Guess where Jalen Hurts landed on a ranking of the NFC's quarterbacks

QB1 is seen as one of the NFC's top signal-callers, as he should be.
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
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Playing the quarterback position at any level of football is a tough ask. Sure, when they're good, they're rock stars, even at the prep level. Still, it's a tough position to play, maybe the toughest in all of sports. No disrespect is intended to pitchers. Those poor guys work for a day and then have to take a few off, but think about Philadelphia Eagles star Jalen Hurts and all he has had to deal with. It wasn't that long ago that he finished second in MVP voting and led his team within four points of winning the Super Bowl, yet here we are, still asking if QB1 is good enough.

Look... Playing quarterback at the NFL level is a tough ask. They are the only members of a roster that have win-loss records attached to their names. Middle linebackers don't... Wide receivers, starting corners, and the other team captains don't. Then, there are the schematics. QB1 has to know what his job is on every play and the jobs of his offensive teammates.

Jalen, all things considered has done a good job. Can he improve? Of course he can! Does he need to improve? The truth is he must! Philly is only going to soar as high as he does.

Jalen Hurts lands third on PFF's ranking of quarterbacks in the NFC.

Say what you will about Jalen. The Eagles could do much worse than their starter. Struggling at times in the NFL is a byproduct of the position he plays. No one is immune. Peyton Manning endured rough stretches. There were times when it didn't seem that Tom Brady was getting much done, and those are two of the best to ever play the position.

If playing quarterback is as simple as some would like you to believe, why the heck are four or five drafted in the first round of every NFL Draft?

The Birds need Jalen to continue his upswing. That can't be denied, but stack him against other signal-callers in the NFL, particularly the National Football Conference, and he ranks highly. It appears Pro Football Focus agrees.

Troy Sikkema ranked him ninth among all 32 starting QBs, and that's debatable. That ranking does however slot him as the NFC's third-best. Take a look.

Our advice? If you're Jalen Hurts (which we are not), we'd assume this will be used as fuel. PFF also recently ranked C.J. Gardner-Johnson as their choice for Philly's potential bounce-back candidate, but something tells us Jalen's bounce-back will also be wildly entertaining.

In conclusion:

We've come a long way from questioning Howie Roseman's decision to draft a quarterback in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft when he and Eagles leadership had just given the bag to Carson Wentz. Fast forward, and that now looks like one of the best decisions he has made as of late. Still, if we're being honest, there's work to be done.

We trust Jalen to do the work. We may differ in opinions about his stoic nature, but here's where we can agree. His maturity speaks for itself, and when he's performing at peak level, few QBs are better. Just look at his efforts during Super Bowl LVII if you need any evidence of that one.

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