Jalen Hurts’ spot in ESPN’s latest quarterback rankings has stirred up the kind of reaction you’d expect in Philadelphia.
In a poll of NFL executives, scouts and coaches, Hurts landed at No. 17, and that number didn’t sit well with plenty of Eagles fans. The team is still two months out from opening the 2026 NFL season, and the sting of a turbulent 2025 campaign is still fresh after Philadelphia’s stunning home loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card round.
Eagles reporter Eliot Shorr-Parks of 49WIP.com jumped into the discussion with a blunt take on X, formerly Twitter.
“I think two things are true: 1) Hurts deserves to be ranked higher if you take into account what he has accomplished. He’d be correct to feel slighted.
) This is probably roughly where he would go in a QB draft if all QBs were available. I think the first one is ultimately more important,” noted Shorr-Parks on X, formerly Twitter.
That’s the tension at the heart of the debate. Hurts has been one of the league’s top quarterbacks for years, and his résumé clearly carries more weight than a single rough season. At the same time, if the ranking were based only on what happened in 2025, the No. 17 slot doesn’t come out of nowhere.
Philadelphia’s offense was a mess by the standards the team had set the year before. Hurts dealt with accuracy problems throughout the season, and his connection with wide receiver AJ Brown never found steady ground. Brown has since been traded to the New England Patriots.
The supporting cast around Hurts also shifted in a big way. Saquon Barkley followed his historic 2024 season with a major drop-off, and the Eagles moved on from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo at season’s end, replacing him with Sean Mannion.
For Hurts, the ranking is the kind of slight that can easily become motivation. Whether he agrees with the placement or not, it gives him a clear piece of bulletin-board material heading into the new season.
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