Jalen Hurts' first 5 starts are better than an NFL MVP's, a Super Bowl champion's and Eagles' greats

It's hard to put Jalen Hurts' short career into perspective.

Hurts has started just five games and has a 2-3 record. Four of those starts came last season, when Hurts replaced an ineffective Carson Wentz and ran an offense designed for Wentz by former head coach Doug Pederson.

Hurts shined in his only start under new coach Nick Sirianni, throwing for 264 yards and running for 62 more in the Eagles' 32-6 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Aug. 12.

Hurts had a passer rating of 126.4, the highest by an Eagles quarterback since Nick Foles posted a 141.4 in the NFC Championship game against Minnesota on Jan. 21, 2018.

Then again, the Eagles had an entire offseason to design an offense around Hurts' strengths.

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"Before you think about scheme ... it's all about the players," Sirianni said. "It’s first about the player. Players, players, players, players, players, players. So, what do they do well? Put them in positions of what they do well and then try to match that up to the scheme."

Still, through five starts, we can get a sense of the kind of quarterback the Eagles have in Hurts, especially in comparison to other quarterbacks who are known as both passers and runners.

And through the first five starts, Hurts' brief career is already off to a better start than Baltimore's Lamar Jackson, who won an MVP award in his second season; Michael Vick, the all-time rushing leader among quarterbacks; Donovan McNabb, the Eagles' franchise leader in passing yards; Randall Cunningham, the Eagles' all-time leader in rushing yards for a quarterback.

Hurts' start is also better than Carolina's Cam Newton and Seattle's Russell Wilson, who helped the Seahawks win a Super Bowl in his second season.

In fact, only Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes and Houston's Deshaun Watson have gotten off to better starts through their first five starts (see chart below).

Historical pace for Hurts

Hurts has thrown for 1,183 yards, completing 57.4% of his passes, with 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. His passer rating is 87.5. Hurts has also run for 334 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry.

Projected over a 17-game season, Hurts would finish with 4,022 yards passing and 1,136 yards rushing. No quarterback in NFL history has ever thrown for 4,000 yards and run for 1,000 in the same season. 

Wentz is the only Eagle to ever pass for 4,000 yards, throwing for 4,039 in 2019. No Eagle quarterback has ever rushed for 1,000 yards in a season. Cunningham came the closest with 942 in 1990.

Vick, with Atlanta in 2006, and Jackson in 2019 are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to run for at least 1,000 yards in a season.

Hurts, of course, is still learning. And that involves knowing when to take what the defense gives him versus forcing the issue.

"It is easier said than done," Hurts said. "Everybody wants to play at a high level, everybody wants to lead their team ... You gotta know how you want to prepare, how you’re going to attack."

The Falcons took away the deep passes, so Hurts and the Eagles focused on shorter passes that would give his receivers room to run. That's what happened on Jalen Reagor's 23-yard TD catch, when he took a short pass and used his speed – along with a crushing block from left tackle Jordan Mailata – to score.

In all, Hurts completed only one pass that traveled more than 20 yards in the air, a 28-yard pass to tight end Zach Ertz. Yet Hurts had three other pass plays that went 20 yards or more.

"It's just the added reps of getting him to know where to go with the football," Sirianni said. "He's a good enough passer. He's a really good passer, and he does a lot of other things really well.

"Does that mean you throw in rhythm every single time? No, but you will (do it) more if you know where to go with the football. Then he has that great weapon of being able to run the football."

That's why the most important statistic to Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen against the Falcons was Hurts' 77.1% completion percentage. That is a drastic improvement from last season, when Hurts completed only 51% of his passes in the 4½ games in which he replaced Wentz as the starter.

A higher percentage

That's not to say that Hurts will stay at that percentage for the entire season. After all, the NFL record for completion percentage in a season is 74.4% set by the Saints' Drew Brees in 2018.

But a completion percentage in the mid-60s, along with the 1,000 yards rushing, should enable Hurts to have an MVP caliber season.

"I think any time you're completing 77 percent of your passes, you're putting your team in a position to win football games," Steichen said. "The way he created plays outside the pocket, scrambling ... to see it live on Sunday was very impressive.

"So when guys are completing balls, you're moving the sticks. It could be a 5-yard completion that puts you at second-and-5. You complete another ball, you're in a first down. When you're completing balls, you're moving the ball."

That didn't happen when Hurts played last season.

The reasons are simple: The offense was designed for Wentz, who was the franchise quarterback. That's not a surprise. Wentz was the No. 2 overall pick in 2016, and signed a four-year extension worth as much as $128 million in June, 2019.

Hurts, the Eagles' second-round pick in 2020, was used mostly for gadget-type plays until Pederson benched Wentz on Dec. 6 against Green Bay.

At that point, the Eagles were changing things on the fly for Hurts, behind an injured offensive line.

That's not the case this season.

"Just him being the guy, and knowing, going in every week he’s preparing to be the guy," Reagor said. "I feel that’s just part of our connection growing as an offense, and also him being the great quarterback that he is."

Hurts took that seriously. Reagor said during training camp that Hurts would often quiz his receivers on plays, whether it was in the locker room or the cafeteria or right after a meeting.

Reagor was asked if Hurts is still doing that.

"Every day," he replied with a laugh.

But Hurts knows the San Francisco 49ers and their strong defensive line bring another set of challenges. They should have a better idea of what to expect after seeing video of Hurts and Sirianni's offensive scheme.

That was something the Falcons didn't see because the Eagles kept Hurts and their full offense under wraps in the preseason.

So Hurts wasn't consumed with his stats from the season opener, and that includes his completion percentage.

"The biggest stat I’ll look at at the end of a game is if we won or lost," he said.