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Top 100 Ranking Revealed, Will We Ever Have a Normal Jalen Hurts Discussion?
By Sean Barnard
Published:
Jalen Hurts is as polarizing a quarterback you will see, through no fault of his own. His biggest critics will always point to the supporting cast being more of a driving force for his success than his own talent. While this falls a bit more on deaf ears with a Super Bowl ring on his finger and Super Bowl MVP to his name, these are conversations that will not be escaped.
There’s been plenty of attention paid to the NFL Top 100 player list and the summer-long countdown to #1. This is voted on exclusively by active players as a way to gauge how they view their peers. The Eagles have seen plenty of key members of the roster revealed already, with Jordan Mailata ranked 69th, Cooper DeJean ranked 60th, Quinyon Mitchell ranked 49th, Jalen Carter ranked 43rd, A.J. Brown ranked 29th, Zack Baun ranked 26th, and Lane Johnson ranked 23rd. Finally, it was revealed that Jalen Hurts is 19th overall:
For what it’s worth, Hurts was ranked number three on this same list in 2023, and 15th last year. After winning the Super Bowl, outplaying Patrick Mahomes on the biggest stage, and walking away with Super Bowl MVP, he dropped to 19th.
The case for why this is too low
What more do you want the guy to do?
They say the NFL is a results-based industry, but different standards seemingly apply to Hurts than any other quarterback. For the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and the other franchise quarterbacks, the goal is simply to win a Super Bowl this year. For Jalen Hurts, it’s win a Super Bowl but don’t hand the ball off to Saquon Barkley too much, don’t let the defense be too good, don’t be over-reliant on the top wide receivers, and lead the league in every notable passing statistic.
We live in an era where every play and stat is dissected and criticized at a greater rate than ever before. While there’s some value in the advanced metrics, there comes a certain point where we must just recognize what is happening right in front of us. The Eagles are 46-20 with Jalen Hurts as the starter throughout his career and 37-10 across the past three seasons. He also is 6-3 in his playoff career and his 69.7% active winning percentage trails only Mahomes, Jackson, and Jayden Daniels among active quarterbacks.
It’s also worth noting that Hurts defeated Daniels and the Commanders in both the Conference Championship and the regular season matchup he was healthy for last year. Hurts and the Eagles also took down Jackson and the Ravens 24-19 on the road. Mahomes is looked at as the gold standard of quarterback play and the inevitable hurdle that all quarterbacks must clear. Yet Hurts is the only player that has taken him down on the Super Bowl stage, and did so in dominant fashion just a few months ago. Even in the 2022 Super Bowl, Hurts pretty convincingly outplayed Mahomes despite coming up short in the final box score. The Eagles’ franchise quarterback finished with 374 combined passing and rushing yards and four total touchdowns in the loss, compared to Mahomes’ 226 total yards and three touchdowns.
If you like watching football through a spreadsheet, Jalen Hurts probably isn’t going to be your guy. But if you like a QB who will find whatever the best pathway to win is, you aren’t going to do much better than the two-time Pro Bowler. There aren’t 18 players in the league who this applies to at the same rate.
The case for why this is too high
It’s fair to point out that Hurts threw for just 2,903 yards last season, which marked the lowest number since stepping in as a full time starter. Hurts ranked 20th among quarterbacks in total passing yards, tied for 20th in passing touchdowns, and was 10th in QBR. The addition of Barkley changed the makeup of the Eagles’ offense in a major way. Barkley broke the single-season NFL rushing record last year and finished with 2,005 rushing yards while sitting out the last game.
There’s no disputing that the Eagles are a talented football team. They had an advantage at multiple position groups on a week-to-week basis and look on track to hold the same outlook this season. The offensive line has consistently been among the most dominant in the league, the secondary took huge strides forward last year following the addition of the impact rookies, and Barkley had one of the best individuals seasons by a running back of all time.
Whether Hurts is a product of his environment or the glue that keeps it all together is an answer we will never truly know. The Justin Herberts of the world will always point to their underwhelming supporting cast as an excuse for their lack of success. But it makes more sense to give the benefit of the doubt to the guy who is actually getting the job done rather than a guy who theoretically could if the situation was different. I also challenge anyone to name a Super Bowl-winning quarterback that didn’t have a high level of talent on the roster around them.
Maybe it’s true that if you were to put Hurts on a less-talented roster his flaws would be further exposed. But this is not to act like Hurts hasn’t been been the bus driver of this Eagles team when he needs to. Hurts was firmly in the MVP mix during his 2022 season, in which he threw for 3,701 yards, 22 touchdowns, and six interceptions across his 15 games played. He added 760 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns with his legs as well and has tallied double-digit rushing touchdowns in each of the past four seasons. Hurts’ 42 rushing touchdowns from 2022-2024 are more than any other player in the NFL. Sure, he gets paid the big bucks to throw the ball, but Hurts is a legitimate weapon around the goal line with his size and strength and the Eagles depend on this often. He may have his Avengers alongside of him for battle, but this doesn’t mean Hurts’ isn’t still Captain America.
We will never have a normal Jalen Hurts discussion
The most noteworthy part of all of this is that these conversations will not be going anywhere anytime soon. There have been some impressive gymnastics to move the goal posts for how Hurts should be judged and he’s just five seasons into his NFL career.
It’s refreshing that Hurts falls directly at the bottom of the list of people who care at all about this discussion. He let everyone know that he had a purpose before anyone had an opinion and his ability to dodge questions designed to put him in a bad spot are as impressive as anything he has done on the football field. Beyond the scheme fit and execution on the field, Hurts’ mental toughness may be the larger reason for the success. This is the same guy who was benched in the National Championship at Alabama for Tua Tagovailoa, stuck around for an entire season as a backup looking to earn his job back, and then transferred to Oklahoma where he concluded his college career. Both the halftime benching in college and plenty of the valleys that have been hit in Philadelphia would be enough to sink plenty of other players in the same spot.
A quarterback plays a more linear role in the team’s results than any other player in any other sport. It seems like every quarterback is better than Jalen Hurts until it’s time to actually be better than Jalen Hurts. Put a little more respect on the Eagles’ franchise face’s name and you better believe he isn’t anywhere close to satisfied.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.