing it. ESPN’s Domonique Foxworth has been critical of Hurts in the past but has the Eagles as the third-best NFL team in his power rankings, behind the Bills and Chiefs.
“The offensive and defensive line is outstanding, obviously, that’s the key to it (their undefeated record),” Foxworth said. And obviously Hurts is so much better than he was last year.”
Hurts’ stats this season don’t jump off the page to the casual fan’s gaze, but when you link it to the team’s offensive ratings you see Hurts’ major impact, and the stats don’t always reflect his clutch gene. The former Alabama and Oklahoma QB has made the anticipated leap to one of the best players in the league. He’s definitely setting himself up for a major bag.
Hurts has thrown for 1,359 yards and four touchdowns against two interceptions, has a QB rating of 97.4, per NFL stats. In five games that’s not a lot of touchdowns thrown, but Hurts isn’t a strong-armed pocket passer. He’s quite the opposite, as he’s made a name for himself as one of the best dual-threat signal-callers in the league.
The fact that his 1,359 passing yards has him at No. 7 in the NFL, just behind gunslingers such as Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Justin Herbert, and Patrick Mahomes and in front of players like Joe Burrow and Aaron Rodgers, shows how much he has improved as a passer.
This was his main critique from last season, and analysts continued to hammer on how he had to improve his throwing mechanics and his passing skill if he wanted to be a starting-caliber quarterback. Safe to say he put the work in during the offseason.
Hurts is averaging 271 passing yards a game, which is well over last year’s average of 209 passing yards, also putting him on pace to trounce his career season-high in yards. With that being said, that’s not all he’s doing to guide Philly to wins.
On top of his clear improvement in the passing game, Hurts and the Eagles’ ground dominance has been that game-changing dynamic that keeps their offense as malleable as possible. Well, in reality their running game has been the best part of their offense for the better half of two years now. They owned the league’s best rushing offense last season, and this season the Eagles rank fourth in the league through Week 5.
This is mainly because of a dominant offensive line and their shifty, strong QB who averages 53.2 rushing yards per game and has added an extra six rushing touchdowns in five games onto his ledger as well.
This extra dimension of Philly’s rushing attack keeps defenses on their toes, and the fact that he is showing that he can throw the ball well makes this offense scary. The strategy of Philly utilizing RPOs and read options gives Miles Sanders or Hurts the option to tear the defense up and leaves defenders guessing who will be taking the carry, or the choice of Hurts pulling back and throwing it to AJ Brown, Devonta Smith or Dallas Goedert.
This offense is scary good, and they only have the potential to get better. Hurts’ star has been growing, and after a win against a good Cardinals team Hurts is now entering elite playmaking territory with his skill set.
Though he felt like he let his team down in that win against Arizona, this only adds to the idea that they are nowhere near their ceiling. Opponents and secondaries beware.
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