Philadelphia Eagles: Chris Simms drops the ball on Jalen Hurts… again

Good news: After being erroneously overlooked last season, Jalen Hurts has officially cracked Chris Sims’ top-40 QB countdown.

Bad news: He’s pretty darn low.

Now granted, it’s totally okay to feel skeptical about the Philadelphia Eagles‘ QB1; Hurts was up and down in 2021, and for all of the plays he made with his legs, the ones he left on the field as a passer were hard to ignore.

And yet, flaws and all, can anyone with a straight face really say he’s worse than Daniel Jones and Zach Wilson, a pair of big market question marks ranked higher on the NBC Sports-endorsed list? How about Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence, a pair of 2020 first-round picks who combined for just five wins last season? Yeah, something tells me Chris Simms might just have to apologize for this one in a few months too.

Jalen Hurts has all of the tools to succeed with the Philadelphia Eagles this fall.

It’s hard to definitively evaluate Jalen Hurts’ 2021 season because of just how meh of a supporting cast the Philadelphia Eagles assembled for their second-year signal-caller.

Sure, he had DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, who are premier young performers at their respective positions, but when that duo accounts for 41.7 percent of Hurts’ passing attempts over 16 games of action – and Jalen Reagor accounted for 57 targets – that’s more of a red flag than a badge of honor.

Is that statement making excuses for Hurts? Eh, maybe a little; Hurts didn’t always go through all of his progressions and lost some accuracy when throwing deep down the field. But in 2022, those excuses are going to be a lot harder to come by, as the rest of the roster is very much of playoff-caliber.

With four NFL-caliber wide receivers, a healthy Miles Sanders, some intriguing supplemental pieces, and an offensive line that graciously still has Jason Kelce anchoring the center spot, the Eagles should be able to attack the entire field from a variety of different formations, including a few that weren’t available in 2021 due to the limitations of the team’s personnel.

Does Nick Sirianni want to go five-wide? That look is totally available. How about a super-heavy look with three tight ends and only one wide receiver? Assuming JJ Arcega-Whiteside can successfully make the transition to tight end and/or a player like Noah Togiai or Jack Stoll can take a step forward, that’s on the table too.

Really, the only look the Eagles can’t run is a traditional I formation with a fullback sandwiched between the quarterback and running back, but hey, Jordan Davis did score a rushing touchdown at Georgia; maybe he can pull a Beau Allen and take some snaps as a lead blocker too.

Factor in Sirianni’s noted willingness to mold his scheme around the talents of his players, and there’s no excuse for Hurts not to take a step forward heading into the third year of his four-year rookie contract.

Objectively speaking, Jalen Hurts isn’t a top-10 quarterback in the NFL, at least not yet. He’s also probably not a top-15 quarterback and may even be closer to 20 than 15 at that, but to say the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback is somehow worse than a quartet of quarterbacks that he singlehandedly won just three fewer games than combined in 2021 is pretty ridiculous. Call it the bias of growing up a New York Giants fan, call it cognitive bias, but by the end of the season, it’ll be Chris Simms calling on his followers to apologize for his misevaluation yet again.