In Year 2 of Jalen Hurts’ contract, the Eagles QB has nothing and everything to prove

Let’s get one thing straight.

Jalen Hurts is worth $255 million.

Probably more.

That isn’t a question.

That isn’t the question.

After a 2023 season in which Hurts took some material steps backward from the quarterback who’d earned himself a gargantuan offseason contract extension, it would be easy to frame 2024 as a year when he must revalidate the Eagles’ five-year, $255 million investment in him. The only accurate part of that notion is that it is easy. Too easy.

More than that, it is archaic, a relic of a time when quarterbacks were judged on a binary scale. Each was a pupil in a pass-fail course. He could prove one of two things. He was The Guy, or he wasn’t.

This all-or-nothing thinking was reflected in the marketplace. In 2012, the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback earned twice as much as the 16th highest-paid quarterback, who himself earned roughly twice as much as a rookie first-round draft pick. Drew Brees’ contract paid him $20 million a year. Matt Cassel’s contract paid him $10.5 million. Andrew Luck’s paid him about $5.6 million.

Here in 2024, the NFL’s 16th highest-paid quarterback is under contract for $40 million. The reality of the market can be understood by the three players clustered around the median.

What does $40 million get a team these days?

If the question is whether Hurts is really a $200 million quarterback, the answer is an indisputable yes. Look at some of the players who have signed such a contract: Deshaun Watson, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love, Kyler Murray, Trevor Lawrence, Jared Goff. Hurts is more than worth the investment.

But again, that isn’t the question.

Perform a quick study of the quarterback position in the NFL’s pass-first era and you’ll find that there actually are two dividing lines. The first is the guys who give a team a chance at winning a Super Bowl in the right situation. The second is the guys who can do it in any situation.

Hurts has already proven that he belongs in the first bucket. He proved it last season, in fact. Only 10 teams in NFL history had ever made the playoffs while allowing 25-plus points per game. The Eagles became the 11th. They were one of three teams that failed to win a game in which they did not score at least 21 points. In their Week 17 loss to the Cardinals, they scored on four of their six possessions before getting the ball back with under a minute left. The Cowboys and 49ers were undefeated in the regular season when scoring at least 30 points.

Point being: With even a slightly better defense, the Eagles might have ended up hosting the Packers at home in the divisional round instead of facing Todd Bowles and the Bucs on the road in a wild-card game. They might have had A.J. Brown at wide receiver. From there, who knows?

As disappointing and dysfunctional as the Eagles were at the finish, a team in their circumstances does not win 11 games without a quarterback who is performing well above the baseline of his position.

The question Hurts must answer in 2024: Can he get himself back above the threshold of the elite?

We have seen him there before, on a February evening in Arizona, dragging his team to within steps of the finish line against arguably the NFL’s best coach and inarguably its best quarterback. Go back to that Super Bowl, when Hurts accounted for 374 of the Eagles’ 417 total yards and all four of their touchdowns. Look at how he gained those yards, as a passer and a ballcarrier.

Second quarter. Third-and-8. Eagles on their own 35-yard line. The Chiefs show blitz. They bring blitz. A blitzer breaks free on the blind side. Hurts feels the pressure and begins to run to his right, away from the defender. Then, it happens. His instincts take over. He plants his left foot and reverses field. Suddenly, Hurts is running backward and toward the opposite sideline. The defender is stumbling like a deckhand in a storm. Sixteen yards behind the line of scrimmage, Hurts is cocking his arm and scanning the field. He sees Zach Pascal clear the defense. Nine-yard completion. First down.

Ironically, this was the same drive that ended with Hurts’ only mistake of the night, a fumble recovered and returned by the Chiefs for a touchdown. But look at the next drive. It began with a quarterback draw for 14 yards. It ended with a quarterback sweep for a touchdown. In between was a 28-yard rush by Hurts that gave the Eagles a first down on the Chiefs’ 16-yard line.

These are the plays that made Hurts look like Patrick Mahomes’ equal. In them lie his potential greatness.

We did not see those plays nearly as often last season. We saw fewer scrambles, fewer designed runs, more throws drifting backward, more interceptions.

There are plenty of potential explanations. A short offseason that included ankle surgery, a midseason knee injury, discomfort with the Eagles’ offensive scheme, adjustments by opponents. All are reasons to think that Hurts is more than capable of reclaiming his previous level of dynamism.

One thing we have learned about Hurts: He will make you regret your skepticism. Throughout his career, outside doubts have been a sign that he is about to reach a new level. Nobody should discount the possibility that it happens again this season. Nor what it would mean for the team.