Does Jalen Hurts have a bad reputation?
It depends on who you ask. Certainly not as a person, but his abilities as a passer have come into question time and time again. It wasn’t long ago that Dan Orlovsky labeled him as a “liability,” and while the ESPN NFL analyst has since apologized for doubting the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, he wasn’t alone.
With his Super Bowl performance, Hurts firmly put to rest any doubts about his ability to lead a vertical passing offense in this league. He’s cemented himself as one of the better quarterbacks in the face of those doubting a player who was once benched in a National Championship game for Tua Tagovailoa.
This time, he was sidelined in Super Bowl LIX in favor of Kenny Pickett because he and his team were putting an absolute beating on what many view as the best quarterback in the NFL.
So why does (or did) Hurts have a bad rap coming into the game?
Ryan Clark attempted to examine just that.
“The same reason [Marshawn Lynch] had to go to Seattle and continue to be himself before people could forget about the perception of him in Buffalo,” Clark said on The Get Got Pod when pressed about why Hurts has to do more than his peers to earn praise. “Jalen Hurts came into the league with a perception of ‘You can’t throw the football. That’s the reason why you’re a second-round draft pick. That’s the reason Tua Tagovailoa had to replace you in the National Championship game.’ And so, anytime he’s not throwing, or the passing game doesn’t look like people want it to look, they immediately draw back to that perception they had of him previously.
“Whereas, no one — think about the Divisional Round of the playoffs. A.J. Brown drops a touchdown. A.J. Brown drops a dig. Devonta Smith gets an unnecessary roughness. Those are three plays that probably net 80 yards — and it completely changes the games. But everybody’s on Jalen saying, ‘The passing game needs to get better,’ when by my recollection, he had a 45-yard rushing touchdown; they won the game by running the football. Yet, on the other side of the division, Josh Allen wins the MVP, and everyone praises him for beating Baltimore, and he threw for 126 yards.”
Why is that?
“Because the perception of Josh Allen is that he’s a good quarterback, is that he’s a top-tier thrower of the football,” Clark added. “So, they don’t look at his statistics the same way they look at Jalen.”
As Clark tried to explain, Hurts has repeatedly proven that he’s more than the doubts that have followed him.
Despite the noise, including being labeled a liability by analysts and carrying the weight of past criticisms, Hurts showed in Super Bowl LIX exactly what he’s capable of. He’s no longer just a quarterback trying to prove himself — he’s one of the NFL’s top players.
The fact that it’s taken this long for everyone to catch up to that reality is probably the real story here.
But perception is a powerful thing, and for Hurts, it’s been an uphill battle to shake off the labels placed on him early in his career.
Perhaps a Lombardi Trophy will be what finally does it.
