Looking at the state of the Philadelphia Eagles' offense heading into the playoffs, it's probably pretty easy for most fans to offer up several different conclusions. And, to some extent, they might be accurate.
In one of his latest columns, though, ESPN's Dan Graziano tackled a common misconception: this offense doesn't run through Saquon Barkley. In fact, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's all about Jalen Hurts.
To begin with, Graziano noted how even Barkley's performances are in both Eagles wins and losses. There isn't much of a difference. And then, the truth about Hurts came:
"Hurts, on the other hand, sees a great deal more variance. In Eagles wins, Hurts has a 64.2 QBR, a 5.1 completion percentage over expected (NFL Next Gen Stats), 19 touchdown passes and zero interceptions."
"In losses, he has a 38.2 QBR, a 0.1 CPOE, six touchdown passes and six interceptions. Just a lot of evidence to suggest that Philadelphia's success in 2025 is tied much more closely to Hurts' performance than it is to what Barkley does."
That's a stark difference.
Jalen Hurts has shown Eagles fans more and more of the truth this season
What this tells us, overall, is that Hurts might not be the guy we all thought he was at one point or another.
Look, fans can offer up blame and aim it towards whomever they'd like. We can sit here all day and talk about offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo and just how poor of a job he's done, and that would be accurate.
We can talk about the offensive line's performance, at times, or maybe some dropped passes here and there. Again, these are well-deserved points to take into consideration.
But, at the end of the day, is Hurts the type of quarterback who can elevate those around him? Can he win games despite some poor play calls? Can he make something out of nothing consistently, as some of the best quarterbacks in the game can do?
These questions are the ones we should really be asking and, if we're honest with ourselves, I'm not so sure we like the answers.
When Hurts is bad, the Eagles lose more often than not. The numbers speak for themselves.
The Eagles are 24th in the NFL in third-down conversion rate at just 37.14 percent. Only one playoff team was worse, with the Carolina Panthers coming in at 25th.
Can Hurts do the things elite quarterbacks do for the Eagles to be true contenders? Without an elite offensive line and the absolute, most-perfect play calls, I don't know if we can say that he is.
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It's a brutal truth, but it's the truth.