Bleeding Green Nation
This is the first of a series of posts, breaking down how Jalen Hurts has dramatically improved his game since he joined the league. Each category focuses on a specific type of mistake he used to make—and how he’s grown past it. The whole series will be linked to an episode of my podcast, which you can find here. I have a huge thank you to James Foster (one of the best analysts out there) for providing me with old Hurts’ film and for helping with this series. Go and follow him and subscribe to his YouTube channel.
I’ve wanted to write this series for a while, so I’m excited! Everyone knows that Jalen Hurts has improved as a pro. I don’t think enough people realize that Hurts improvement is simply remarkable. Sadly, I think it’s not covered enough around the league because too many people in the media are afraid to admit that they were wrong about Hurts. I am not one of those analysts who doesn’t change their opinion when faced with new information. So, I’ll start with embarrassing myself. This is what I said after Hurts’ second season in the league. In my defense, I did also say he was a good starting quarterback...
Unless you think Jalen Hurts has top 5-8 potential (personally, I do not at this point) then the Eagles should be looking at other quarterbacks to try and find an elite option. Pretty much every single team who doesn’t have an elite quarterback should be looking to improve. This doesn’t mean you cannot win without an elite quarterback but you have to accept that the best teams usually have the best quarterbacks. It is clear that the elite quarterbacks in the league right now are just playing the position at a completely different level than a ‘good’ quarterback. Does anyone think an Eagles offense led by Hurts can compete with Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen in a playoff game? I struggle to see it.
Oops. I got that wrong. Hurts has played Mahomes in 2 Super Bowls and has outplayed him in both! Despite that, I have made it clear in the past that I changed my opinion on Hurts. I said this in the following years film review...
I said he was around the 12-18 range last year and doubted whether he could get into the 5-8 category. I still believe he has areas to work on, but I am not someone who sticks to my opinion in the face of new evidence; I was wrong. He ranks in the top 10 of most QB rankings this year and I think you can make a strong case he’s been the 3rd best QB behind Mahomes and Allen.
However, I recently had access to Hurts’ All22 film from his first few years of the season, and I maintain that he didn’t play very well! Hurts...
