The Latest Quarterback Ranking Provides the WORST Jalen Hurts Take of the Offseason

You know we’re DEEP into the offseason when one of the biggest NFL conversations becomes another round of unwarranted Jalen Hurts discourse. At this point, Hurts has become one of the easiest targets in football, to the point where I think credibility is being lost due to unoriginality. Every offseason, it feels like the same, overdone cycle: people question whether he’s actually elite vs. a “system quarterback”, fans on social media pile on the same, unoriginal takes, and sports talk shows spend hours debating whether he’s being “carried” by his team. But this latest round of disrespect didn’t come from random trolls—it came from inside the league.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler recently released his annual quarterback rankings after surveying NFL coaches, executives, and scouts. According to those evaluations, Jalen Hurts enters the 2026 season ranked as the 17th-best quarterback in football. To put things into perspective, Hurts was ranked ninth entering last season after winning a Super Bowl and earning Super Bowl MVP honors. Personally, I thought ninth was already selling him short. Somehow, after adding even more accomplishments to his résumé, he drops eight spots? That’s not just surprising. It’s incredibly difficult to justify. I’m not arguing Hurts should automatically be ranked No. 1. The usual suspects…Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow—those names belong in the elite conversation. Reasonable people can debate where Hurts belongs among the league’s top quarterbacks. But 17th? That’s where the argument loses all credibility. The quarterbacks ranked ahead of Hurts include Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Drake Maye, Jared Goff, Caleb Williams, Sam Darnold, Jayden Daniels, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield, and Trevor Lawrence. I’m sorry, but there isn’t a convincing football argument that says six or seven of those quarterbacks have accomplished more, played better when the games matter most, or given their teams a better chance to win than Jalen Hurts. And that’s where I think quarterback evaluations have changed.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve stopped asking, “Which quarterback gives his team the best chance to win?” Instead, we’ve started asking, “Whose game looks the prettiest?” We’ve become obsessed with aesthetics. Can he throw from seven different arm angles? Can he make off-platform throws? Can he throw for 4,000 yards? Can he attempt 35+ passes every game? Can he produce highlight clips that go viral? Those things absolutely matter. Passing is still the most important responsibility of an NFL quarterback. But it feels like those traits have started outweighing everything else. I recently saw a TikTok from @LachelleSmith_ that summed this up perfectly. She argued that quarterbacks today are almost being rewarded for their potential and for how closely they resemble what people think an elite quarterback should look like, rather than what they’ve actually accomplished. Whether you agree with every point she made or not, I think there’s truth in that idea. Quarterbacks who look spectacular while throwing for 4,000 yards often receive more praise than quarterbacks who consistently win games in systems that don’t require them to throw 40 times a week. That’s exactly where Hurts gets overlooked. The Eagles don’t ask Hurts to lead the league in passing attempts because they don’t have to. Philadelphia has built one of the most balanced offenses in football. His job isn’t to put up fantasy football numbers—it’s to execute the offense, protect the football, create explosive plays when they’re available, and put the Eagles in position to win football games. And that’s exactly what he’s done.

The conversation also tends to ignore half of what Hurts brings to the position. People love pointing out that he hasn’t thrown for 4,000 yards or that another quarterback has more passing touchdowns. But quarterbacking isn’t just passing, even though Hurts has been one of the league’s most dangerous deep-ball throwers over the past several seasons. Currently, he leads quarterbacks in touchdown passes traveling 25+ air yards since 2022 and in touchdown passes of 15+ air yards since 2021. Despite previous criticism about his ball-security skills, he has protected the football better than several quarterbacks ranked ahead of him while producing fewer combined turnovers than players like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, and Matthew Stafford over the same span. Then there’s everything he adds with his legs. Hurts has the second most rushing touchdowns than any active quarterback, not that far behind the leader, Josh Allen. Hurts consistently converts short-yardage situations that would otherwise end drives, even if some of those situations are tush-pushes. He forces defenses to account for an extra runner on every snap. Those aren’t gimmicks—they’re legitimate quarterback skills that create real value.

Yet when people rank quarterbacks, those contributions often feel like they’re treated as bonus points instead of being evaluated as part of the position. Another factor that seems to get overlooked is performance in the biggest moments, aka, the “clutch factor”. No quarterback is perfect, and every great player has disappointing games. But if postseason success matters—and history says it should—then Hurts deserves far more credit than he receives. He’s repeatedly delivered on the biggest stages in football. His playoff résumé includes conference championships, a Super Bowl championship, a Super Bowl MVP, and multiple outstanding postseason performances. When the pressure reaches its highest point, Hurts has consistently shown he can elevate his game. That doesn’t mean he’s better than every quarterback ranked ahead of him. However, it does mean his résumé deserves more respect than seventeenth. And here’s what I keep coming back to.

If another quarterback possessed just one specific trait, such as Justin Herbert’s arm talent, Caleb Williams’ highlight-reel throws, or Trevor Lawrence’s physical stature and had Jalen Hurts’ résumé, we’d probably be calling him one of the best quarterbacks in football without hesitation. So why doesn’t Hurts receive that same benefit? Maybe it’s because his game isn’t flashy enough. Maybe it’s because he’s surrounded by great talent. Maybe it’s because his style doesn’t fit the traditional mold of what people think an elite quarterback should look like. Whatever the reason, it feels like Hurts is constantly asked to clear a higher bar than everyone else.

You don’t have to believe Jalen Hurts is a top-five quarterback. You don’t even have to believe he’s in the top eight. That’s a perfectly reasonable debate. But ranking him as the 17th-best quarterback in football suggests there are sixteen quarterbacks one would rather have leading a franchise entering this season. Given his production, efficiency, leadership, postseason success, versatility, championship pedigree, and ability to consistently put his team in position to win, that’s a difficult case to make. At some point, we have to decide what is actually being evaluated. Are we ranking quarterbacks based on who makes the prettiest throws? Or are we ranking quarterbacks based on who consistently plays winning football? Because if winning still matters, Jalen Hurts deserves to be a lot higher than seventeenth.

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