Look for quarterback Jalen Hurts to win another Super Bowl, now that he’s broken through in leading the Philadelphia Eagles to their second Lombardi Trophy Sunday in New Orleans.
The MVP of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the 26-year-old Hurts has evolved into both a good er and good rusher. But without his rare durability, none of his success would be possible. Though he’s had to weather a heavy load of sneaks and other designed runs, a style that curbs my long-term enthusiasm for his career, Hurts has avoided severe injury and looked fresh and quick Sunday in his 19th game of the season.
There’s one other big reason for my short-term Hurts optimism, and it’s that he and the Eagles complement each other so well, the two going together like green and grass.
The mega-contract Hurts signed two years ago still placed him only 16th among the league’s quarterbacks this past season, thus assisting team-building that produced the NFL’s best roster.
He’ll get a big raise next season, but look at how much salary Hurts will allow general manager Howie Roseman to spend elsewhere.
His salary cap charge of $21.8 million will cost the Eagles $68 million less than what Dak Prescott will cost the Cowboys, an NFC East rival that doesn’t manage its salary cap very well. Hurts-driven savings relative to Chargers draft-class colleague Justin Herbert, NFC rival Matthew Stafford of the Rams and two-time Super Bowl opponent Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs stand at $15 million, $28 million and $45 million, per overthecap.com.
Those QBs may have their contracts restructured, and Philadelphia stands to lose a few key players headed by defensive lineman Milton Williams. If the NFL outlaws the “Tush Push” this season, a possibility, the Eagles’ great short-yardage success rate may suffer.
No one should be surprised, though, if the Eagles roll out the NFL’s best roster when they host the 2025 season opener in September. Some of that credit would go to Hurts, who has outperformed his second-round draft slot.
The demands of defending a Super Bowl title will be new to the quarterback, and he’ll have to adjust to a new offensive coordinator after Kellen Moore was named head coach of the Saints.
Hurts, however, is a leader who knows how to find solutions.
In college, he overcame being benched in a national championship game and losing his starting job to Tua Tagovailoa to become a more draftable er, after transferring from Alabama to -happy Oklahoma for his senior year.
With the Eagles, he supplanted former golden-boy Carson Wentz as the starter, led the 2023 team to the Super Bowl and this past year went to school on that game’s three-point defeat opposite Mahomes and the lopsided loss in last year’s playoff game at Tampa Bay.
Hurts has improved his ing accuracy quite a bit since Roseman, drawing fire from many critics, drafted him 53rd five years ago.
Against the Chiefs on Sunday, Hurts threw perfect deep es to three different receivers. The prettiest was a deep-post that traveled 55 yards in the air to DeVonta Smith for a touchdown.
On top of rare physical gifts that allow him to weather collisions and play a rugged style that Tagovailoa and many other NFL QBs cannot, Hurts has figured out how to avoid the worst blows without sacrificing his teammates’ respect.
His pocket movements have evolved, too. In Sunday’s first half, he sidestepped Chiefs All-Pro -rusher Chris Jones without flinching and zipped an important strike to tight end Dallas Goedert.
Hurts solves problems. Maybe it’s because both of his parents were educators. Hurts’ dad Averion was one of Jalen’s high school football coaches in Houston; his mom, Pamela, teaches math.
Concussed late in this past season, Hurts sat out nearly two full games for Philadelphia before returning to author a win over the Packers in the wild-card round.
In the Divisional Round, he overcame a knee injury and helped hold off the Rams, who gave the Eagles their toughest game of the postseason.
From there, Hurts and the ground game overwhelmed the Commanders in the NFC championship game. In the Super Bowl rematch against Chiefs, who chose to focus first on running back Saquon Barkley and make Hurts beat them, he was even better, notwithstanding a first-half underthrow that was picked off in the red zone.
Soon before the green confetti fell, a tearful Smith sought out Hurts.
“Way to keep this going,” Smith said. He added: “This ain’t our last time.”
“We’ve got some catching up to do now,” Hurts replied.
It would take the Eagles two more Super Bowl wins to catch up with the Chiefs of this era. Who knows?
Already, Hurts has one more Super Bowl victory than any of the four QBs drafted ahead of him — the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, the Dolphins’ Tagovailoa, the Chargers’ Herbert and the Packers’ Jordan Love.
