I have written about Jalen Hurts since he was a blond dread-wearing freshman at Alabama, and back then I knew he would be special.
In 2016, Hurts became the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Tide, and that year he threw for 2,780 yards, 23 TDs and 9 INTs and rushed for 954 yards and 13 TDs. He led Alabama to the CFP Championship game where they lost to Clemson, 35-31.
His sophomore and junior years saw him playing both a backup to Tua Tagovailoa and program savior when called into action.
But Hurts knew he was better than that.
He transferred to Oklahoma in 2019 and put everyone on notice that he still had it, throwing for 3,851 yards, 32 TDs and 8 INTs and rushing for 1,298 yards and 20 TDs while leading the Sooners to the CFP Playoffs.
Hurts would have won the Heisman that year if it hadn’t been for Joe Burrow’s history-making season at LSU (he finished second).
Despite a successful college career, Hurts saw Burrow, Tua, Justin Herbert and Jordan Love picked ahead of him. He was eventually selected by the Eagles with the 53rd overall pick.
Mind you, Hurts had more passing yards, rushing yards, and total TDs than Herbert and Love.
The NFL Doubt Of Hurts
In his rookie season, he sat behind Carson Wentz until head coach Doug Pederson named Hurts the starter for the final four games. He finished 1-3, including the “tank game” by Pederson in the final game of the season, after which Pederson was fired.
After Nick Sirianni was hired, he refused to name Hurts the starter until right before the beginning of the 2021 season, adding to the doubt that some so-called experts like ESPN’s Todd McShay held for him.
“Jalen Hurts, are you getting an upgrade here? I mean he completed 52%,” said McShay at the time. “In four games he started, he threw three interceptions. He threw four interceptions over the season. I know the stats are similar when you look at Wentz and Jalen Hurts over this past year. I just don’t know that you’re getting a huge upgrade with Hurts. And I just wonder if Philly is comfortable moving Wentz and not bringing in another quarterback for competition, or as a backup or something that kind of gives you a better sense of what’s going to be at that quarterback spot moving forward.
“Because I personally, if I was the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, I would not feel comfortable going into the season saying, ‘Hurts is the guy. He’s going to take us to the promised land. We believe in him 100%. We don’t even need to bring in another guy.’”
PFF Fantasy Football believed the Eagles should have traded for Russell Wilson and pursued free-agent receiver, Chris Godwin.
In his first full season as the Eagles starting QB he was good but the team went 8-7, so the doubt about him as a starting NFL QB lingered.
Despite the critiques after only four games, I knew Hurts had the talent to be an NFL quarterback, and fortunately so did the Eagles, which is why they traded for AJ Brown.
In 2022 Hurts threw for 3,701 yards, 22 TDs and 6 INTs, and rushed for 760 yards and 13 TDs, resulting in a Pro Bowl nod. He also led Philadelphia to a 14-1 record and a Super Bowl appearance where he outplayed Mahomes in an overtime loss to the Chiefs.
The two games missed to injury (games the Eagles lost) cost him the league MVP, which he should have won.
Yet critics still didn’t believe in him and tried their best not to include him in the MVP conversation by crafting negative narratives about him.
He didn’t have the arm strength of Herbert; he lacked the accuracy of Mahomes; he ran too much.
Some even labeled him as a “system quarterback”, which is equivalent to the “game manager” label that unfairly downgrades quarterbacks.
This is despite having only one loss and making it to the Super Bowl.
2023 was more of the same type of sentiment, especially after the team went 11-6 and was bounced in the first round of the playoffs.
And that doubt intensified after the Eagles gave him a massive, then NFL-history making, five-year, $255 million contract extension with $179 million guaranteed.
This past season, the critics intensified their disrespect of Hurts, especially after the Eagles started 2-2.
Media pundits like Stephen A. Smith, Colin Cowherd, Dan Orlovsky and many others doubted that Hurts could lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl.
And after the Eagles went on an eventual 13-game winning streak to close out the regular season, many of these same analysts gave the credit to Saquon Barkley, further diminishing Hurts’ standing.
Even in the playoffs, analysts said Philly had the best roster top to bottom of any team, except at the QB position.
But in the rematch between Hurts and Mahomes at Super Bowl LIX, he answered all remaining questions by his Super Bowl MVP performance.
The Change In Tune
It’s frustrating to see how quickly young Black QBs are doubted and criticized for not being traditional pocket passers, and Hurts joined the list that includes the likes of Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair and Lamar Jackson.
But Hurts completed the journey the aformentioned players started by winning a Super Bowl with his arm and legs and becoming only the fourth Black starting quarterback to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
Jalen Hurts has been overlooked the majority of his NFL career, yet he now joins a group that highly praised QBs like Lamar, Josh Allen and Burrow don’t have membership to.
This week, many have changed their tune about the Eagles’ starting quarterback, and rightfully so.
But this lingering tune of disrespect for Jalen Hurts was one that should have never sounded that sour for that long.
