NFL Power Rankings: Stacking Jalen Hurts vs the NFC East’s other QBs

Jalen Hurts gets his showdowns with Taylor Heinicke in Week 15 and Week 17.

The disdain that Eagles fans have for the Washington Football Team may not be as intense as the angst that they have for the Giants and Dallas Cowboys, but it still gets pretty intense from time to time. During the 2021-2022 NFL season, the NFL’s schedule makers saw fit to have these age-old rivals do battle twice in the regular season’s final four weeks.

For the uninitiated, that guarantees us all a date with Ron Rivera, who’ actually family by the way. He’s a former Eagles linebackers coach and a branch off of the Andy Reid tree. He also owns a 5-2 record versus this Eagles team. His quarterback, Taylor Heinicke, recently became a playoff legend, believe it or not, by losing.

So far, just nine starts into his 17-game career, Heinicke has already seen three different locker rooms, those belonging to the Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, and Washington Football Team. His highlight is pushing the eventual Super Bowl Champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to the limit in Washington’s most recent postseason appearance.

Rivera’s plan in 2021 was to hand the ball to Ryan Fitzpatrick, but he got hurt. Just like that, Heinicke was back in the spotlight again. He now has a signature win, his most recent, a 29-19 win over the Bucs (he got them this time). That places him on this list ahead of Daniel Jones, but the question on everyone’s mind is this. Can he put those same types of games together versus the other 31 NFL teams?