Eagles
Sir, a second Jalen Hurts hit piece has hit the offseason. Yet again curtesy of Jermey Fowler. I have the article link below but we’ll get into some of the more head-scratching pieces of it.
The people polled were listed as NFL executives, coaches, and scouts. This means that there are many prominent people that doubt Jalen Hurts. The solace you can take from this is that there are dumb people even in the NFL offices. It’s also safe to assume that there’s some major bias going in it. There also wasn’t much information as to how they ranked these players. Did they use stats? Was it skill set? The world may never know. There were some things in the article we should examine.
The QB voting, broken into tiers
Allen
Mahomes
–
Stafford
–
Burrow
Jackson
–
Prescott
Herbert
Maye
Goff
–
Williams
Darnold
Daniels
Love (10-13 incredibly close)
Purdy
Mayfield
–
Lawrence
Hurts
–
Nix
Jones
Stroud https://t.co/aQtWeVHfQ2
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 13, 2026
What’s strange about the article is that it doesn’t list Jalen Hurts as #17. Fowler later had a follow up post where he clarified this and reported Hurts was in the 6th tier. This put him alongside Trevor Lawrence. Now I like Trevor Lawrence, fine player. It never bothered me he looks like Sunshine from Remember the Titans. That said, putting a QB with one playoff win and only one more playoff TD than Int on the same level as a Super Bowl champion is a bit absurd. That’s not even the most angering take in the list.
What does bother me is some of the quarterbacks ranked above him. Listen, some quarterbacks do have a better skill set than Jalen Hurts. If you want to put Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Matt Stafford or any other MVP winning quarterback on the list I understand. Hey if you want to put Super Bowl winning quarterbacks above him, I’d argue but get it. Having players like Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, and Jared Goff two tiers above Hurts is where I take umbrage. These three quarterbacks are the go to example where you see a playoff drop. They’re a combined (7-13) in the playoffs.
The Dak Prescott obsession always surprises me. Sure he’s a phenomenal quarterback if you only look at stats or for your fantasy football team. He’s the equivalent of a bag of plain chips. Sure I enjoy chips as much as the next guy but if you build your diet around them, it’s not a healthy lifestyle. Yes, I’m an Eagles fan so naturally I don’t like Cowboys players but I do watch the games. Watching his play you’ll see a lot of early blowouts that let him throw the ball a ton. Seeing him as high on the list just makes me question how much these execs, scouts, and coaches really watch the games.
Next we’re going to pick on Jared Goff and Justin Herbert. Both guys are massive “what if this happened instead.” A grace not given to Jalen Hurts by the way. I’ll state again that I like both players because I do. Notice I did not say this for Dak because I don’t like him as a player. Goff seems like he gets a lot of sympathy love. Not only because he plays for the Lions but also the way things ended with the Rams. If you don’t remember, the Patriots throughly pantsed him and the Rams in Super Bowl 53. This may lead people in the league to look more favorably on him than they should.
Herbert on the other hand has one of the worst offensive lines in the league. He also plays for the Chargers which are another tragic franchise. One that I love by the way from the Rivers, Sproles, and LT days. That said it feels like his rankings are about purely the measurements and excuses he has built in. The truth is that when the playoffs come he takes a big step back. He’s 0-3 and is the reason Trevor Lawrence has his singular playoff win. He also has twice as many playoff interceptions as touchdowns. Sure he has the look of an NFL quarterback but we have yet to see it in the postseason.
These three really stood out to me based on a full tier gap between Hurts and supposedly these three. Drake Maye also is in the higher tier but he’s too young to fully rank in my opinion. To put the previous three in the top 10 over Hurts just seems like I’m missing something. Can you argue these, yes, that’s what I’m doing here. Saying that Jalen Hurts isn’t even close to the tier or caliber of player the others are is where I think they messed up.
At the end of the day I see this as a positive for Jalen Hurts. Keep stacking those logs on top of him and the resulting fire will grow as well. Jalen Hurts is a playoff riser and winner. When I look at a quarterback, I want a guy who can win the team a championship. Currently in the NFL there are only three other players (Stafford, Mahomes, and Darnold) that have reached that mountaintop. To put Jalen Hurts behind 16 other players, should only leave you with one question. What are we doing here?
Sources: Jeremy Fowler on X, Jeremy Fowler on ESPN, NFL on Youtube
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Hello, I’m a greater Philadelphia native writing mostly about the Eagles and the rest of the NFL. Articles aren’t … More about Kyle Lavin
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