Even after his terrific performance at Super Bowl LIX that saw him bag the Most Valuable Player award, questions have not ceased regarding the abilities of Philadelphia Eagles’ star Jalen Hurts and where he ranks among the league’s best quarterbacks. And just like a reflection of the disagreement that characterizes most conversations involving Jalen Hurts, FOX Sports balanced the arguments by giving him a fifth-place ranking in their list of the National Football League’s top ten quarterbacks.
In the Eagles’ 40-22 win over Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LIX, Jalen Hurts rushed for 72 yards and one touchdown, and threw for 221 yards and two more scores, with one interception, earning himself the MVP honors as a result. However, while this has earned him a few accolades, there’s no gainsaying that the Oklahoma product has been largely underrated for most of his NFL career.
His yeasayers would disagree with those who accord the accolades of the Eagles’ offensive exploits to Saquon Barkley, and hold on to the fact that with Jalen helming the Eagles’ offense, the Philadelphian team have lost just nine times since 2023. Also, his improvement over the years has been evident, hitting a career-high 68.7% pass completion percentage by completing 248 of 361 pass attempts.
His critics, on the other hand, would present his decision-making, his accuracy and his inconsistency as reasons for their skepticism. Quite outspoken among Hurt’s critics is NFL analyst Chris Simms, whose assessment book doesn’t have Jalen Hurts as one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL.
“I would put CJ Stroud over there in front of Jalen Hurts. We have a little bit of a revionist history here,” Simms said. On ‘The Herd’ earlier this year.
“He won the Super Bowl and everybody just forgot about the 10 weeks before that where we were like, ‘Wait, the passing game and the quarterback was the issue.’”
In settling this dispute, it seems as though FOX Sports heard both sides of the argument and decided to give Hurts a fair judgement, ranking him 5th overall, ahead of Jared Goff, and behind Joe Burrow.
Hurts is joined on the list by other top quarterbacks, like, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, Jayden Daniels, and Dak Prescott respectively.
Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
