Philadelphia Eagles: Is Jalen Hurd a fit in the 2019 NFL Draft?

With long-term needs at both wide receiver and running back, should the Philadelphia Eagles target or avoid Baylor RB-turned-WR Jalen Hurd?

Every year, there are a few players entered for consideration into the NFL Draft that are extremely hard to classify.

Whether it’s a question of if they fit better in a 4-3 scheme or a 3-4, like ex-Philadelphia Eagles rusher Marcus Smith, or their ‘optimal’ position, like ex-UCLA swiss army knife Myles Jack, who played linebacker, safety, and even running back with the Bruins, these players offer a risk-vs-reward that can make or break a team’s draft strategy with a premium pick.

If these gambles hit, a team can secure a serious bargain with franchise-altering options, like Ryan Tannehill or Richard Sherman who both played wide receiver in college, but if they don’t, they’ve wasted a premium pick on a player like Denard Robinson, Devin Funchess, or Braxton Miller.

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This year, there are a bunch of tweeners who are currently puzzling talent evaluators across the league who should be on the Eagles’ radar, like Delaware’s Nasir Adderley (S/CB), and Temple‘s very own Ryquell Armstead (RB/FB), but the one who may be the biggest name of all has to be Jalen Hurd, the former 5-star Tennessee runningback turned Baylor wide receiver.

For those out of the loop, Hurd was Rival.com’s 33rd ranked prospect in the 2014 recruiting class and opted to stay close to home and play his college ball at Tennessee. Joining a running backs stable that also featured future Pro Bowler Alvin Kamara, Hurd rushed for 899 yards and five touchdowns as a freshman and doubled down as the team’s bell cow rusher by going for 1285 yards and 12 touchdowns on 277 carries as a sophomore.

Appearing to be a surefire first-round pick due to his production and prototypical size, measuring in at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, Hurd shocked the college football world by leaving his team seven games into the 2016 season, citing ‘wear and tear on his body’ for his abrupt exit.

This obviously rubbed many NCAA fans the wrong way, as it seemed ‘selfish’ not to play out the remainder of the season despite suffering a Week 7 concussion, but mere months later, Hurds resurfaced in Texas, committing to play wide receiver for Matt Rhule and the Baylor Bears.

After sitting out the 2017 season as part of college football’s transfer rule, Hurd was finally given a chance to showcase his new position, at a trimmed down 220 pounds, and fared about as well as anyone could have expected; hauling in 69 balls for 946 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing the ball 48 times for 209 yards and three more touchdowns.

All in all, not bad at all.

Now some will still question an organization’s decision to select Hurd in the draft, as he’s clearly not your typical ‘come to work and keep your mouth shut’-type of player, but according to Rhule, Hurd was nothing but professional while playing for his school, and actually played out the team’s final regular-season game despite suffering a knee injury earlier in the game.

But how does Hurd fit with the Philadelphia Eagles? Well, that depends on what they would want him to do.

Clearly lacking a desire to play running back full-time, as he initially switched positions because “Running backs last 3.5 years in the NFL. Wide receivers can last 10 or more years.”, Hurd would likely instead serve as a big-bodied receiver in the vein of Alshon Jeffery, but with the flexibility to play inside as a bubble screen savant out of the slot.

Furthermore, Hurd could also log snaps as a short yardage, goal line rusher, as he’s still a more than competent rusher even after losing 20 pounds and reconstituting his body for his new position.

While there are indeed better ‘pure’ wide receivers and better ‘pure’ rushers available in the 2019 NFL Draft, none are as dynamic and versatile as Hurd, but is that a good thing?

Potentially.

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Now this could all be moot, as the Philadelphia Eagles could ultimately draft a pure Alabama rusher like Josh Jacobs in the first round, or select a wide receiver like N’Keal Harry to add a second big bodied ball catcher, but if the Eagles instead address other issues in the first two rounds, like, say, offensive line at 25 and safety at 53, and Jalen Hurd is the best player left on the board, I wouldn’t see an issue with selecting him 57th overall as a work-in-progress superstar in the making.

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