Eagles news: Jalen Hurts lands atop another QB ranking

It’s always good to wake up to good news. With so many sports and news outlets to filter through, you could wind up feeling frustrated by the time you reach the breakfast table. If you are patient enough, or in our case overly determined to make sure every stone is turned over, the quest to find a great Philadelphia Eagles story winds up being successful. That was the case earlier this week as we found ourselves perusing the Football Outsiders’ platform.

If you’re numbers obsessed and spend your time investigating the NFL Next Gen Stats engine and/or spend your hard-earned dollars paying for one of Pro Football Focus’ premium subscriptions, the Football Outsiders are definitely the guys you want to hang out with. In their recent Week 13 QB DYAR rankings, QB1 Jalen Hurts earned a nice mention following his performance versus the Tennessee Titans in Week 14.

Just in case you’re new to their platform, they define DYAR this way:

"Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement. A Football Outsiders stat which compares the performance of each player, in terms of DVOA, to a replacement-level baseline rather than the league average for that position, then translates that total into yardage. Because DYAR is a total stat, not a rate stat, it helps show the importance of workhorse running backs and receivers who can draw the attention of the defense away from other players. DYAR replaced DPAR as our method for measuring individual players with the publication of Pro Football Prospectus 2008 in July 2008."

DVOA is the main stat used in the Football Outsiders’ sophisticated state engine. This analyzes every play of the season and compares the success on each play to the league average based on a number of variables: down and distance, the location on the field, the score, the quarter, and the quality of the opponent. Here’s more.

"While it can be used as a measure of total team performance, it differs from other power ratings found throughout the Web because it can be broken down to analyze team effectiveness in any number of ways: down, quarter, rushing vs. receiving, location on field, passes to backs vs. passes to receivers, and so on. Read the article METHODS TO THE MADNESS for more information. DVOA stands for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, although we use the same letters to refer to defensive rankings which are adjusted to take into account the quality of offensive opponents. When not adjusted for opponent, this stat is called VOA."

When DVOA and DYAR are working in harmony, you wind up with Jalen Hurts being ranked number one. Here’s their reasoning behind placing him there.

"If you saw A.J. Brown’s highlights, it will not surprise you to learn that Hurts led all quarterbacks in DYAR on deep passes (5-of-9 for 148 yards and three touchdowns, plus a 24-yard DPI) and on throws to the outside (21-of-30 for 265 yards and two scores, plus that 24-yard DPI)."

The Eagles continue, thanks in part to their high-flying offense, one led by a quarterback who’s a legitimate MVP candidate.

More Eagles news: T.J. Edwards is having a phenomenal season.

Speaking of high-flying, it doesn’t get much better than what the Eagles have gotten from T.J. Edwards from a performance and statistical standpoint. He’s led his team in tackles or he’s tied for the team lead in tackles in every game minus one. In the other game, one versus the Arizona Cardinals, he was third.

Coming off of another stellar day in Week 13, one where he tied Nakobe Dean as the team’s leader in stops, Pro Football Focus ranked him as the Eagles’ top-rated player regardless of position with an overall mark of 90.4. He’s been impossible to ignore, and if he keeps this up (there’s seemingly no evidence to state that he can’t), he’ll have a lot of ammunition to negotiate an extension once we arrive at the conclusion of the Eagles season. Hopefully, that will be in February.

NFL News: Jalen Hurts wins back-to-back NFC Offensive Player of the Week Awards

Well, you had to see this coming. Following his performance in Week 13’s win over the Tennessee Titans, Jalen Hurts is again the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. QB1 delivered another A-1 performance.

The Birds were unable to run the ball effectively. No problem. Hurts put his team on his back. The results are as follows:

29 completions on 39 attempts, a 74.3% completion percentage, 380 yards passing, three touchdown passes, and a QB rating of 130.3. He even scored another TD as a runner.

Let the good times flow. Enjoy the moments as they come. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles get better with each passing week, and get this. They still have the potential to be better.