Jalen Hurts' Haters suddenly gone Quiet because they're wrong

One of the hottest topics this past offseason among Eagles Fans and the "talking heads" on different media outlets was about Quarterback Jalen Hurts. People took very specific positions on whether they believed in Hurts as the Eagles Starter or if they thought that Philadelphia was making a mistake with the second year Quarterback. The voices of the "Haters" were very loud this offseason and stuck to their talking points like a politician at a televised debate.

But after Jalen Hurts threw Three Touchdown Passes and had zero turnovers in the Eagles 32-6 victory over the Falcons in Atlanta in Week One of the 2021 NFL season, all of a sudden the "Haters" got quiet and the only excuse we have heard is:

"A horrible Falcons team made the Eagles look great in every aspect of the game. Falcons could go 0-17 this season"

Aside from the fact that way of thinking is illogical considering that Atlanta has a former NFL MVP Award winner as their Quarterback, it's a perfect way to deflect the credit away from the Eagles and excuse it away like fans throw shade at a college football team like Rutgers for beating an lesser team like Temple 61-14 in Week One of their season.

This is the National Football League, these are professional athletes whose jobs are to play football and any win in the "big leagues" is earned, there's rarely any easy opponents in the NFL (just ask the 49ers how they almost went to Overtime with the Detroit Lions or Urban Meyer who has the first losing record of his coaching career after losing to the lowly Houston Texans).

The reality is that no matter what Jalen Hurts does or I say about him, some people will always "hate on" him and doubt him for a variety of reasons. Comparing his first five NFL starts, Jalen Hurts has played well overall despite some atypical circumstances last season. When Hurts came in for Carson Wentz last season, the situation he stepped on the field with was much worse than what Wentz dealt with during the start of the 2016 season. The injuries around Hurts was similar to what Nick Foles dealt with in the 2012 season. Here's how Hurts first five starts stack up compared to some previous Eagles QBs:

*Jalen Hurts: 1,183 Passing Yards, Eight Touchdown Passes, 3 Rushing TDs, Sacked 11 Times, Five Total Turnovers (3 INTs, 2 Fumbles Lost), 2-3 Eagles Record

*Donovan McNabb: 603 Passing Yards, 5 TD Passes, Sacked 13 Times, Six Total Turnovers (4 INTs, 2 Fumbles Lost), 1-4 Eagles Record

*Nick Foles: 1,135 Passing Yards, 4 Touchdown Passes, One Rushing Touchdowns, Sacked 13 Times, Four Total Turnovers (3 INTs, 1 Fumble Lost), 1-4 Eagles record

*Carson Wentz: 1,186 Passing Yards, 7 Touchdown Passes, Sacked 12 Times, One Turnover (Interception), 3-2 Eagles Record

So by comparison, Hurts first five starts are not that different or worse than some other Eagles Quarterbacks over the last 20+ years. But there's that disgruntled Hurts Hater who will still point out:

*You forget to point out his poor completion percentage, he was 51.88% last season, that's unacceptable!

-Pointing to that stat is flawed in itself because when you go back to re-watch the Packers game, you will see that three of Hurts seven incompletions were throwaways while four of his 13 incompletions versus the Saints were also throwaways. If you remove those seven passes from the stat line, Hurts real completion percentage combined in the Saints and Packers games was 66.7% (22 completed passes on 33 Pass Attempts). The reality is Hurts rather throw the ball away than take a sack or throw an interception, it's something he has been doing from his college playing days until now. So focusing on his Completion Percentage is flawed and until the statisticians start factoring in Throwaways the way we don't demerit Walks against a Hitter's Batting Average in Baseball, I will defend any Quarterback who does the smart football play.

Then you have the "Get-Off-My-Lawn" Hurts Haters who love to use this point:

*Running and Mobile Quarterbacks don't win Super Bowls!

-This concept is archaic and completely ignores how the modern NFL is played with better athletes than ever before. This way of thinking ignores that Steve Young (4,239 Rushing Yards) and Russell Wilson (4,511) are top five in NFL History in Rushing Yards among Quarterbacks while Aaron Rodgers is almost 1,000 yards behind Young (3,271) plus John Elway had more Rushing Yards than Rodgers (3,407). So the reality isn't that Running/Mobile QBs cant win championships, the truth is that either great Quarterbacks or great Teams win championships. Their mobility and running talent has little to do with winning or losing championships.

So at the end of the day, these "Haters" are Jalen Hurts are either irrational or unreasonable. I am not saying Hurts will be among the elite Quarterbacks in the NFL, but he is no where as poor as these angsty people like to assume Hurts is.

Quarterbacks like Kerry Collins, Rex Grossman, Jared Goff, and Matt Hasselbeck have all started for teams in the Super Bowl over the last 20 years; I would take Jalen Hurts over any of those guys because to me Leadership and Football IQ is more important than Arm Talent or what school the Quarterback played at.