Philadelphia Eagles: Pro Football Focus really doesn’t like Jalen Hurts

In a recent article for pff.com, Bruce Gradkowski went ahead and ranked all 32 projected starting quarterbacks heading into the 2021 NFL season. Using Pro Football Focus’ somewhat mysterious grading system, the article saw the Philadelphia Eagles starter, Jalen Hurts, named as the second worst starting QB in all of football.

Here’s what PFF had to say about the former second-round pick heading into his sophomore season:

"31. JALEN HURTS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLESJalen Hurts will get his opportunity to showcase not only his skills but his leadership heading into 2021. Hurts provided an immediate spark last season, but the wheels started to fall off after that. Hurts must manage the game with better decision-making.  He finished the season with nine turnover-worthy plays in the last four games. If Hurts wants to be the guy in Philadelphia, then he needs to protect the ball better. His leadership and poise will bring the team together, but production — and winning football games — must follow."

The turnover-worthy play argument was a frequent one throughout PFF’s ranking article, and Hurts did in fact struggle with these during his time as the Eagles starting QB. His performance against Dallas in Week 16 was specifically bad, as his inability to hang onto the football at least played a role in the Eagles failed postseason bid.

Additionally, a lot of Hurts’ base box score statistics genuinely came out to be pretty poor when it was all said and done.

He finished the year with a 52% completion rate (which would’ve ranked last amongst all qualified QBs), a 77.6 passer rating, a 41.0 QBR, and he finished the season with the longest average throw time (3.39). That average throw time is particularly important, as Hurts frequently put his offensive line in a bad position by holding onto the football too long. Quarterbacks are typically criticized in these types of rankings if they aren’t able to consistently make quick fire decisions in the pocket.

Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts named the 2nd worst starter in football.

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Looking at the rest of PFF’s article, there’s probably only a few players that you can make a concrete argument for Hurts being better than at the moment. I’d personally probably take Hurts over Jameis Winston (24th), Cam Newton (27), and Sam Darnold (28), but other than that I think the rest of the rankings are rather appropriate.

Guys like Zach Wilson, Tua Tagovailoa, and Jared Goff are ranked immediately above Hurts, with Denver’s Drew Lock coming in as the only QB deemed worse than the Philadelphia Eagles current projected starter.

This isn’t to say Hurts can’t improve at all moving forward, in fact I’d probably make the argument that he’s set for a rather large developmental step in 2021. He gets a full season to operate as the Eagles starter, and the addition of a new, (hopefully) more innovative coaching staff should help his growth as well. Hurts has already proven himself to be a hard worker off the field, now it’s just about translating that work ethic into on-field results.

In the meantime, however, the Philadelphia Eagles are set to cruise into the 2022 season with the second worst starting quarterback in football – at least according to Pro Football Focus.