Super Bowl Win Does Not Elevate Eagles' Jalen Hurts To Elite QB Status
Following the Philadelphia Eagles' shocking demolition of the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs, who were seeking a Super Bowl three-peat, the hot takes are flying in the sports media.
The strongest takes surround Eagles QB Jalen Hurts, who won Super Bowl MVP with a good – but not incredible – performance against the Chiefs.
Because humans are naturally wired to overreact to the most recent event – so much so that it has its own term: recency bias – everyone is quickly shoving Hurts up the NFL quarterback rankings.
Some have gone as far as to say that Hurts is now in the "elite" category, which is reserved for the best of the best.
I am not one of those people. I'm not going to overreact to one game, or one playoff run, and ignore what my eyes tell me. Jalen Hurts is a good NFL quarterback, possibly great. He's not elite. I'm not sure that he's even close.
Let's define elite, shall we?
We can start with the dictionary definition: "a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society."
OK, is Jalen Hurts in a select group of NFL quarterbacks that are superior to everyone else? I don't think so.
Even with a Super Bowl win and a Super Bowl MVP award, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is not an elite NFL quarterback.
(Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Here's the list of ELITE quarterbacks (in no particular order): Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
That's four of the 32 starting NFL quarterbacks, or 12.5%. To me, that's a perfect number of players in one group for the elite tag.
Realistically, is there any team in the NFL that would rather have Jalen Hurts than any of those other four players? Absolutely not.
In fact, I'd bet most NFL teams would take those four, along with Jayden Daniels and Justin Herbert, over Hurts right now.
Jalen Hurts played well in the Super Bowl, but he didn't have to do all that much.
Although Hurts was awarded MVP, it was essentially by default. The real MVP of the game were multiple players: all the Eagles' defensive linemen. They generated six sacks of Mahomes and constant pressure, despite Philadelphia not blitzing a single time.
Given that the Eagles didn't bring one blitz, the Chiefs had a blocking advantage on every play. There was not one situation where the Eagles rushed more defenders than the Chiefs had blockers.
Yet, time and time again, Philadelphia harassed Mahomes and forced him into uncharacteristic mistakes.
Plus, Jalen Hurts made a terrible mistake early in the game – one that could have been costly were it not for the Eagles defense – when he badly underthrew a ball to AJ Brown that was intercepted.
Yes, elite quarterbacks make bad plays from time to time. Look no further than Mahomes' Super Bowl performance.
But let's not pretend Jalen Hurts played a flawless game. And the Eagles offense is loaded with great players. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley represent one of the best WR-WR-RB combinations in the NFL.
The other MVP for Philadelphia is general manager Howie Roseman, who clearly built the best overall roster in the NFL.
Jalen Hurts is the ultimate game manager, which is fine!
For some reason, the term "game manager" comes with a negative connotation when it's used to describe a quarterback.
But why? To me, a great game manager is a quarterback who limits mistakes, makes the plays he has to make and doesn't lose games for his team. What's wrong with that?
Not everyone is Mahomes, Burrow, Allen or Jackson – a guy who can single-handedly carry a team when all else fails.
Jalen Hurts is a great NFL quarterback, but he's not in the same class as players like Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.
(Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK)
That's not Jalen Hurts. He operates well in the Eagles' system, knows how to get the ball to his playmakers and can use athleticism when the passing game breaks down.
There are a lot of those guys in the NFL, and many of them are Super Bowl champions. Matthew Stafford comes to mind as a recent champion, and even Brock Purdy nearly game-managed his way to a Lombardi Trophy.
The Eagles are the rare franchise that has figured out how to win consistently without elite quarterback play. Hurts and the Eagles reached the Super Bowl two years ago and won the Super Bowl with Nick freakin' Foles in 2018.
Fans and media analysts tend to focus on quarterback because it's the most important position, arguably, in all of sports.
Quarterbacks often get too much credit when things go right and too much criticism when things go wrong.
Football is the ultimate team game. Even Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid couldn't overcome a less talented overall roster in the final NFL game of the season.
Could the Eagles have won the Super Bowl with just any starting NFL quarterback? No, Jalen Hurts is an important piece of the team's identity. But was the roster good enough to win with a handful of other NFL QBs? Absolutely.
Can you say that about the Chiefs' three Super Bowl wins over the past five years? No. What about the Patriots' dynasty with Tom Brady? Certainly not.
Jalen Hurts is a great player, and by all accounts a great guy, but let's pump the brakes with the elite talk, please?
I agree with Clay Travis – Hurts had to work his ass off because he lacks the elite physical tools that the league's best quarterbacks possess. That's commendable, to be sure.
He's a great player on the league's best team and plays in the league's objectively worse conference.
The reason that Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have fewer combined Super Bowl appearances (1) than Hurts (2) is because they play in the AFC. It's a harder path every season.
Jalen Hurts is a deserving Super Bowl champion. But he's not in the same company as Mahomes, Burrow, Allen and Jackson.
A Super Bowl win over Patrick Mahomes doesn't magically vault Jalen Hurts into the same category as the league's best quarterback.
(Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)
I don't think he's even in the same tier as Daniels, Herbert or Stafford. He probably belongs in a large third-tier group with the likes of Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, and Jordan Love.
There's nothing wrong with being a Top 15 NFL quarterback. That's the top .0001% of all quarterbacks in the world. So, yeah, relative to the general human population, Hurts is an elite quarterback.
Just not when the group shrinks to include only NFL starting QBs. There, Hurts is in the top third.
He's great.
Just not elite.