Jalen Hurts earns his spot on a list he was snubbed from in 2021

Ask any NFL fan what their thoughts are on Jalen Hurts are, and the opinions will most certainly vary. If you find yourselves tossing a few ideas on Chris Simms back and forth with a few friends for fodder, you’re almost certain to learn that the same thing will happen.

The former is the Philadelphia Eagles‘ QB1 of the moment. For the second time in as many seasons, there are discussions about the coming campaign being an 18-week, 17-game audition to determine if he’ll remain in the first chair as Philly’s franchise signal-caller.

Simms knows all too well what that feels like. The son of two-time Super Bowl champion Phil Simms (XXI, XXV), Chris spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before sandwiching a one-and-done season in Denver with the Broncos (2009) between two stints with the Tennessee Titans (2008 and 2010).

These days, Chris spends his days creating content for both Pro Football Talk and his Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast. Recently, he gave Jalen Hurts a nod… sort of.

Chris Simms names Jalen Hurts as the NFL’s 25th-best quarterback.

It would seem that being a starting quarterback in the NFL would give one the opportunity to, at minimum, be one of the NFL’s top 32 quarterbacks, but that wasn’t the case with Hurts a year ago, at least in Simms’ eyes.

Hurts was left off of Simms’ ranking of the NFL’s top 40 quarterbacks in 2021. This time around, he’s 25th as Simms mentioned him while unveiling players 25 through 21. That may not be what Birds fans want to hear, but at least we aren’t having a discussion about why Jalen is manning the controls of the Eagles’ offense while there are a presumed 40 men who are better.

We’ll reserve our theories about Simms placing QB1 behind Daniel Jones and three second-year starters who haven’t proven anything or led their teams to the playoffs for a later date. Look at this list.

Here’s what Simms had to say about his decisions both last year and this time around.

"I was wrong last year, I think that’s fair to say. He was one of those first few guys off my list. I had questions about him. The way the 2020 season ended, I went ‘I’m not sure, I’m not sure he can do it.’ He proved to me that he can do it, but within that, I didn’t come away watching every Jalen Hurts throw from last year or anything going ‘Oh, he’s definitely the future. (Still) there’s no doubt about it. I was totally wrong."

Hurts started the final four games of his rookie season in 2020 after relieving Carson Wentz in Green Bay versus the Packers in Week 13. He finished with a 52% completion percentage, six passing touchdowns, and three scores with his legs versus four interceptions and six fumbles lost.

During his sophomore run during the 2022-2023 season, his completion percentage improved (61.3%). He tossed 16 touchdowns versus nine picks while rushing for ten touchdowns. The questions now are about whether or not he can take the next step in year three.