Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts is an incredibly easy person to root for

A lot has been written about Jalen Hurts this offseason, and for good reason: The very future of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ future is sort of in his hands.

Now granted, the NFL isn’t the NBA. A single player isn’t going to singlehandedly transform a team from a pretender to a contender or vise versa, but if Hurts can build on the promising aspects of his 334 offensive snaps in 2020 – 12 less than fellow rookie John Hightower – it’ll be incredibly beneficial to the team’s future.

Alternatively, the Eagles could continue to flash the uglier aspects of their 2020 form – the sacks, the fumbles, and the interceptions – and find themselves in the cellar of the NFC East once more. If that happens, don’t be too surprised if Hurts’ seat becomes a whole lot hotter due to another top-5 quarterback selectee by Howie Roseman, his second-such selection in six years.

But, in a weird twist of fate you surely didn’t see coming – unless you read the headline – I don’t want to talk about Hurts as a player. I don’t want to talk about him being named the Philadelphia Eagles’ potential breakout star by Bleacher Report or that he was left off of Chris Simms’ top-40 quarterbacks in the NFL list. No, I want to talk about just how gosh darn easy it is to root for Jalen Hurts as a person, because my goodness, is there a more sympathetic signal-caller in the NFL?

Philadelphia Eagles fans shouldn’t have much issue rooting for Hurts this fall.

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Jalen Hurts’ journey to the NFL is nothing short of an underdog story.

A four-star recruit – and noted powerlifter – out of Houston, Texas, Hurts received scholarship offers from a dozen and a half schools from small to massive but opted to take his talents to Alabama, a school that wasn’t particularly well known for running an offense centered around his specific set of skills.

Sure, the Crimson Tide had Blake Sims for a few years, but since Nick Saban rolled into Tuscaloosa after a failed tenure with the Miami Dolphins in 2007, Alabama has never had a quarterback run for more than 350 yards in a single season, let alone amassing darn near 2,000 yards over a three-season run.

Hurts changed that.

Did his passing leave something to be desired early in his Alabama tenure? Sure, but Hurts was unequivocally successful during his time with the team and filled the role of a read-option game manager in a way no other Tide member had done before… at least until Tua Tagovailoa arrived on campus shortly thereafter.

After struggling down the stretch in his second season with the team, Hurts was effectively benched for Tagovailoa at the tail end of the 2017 seasons and fell to number two on Saban’s depth chart the following season.

Now normally, that would be the end of the story. Plenty of college quarterbacks get benched for better options and are either never heard from again or were forced to transfer to a smaller school in order to secure playing time, but Hurts opted against it. He played with a professional composure that Saban has lauded at every opportunity whenever his number was called and effectively saved the season in a relief effort versus Georgia on January 8th, 2018.

These performances and Kyler Murray’s draft status created a perfect opportunity for Hurts to continue his quarterback career in Oklahoma, where he turned in an incredibly prolific offensive season under dynamo Lincoln Riley that vaulted him from a borderline NFL prospect to a Day 2 draft selection.

Hurts’ takeaway through it all? Just keep working on what you can control.

Fast forward to the summer of 2021, and Jalen Hurts is the presumed starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Had you told fellow Eagles fans one year ago that such a fate was in the cards, they would have surely called you crazy. The Eagles already had a franchise quarterback in Carson Wentz and had just extended him to a $100 million contract the year prior. Drafting a quarterback in the second round was surely Howie Roseman being the smartest guy in the room, not a serious succession plan, right?

Oh you poor, naive 2020 Eagles fan; you don’t understand the misery coming your way.

Since stepping into the singular spotlight back in March, Hurts has done pretty much everything you would want a franchise quarterback to do. He’s repped Philly whenever possible, shown great love to all of the team’s draft picks, and even rang the bell at a 76ers game alongside his college teammate DeVonta Smith.

But wait, there’s more. In addition to holding makeshift camps with his receiving corps, Hurts has also found time to give back to the kids, including but not limited to a youth football camp in Alabama over the weekend.

Assuming all goes well this season, I wouldn’t be too surprised to such a camp become a Delaware Valley institution.

In the NFL, winning trumps all. Some truly horrible people have been given chance after chance to stick around the league due to their immense talent, while every year, the sort of hard-working, Vince Papale-types have their dreams dashed with little fanfare. If Jalen Hurts can flash the sort of offensive game that made Carson Wentz an MVP candidate in 2017, it doesn’t matter how good a guy he is off the field, and if he stinks, the Philadelphia Eagles will he on to the next one in no time. But hey, for however long this ride lasts, at least fans will have a vested interest in seeing their QB1 succeed.