Maybe NFL execs should put more weight on winning when they size up Jalen Hurts.
A week has passed since ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler released his annual deep dive into how NFL executives, coaches and scouts rank quarterbacks, and the result was a jolt: Hurts slid from No. 9 in 2025 to No. 17 in 2026.
There’s no mystery at the top of the list. Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Matt Stafford and Lamar Jackson belong in any serious conversation about the league’s best quarterbacks.
But the names stacked above Hurts after that invite a harder look. Dak Prescott has a case based on what he produced last season - 30 TDs vs.
10 INTs, 4,552 yards passing. The others may not.
So strip it down to the simplest test: who among the 16 quarterbacks ranked ahead of Hurts has won more?
Only Mahomes, Stafford and Sam Darnold have Super Bowl titles.
Hurts, meanwhile, has gone 22-13-1 head-to-head against the 16 quarterbacks listed above him. In the postseason, he is 5-3 against those same quarterbacks, and he’s 8-2 combined against Stafford, Mahomes and Burrow.
That ought to matter.
Instead, it feels like winning gets pushed to the side in this debate.
Hurts helped carry an Eagles team that was far from perfect last season. The offense was one-dimensional, the offensive line was banged up, the offensive coordinator was learning on the fly and the team leaned conservative in second halves.
Even with all that, Philadelphia still went 11-6 and repeated as NFC East champions, becoming the first team to do that in 21 years. Hurts had plenty to do with it.
He also has his flaws. He can hold the ball too long.
He hasn’t always trusted himself to throw into tight windows. And there’s been a lack of trust in the playcalling, too.
Whether the Eagles have limited his designed runs to protect him, or he’s chosen to cut back on them himself, that part of his game has not helped his growth.
Now the 2026 season brings another layer. It’s an even year, and every time Hurts has started in an even year during the 2020s, the Eagles have reached the Super Bowl - losing in 2022 and winning in 2024. Philadelphia’s success this season will depend heavily on how Hurts performs under new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, and on how often he’s willing to operate under center.
There’s also the contract situation hanging over everything. Hurts is nearing another extension conversation, and the Eagles still haven’t moved on it. His 2028 salary is not guaranteed, and there’s no sign an extension is close.
For all the noise around rankings, the resume is still there. Hurts is 57-25 as the Eagles’ starter over six seasons.
Donovan McNabb went 92-49-1 in 11 years and had one losing Super Bowl appearance. Randall Cunningham finished 63-43-1 in 11 years without reaching the Super Bowl.
And over the last four seasons he has started, Philadelphia has won 50 games - the most in any four-year stretch in franchise history. That run includes two Super Bowl trips and one championship, topping Reid’s 2000-2003 (46) and 2001-2004 (48) teams, as well as Ryan’s 1988-1991 (41) and 1989-1992 (42) groups.
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