Well, at least someone is going to defend Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. Good thing it's head coach Nick Sirianni.
Philly Voice Eagles reporter Jimmy Kempski shared Sirianni's fiery comments regarding criticism of Hurts. The talk all offseason has been how Hurts was carried to the Super Bowl. Sirianni was not okay with that narrative being told, and he made his stern feelings known.
"I think that's bulls**t," Sirianni said. "I mean, he plays the most important position in all of sports. And it's the most ultimate team game there is. And what I admire about him is his selflessness of doing anything we need to do to win, whether that's throw – I mean, obviously, anybody who plays quarterback is going to want to throw it 50 times a game — but he will do anything. If he has to throw it 50 times a game, he’s ready to do that. If he has to hand it off 50 times a game, he's ready to do that."
Hurts is doing his job to perfection and shouldn't have to apologize for that
There's been a wave of quarterback rankings coming out recently, with Hurts falling out of the top 10 or barely making it into the top part of the league. NFL personnel ranked him ninth among the quarterbacks in the league.
The most common criticism of him is that the Eagles run the ball and that Saquon Barkley carried the team to a Super Bowl title in 2024. Sure, Philadelphia runs the ball more, but people sometimes forget there are 11 guys on the field, and even if one guy doesn't do his job, the team loses.
Ignoring the regular season numbers, what about what he did in the postseason when it mattered the most? Barkley had 57 yards on 25 carries in the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs. Hurts' response? Completing 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns with 72 rushing yards and another score on the ground.
When the Eagles need Hurts to step up, he has come up big in the most critical moments. Arguably, the two best games of his career have come in the Super Bowl when the running games were shut down and he needed to do it himself.
Everyone is going to obsess about the fact that he doesn't throw it enough or doesn't have the passing stats to match the "elite" quarterbacks in the NFL. A great quarterback can play in any system and find ways to win. Hurts is 46-20 as the starting quarterback. His stats may not always be perfect, but he's a proven winner.
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The criticism isn't going to stop until the regular season begins, so Eagles fans will have to mute their notifications and plug in their earplugs as they know the truth: Hurts is a winner.