Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts lands in Matthew Berry’s top-5 QBs
While the 2022 NFL Draft is officially over, that doesn’t mean the process of picking players is over across the NFL landscape.
No, while the actual players have been picked by the actual franchises, scores of hypothetical leagues the world over will soon be selecting their latest crop of fantasy football players to fill out their fantasy football team to play for the ultimate prize in fantasy sports: the fantasy Lombardi Trophy.
To paraphrase this evergreen meme, ‘it’s still real to me.’
So, as a Philadelphia Eagles fan, who should you draft for your fantasy football team? Is there a player, or better yet, are there players who should be at the top of your proverbial board, or is Philly expected to be better in practice than on fantasy paper? Fortunately, one of Philly’s very own actually landed in ESPN fantasy football expert Matt Berry‘s top-5 position rankings and thus has to be considered a must-draft for fans in the 215.
Put Jalen Hurts’ name on your draft card, Philadelphia Eagles fans.
Say what you will about Jalen Hurts as a passer, about his pension for throwing to his first read, his lack of elite arm strength, or his unwillingness to attack the entirety of the field, but his game is tailor-made for fantasy football.
His 784 rushing yards ranked first among quarterbacks, his passing yards ranked 21st, and his touchdowns, rushing and passing, ranked first and 23rd among qualifying quarterbacks respectively.
In terms of fantasy football, Hurts’ 343 total points ranked 10th league-wide according to Fantasy Pros despite only appearing in 15 games, and his average points per game ranked seventh, behind only Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes, and Derrick Henry.
So why, you may ask, does Matthew Berry have Hurts ranked fifth on his quarterback fantasy big board behind only Allen, Herbert, Brady, and Mahomes?
Well, I guess he really likes the weapons the new Philadelphia Eagles have placed around Hurts and is less than enthused about Arizona’s offseason, be that the loss of Christian Kirk or the impending suspension of DeAndre Hopkins.
With another year in Nick Sirianni’s system, a shiny new WR1 in A.J. Brown via trade, and the acquisition of Grant Calcaterra in the draft, which fills a deceptive need, there’s little reason to believe Hurts shouldn’t at the very least match his production from 2021 in 2022 and even if he gets it done a bit more often with his arms than his legs, his ability to put yards in the board in a variety of different ways should make him a very popular fantasy player indeed… unless he’s a member of another team in your league.
Fortunately, you can prevent that from happening by simply following Berry’s advice and picking Hurts before one of your friends do, which might be hard if you play in a league with a number of other Eagles fans, but hey, I digress.
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Will Jalen Hurts ultimately finish out the 2022 NFL season as a top-5 fantasy football quarterback? Do you know what? Yes, yes I think he will; he can pick up yards with his arms, yards with his legs, and if the Philadelphia Eagles are as good as they hope to be, they will be playing meaningful football for all 17 games of the season. Draft him if you want, fear him if you don’t, fantasy football fans.