Jalen Hurts' ability again called into question, this time by former Eagles LB

He has started at not one but two historic college football programs, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oklahoma Sooners. He has been the Philadelphia Eagles' starter since Week 14 of the 2020 season. We have seen him break franchise and NFL record. Sure, many of those have come because he's a talented runner, but we've also seen him use his arm effectively.

It's a nice problem to have, but the Eagles' roster, its draft class, and its free agency haul were all so impressive that we can literally go weeks without bringing up QB1. Dang... How often has that happened?

Jalen is too interesting of a discussion point to ignore for long stretches of time however. Fomer Bird and Speak host Emmanuel Acho took care of that recently though. Guess what? Philly's offensive signal-caller is again on trial in the court of public opinion.

Emmanuel Acho believes Jalen Hurts is "good" but "not good enough.

There are so many avenues with which to find info on our Birds that the task can, at times, seem daunting. You can pay attention to what's being reported all day and often still miss much of what has been said. New Heights is in our rotation though. So is The 25/10 Show featuring LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson. Boy! They lit up Chip Kelly recently, didn't they?

Here's another one. We often tune into FS1 to watch Speak. Two former Eagles, Shady and Emmanuel Acho, are among the hosts. That probably has tons to do with it. Recently, something Acho said grabbed our attention.

Jalen Hurts'name found its way into a discussion. Here's where things really got interesting. Emmanuel believes Philly's QB1 is "good" but "not elite". In Acho's opinion, Hurts isn't good enough to get the Birds to a Super Bowl and win it.

While, we can understand where he's coming from, we disagree slightly. Does Hurts need to be better? He absolutely does, but we watched him outplay Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl. That guy has to still be inside of Jalen somewhere.

Think back to Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season. Philly had just turned the page from an overtime win over the Buffalo Bills. Jalen was the odds-on favorite to win the NFL's MVP trophy at the time. Ladies and gentlemen, that didn't happen because of happenstance or an oversight.

Now, we're football junkies, so we're biased. We believe the quarterback position is the toughest to play in sports. That's why six or more are drafted so high every season, so let's think about his.

Let's say, for the sake of argument that playing QB isn't the toughest position to play in all of football. If that's true, it's certainly among the top two or three. Jalen's experience as a starter, at the time of this story's release, equates to 51 regular-season games and another five during the postseason.

We have seen flashes. We have also seen areas of opportunity, but come on. He's also 25 years old and won't turn 26 until August. Jalen will improve, and the evidence suggests that.

We mentioned the collegiate career earlier. We could mention him being Carson Wentz's backup as a rookie. We can mention being supplanted at the NCAA level by Tua Tagovailoa for the starting position at Alabama. Hurts has handled adversity well. Now, he faces another helping as a professional.

Our opinon? Jalen will be fine. We also believed last season's injury affected him more than he let on. He has a phenomenal work ethic and approach to the game. He also has a nice supporting cast.

Add new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to the mixture. You see how Dak Prescott developed under his watch. Dak experienced some of the same doubt, and Philly's offense is potentially more explosive than anything Moore had in Dallas.

Cue the bounceback. We trust Hurts. Look around the league. We can ask questions about most starters, but Philly has a QB that's good enough to get them to the dance AND win.

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