Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was named the Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl 59. Hurts poised passing and pocket presence helped the Birds to a dominant 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles quarterback standing at the top of the mountain should serve as validation for what has been an unprecedented football career. Hurts has seen many successes throughout his football journey but was never quite the best. Now Hurts is finally a champion on the sport’s grandest stage. Let’s take a look at what led to this legacy-cementing moment.
How Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts Became A Super Bowl Champion
The Beginning
Since Hurts developmental years, he’s been entrenched in football. He played quarterback at Channelview High School where his father was Head Coach. By his junior season, he became the starting quarterback for the varsity team and put up 1,958 passing yards and 16 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He also tallied an additional 750 rushing yards and 17 rushing touchdowns.
While Hurts passing yards dipped his senior season, his passing touchdowns increased to 18 and he threw one less pick. He also ran for almost 200 more rushing yards with 941 and another 17 touchdowns. Hurts finished his career at Channelview with 34 passing touchdowns, 34 rushing touchdowns, and 5,185 total yards.
Hurts dynamic ability as both a runner and a passer would spark the interest of many scouts. After weighing his options, Hurts chose to commit to the Crimson Tide.
The Edge of Greatness
Hurts made an immediate impact the moment he stepped on the field for Nick Saban. He won the 2016 SEC Offensive Player of The Year as a true freshman. The quarterback completed 62% of his passes that season for 2,780 passing yards and 23 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He also added 954 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to his campaign. Hurts success carried the Crimson Tide to the National Championship game against the Clemson Tigers.
Hurts struggled for much of the game completing only 41% of his passes, however, he came up big when it mattered. He led what looked to be a game-winning drive capped off with a 30-yard rushing touchdown to go up 31-28 late in the fourth quarter.
However, Hurts had his first shot at national glory taken away and put into the hands of Tigers receiver Hunter Renfrow off of a last-second touchdown from quarterback Deshaun Watson.
An All Time Low
The loss certainly hurt, no pun intended, but the soon-to-be sophomore quarterback would not be deterred. Hurts had another solid season as a starter leading the Crimson Tide to an 11-1 regular season. He would also exact revenge on the Tigers in the Sugar Bowl with a two-touchdown performance and a win to go back to the National Championship. Unfortunately for Hurts, he hit an all-time low against the SEC rival Georgia Bulldogs. the quarterback had his worst passing performance arguably of his entire career, going 3-8 for just 21 yards in the first half. Understanding a change needed to be made, head coach Saban made the difficult but ultimately correct decision to bench his two-year starter for another true freshman, Tua Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa turned the entire game around. With Hurts on the bench watching, he threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns, including the dagger to DeVonta Smith in overtime, to lead the Crimson Tide to a win.
Hurts celebrated Tagovailoa after the game, but naturally even the most selfless of people would be hurt given the situation. In fact, Hurts admitted later that he cried in his parents’ arms over what had transpired. Hurts apparently looked up at his dad and asked “What are we going to do now?” to which his dad responded, “We are going to fight.”
A Little Victory
Hurts decided not to transfer his Junior year but it would come at a cost. Turns out Tagovailoa’s performance in the national championship, along with a strong training camp, meant Hurts was staying on the bench for the foreseeable future. Despite watching Tagovailoa put up monstrous numbers in 2018, Hurts stayed focused. He still saw limited snap counts during his junior season and knew that an opportunity could arise where he was needed once again. That opportunity came in the form of the 2018 SEC Championship game.
The Crimson Tide were facing up against none other than the Georgia Bulldogs in a National Championship rematch. Tagovailoa went down with an injury in the fourth quarter and the team had to turn to Hurts once again. Despite being down 28-21, Hurts put his passing woes from the season prior against this team behind him. He led the Crimson Tide to 14 unanswered points in just five minutes off a touchdown pass to Jerry Jeudy and a 15-yard rushing touchdown to seal a 35-28 victory over the team that made him lose his job. He also finished 7-9 passing on the game.
It may not have been a national championship win, but it was a reminder that Hurts was still talented and could be effective.
Hurts got himself back on the map as a potential starter. However, if he wanted to make an impact and help his draft stock, he’d need to go elsewhere.
Enter Lincoln Riley.
A Career Renaissance
Hurts couldn’t have picked a better mentor to revitalize his career. Riley, the Head Coach of the Oklahoma Sooners at the time, was known for getting the most out of his quarterback talent. He led guys like Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray to Heisman Trophy-winning seasons previously. Hurts continued the trend of Riley’s disciples having breakout campaigns.
Hurts went on to have the best season of his collegiate career in 2019. The quarterback threw for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns to just 8 interceptions and ran for a staggering 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns. After such a remarkable campaign one would think that Hurts would become the third quarterback to win a Heisman under Riley right? Nope.
In a season where Hurts had 52 touchdowns, LSU’s Joe Burrow had a 60-touchdown campaign and arguably the greatest single season by a player in college football history, talk about rotten luck. Hurts would be the runner-up to Burrow for the Heisman trophy. He also got outclassed by Burrow in the College Football Playoff. That would mark the end of Hurts’ collegiate career.
It was certainly a fascinating four years full of ups and downs. That time was passed though and now Hurts turned his attention to the NFL
Starting From The Bottom
Hurts posted overall solid numbers at the NFL Scouting Combine in preparation for the 2020 NFL Draft. Overall, Hurts ranked third out of all quarterbacks evaluated at the combine, first in athleticism, and fourth in production.
He also posted a prospect score of 6.14 which the NFL defines as a “Good Backup With The Potential To Develop Into Starter.”
However, when draft time came, Hurts was once again passed over by more “ideal” prospects. The first round came and went and Hurts went unselected. Four quarterbacks were taken in front of him, those being Burrow, the man who took the Heisman from him, Tagovailoa, the man who took his starting job at Alabama, Justin Herbert, and Jordan Love.
Finally, with the 21st selection in the second round, Hurts was shockingly taken by the Eagles.
This pick came to the surprise of many NFL pundits considering the Eagles already had a franchise quarterback. The team signed starter Carson Wentz to a four-year $128 Million extension the previous offseason. However, Wentz hadn’t quite reached the MVP-caliber numbers he put up in 2017 since tearing his ACL. Perhaps the Birds saw something nobody else didn’t because it wouldn’t be long before Hurts had a chance to make his presence known in the NFL.
Thrown Into The Fire
In 2020, simply put the Eagles were a disaster. The team finished 4-11-1 and in big part due to Wentz falling off a cliff statistically. He led the team to a career-low 3-8-1 record while finishing his season with 15 interceptions and completing a career-low 57% of his passes.
After another lackluster performance against the Green Bay Packers, Head Coach Doug Pederson had finally seen enough and Hurts was put in to replace Wentz.
Hurts showed flashes of his talent with 109 yards and a touchdown pass in yet another loss.
The team showed signs of life when Hurts stepped in though and The Eagles quarterback earned his first NFL start against the New Orleans Saints the following week. Hurts picked up the win for his team throwing for 167 yards and a touchdown while running for 106.
Hurts followed that up with a four-touchdown performance against the Arizona Cardinals and a 342-yard passing performance against the division-rival Dallas Cowboys.
While there wasn’t much to smile about for the Birds in 2020, Hurts certainly provided a bright spot. In a season that looked like a rudderless ship stranded on a stormy sea, the team finally found some sense of direction. However, Hurts would have to prove himself the following season as someone the team could actually build around rather than just being a flash in the pan.
Building The Right System
The Eagles massively overhauled their roster after the 2020 season. Wentz was traded and Pederson along with the entire coaching staff was let go. To replace them Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman brought in Colts Wide Receivers Coach Nick Sirianni as their next Head Coach. The coordinator slots were filled by Shane Steichen on offense and Jonathan Gannon on defense.
The new foundation around Hurts looked to be paying dividends early. In week one against the Atlanta Falcons, Hurts threw for 264 yards and three touchdowns while completing 77% of his passes. The team then hit a skid starting the season 2-5, but then Steichen took over playcalling responsibilities. Steichen leaned more on Hurts’ ability as a runner and the team took a turn for the best. They finished 7-3 over their next 10 games and clinched a playoff birth.
Despite getting bounced out of the playoffs early by the Tampa Bay Buccanneers, this season was a massive success. The team was ahead of schedule in their rebuild and little did the fans know the best was yet to come.
Deja Vu
Hurts had his breakout campaign in the NFL in 2022. He looked like a different beast in the team’s home opener against the Minnesota Vikings. He threw for a long touchdown to Quez Watkins while also rushing for two impressive touchdowns right before the half in the blowout 24-7 win.
Hurts went on to throw for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns to just six interceptions in 2022 while rushing for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns.
That effort would lead the team to Super Bowl 57 against the Kansas City Chiefs. It was a thrilling back-and-forth game. The Birds jumped out to a 24-14 lead at halftime. This lead was squandered in the second half with the team falling behind by 14. Late in the fourth quarter, Hurts led a comeback effort to knot things up at 35. However, just like the national championship in 2016, Hurts wouldn’t see the ball again to end the game.
Patrick Mahomes would lead a game-winning drive in the final five minutes capped off by a last-second field goal to win the contest 38-35.
For the second time in his career, Hurts saw the top of the mountain but just couldn’t quite reach it.
The Fall Off
The Birds didn’t skip a beat at the start of 2023. The team jumped out to a 5-0 record to start the season and looked primed for a revenge tour. Hurts didn’t quite look the same though. He was developing a turnover problem which would follow him through the course of the season. Hurts finished the year with 20 turnovers, 15 picks, and five fumbles, to be exact. To make matters worse, the team completely and utterly collapsed to end the season. After a thrilling overtime win against the Buffalo Bills, the team won only one of its final six games and got embarrassed by the Buccanneers for the second time in the playoffs.
Many in the city believed Sirianni should have been fired after this collapse and serious doubts were beginning to creep in as to whether or not Hurts could lead a team to a championship.
The Climb Back
Roseman knew the team was going to need a serious face-lift if they were going to get back to the heights of the Super Bowl. That face life came in the form of Saquon Barkley. Not only did Barkley have arguably the greatest rushing season of all time, but he took the weight off of Hurts to be Superman.
Hurts throw attempts went down and so did his turnovers. The passing game became simplified and he re-established himself as a formidable running threat in the backfield, which was lacking in 2023.
Roseman also improved the defense by bringing in defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and picking up players like Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper Dejean. After a slow start to the year, the Birds kicked it into high gear after their bye week. They went on to win 10 consecutive games and finished the regular season as the NFC’s number two seed.
Barkley and the defense, along with a stellar performance from Hurts in the NFC Championship game led the team back to the Super Bowl for a rematch with the Chiefs. Everybody and their mother knew the Chiefs’ number one priority would be to stop Saquon Barkley. The question became if the Chiefs force Jalen to win the game, would he be able to do it?
Redemption At Last
Hurts showed everyone he was locked in early when he threw a dime to Jahan Dotson down the sideline in the first quarter to set up for a tush-push touchdown.
After the defense took over with a pick-six and another interception deep in Kansas City territory, Hurts found A.J. Brown for a walk-in touchdown to make it 24-0 at halftime.
In the second half, after getting another critical stop on defense against Kansas City late in the third, Hurts made the throw of his life. The team could have chosen to milk clock off the board, but instead they went for the kill shot.
Hurts took a page out of Tagovailoa’s and threw a 46-yard dagger to DeVonta Smith for a touchdown to make it 34-0. That plus a few extra field goals added from Hurts extending drives with his legs got the job done.
The Eagles are Super Bowl 59 Champions. Not only is the redemption tour complete, but it puts a stamp of greatness of Hurts’ unprecedented career. He has seen the mountaintop multiple times and come up short. He has been doubted as a player. He’s been overlooked for other more talented players like Burrow and Tagovailoa. Finally, after years of hard work and perseverance, Hurts is at the top of the mountain, looking down over those who seemingly passed him by.
Main Photo: William Bretzger-Del – Imagn Images
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