Peyton Manning is a Jalen Hurts defender, for the Eagles QB's mental toughness and intensity above all else.
Speaking to former receiver and longtime NBC broadcaster Cris Collinsworth in a sit-down interview for Pro Football Focus that was published late last month, and went viral for its bit about Hurts this week, Manning gushed about the Super Bowl MVP and the perseverance he has continued to show dating all the way back to college when he was benched at Alabama.
Manning, as an Indianapolis Colts legend, also brought up that Hurts texts and calls him often, coming fully prepared with questions about plays that were passed down to Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni from his own Indy days that followed a chain to former Colts coach and Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich and former Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore.
The Hall of Fame QB is continually impressed.
Said Manning about Hurts during the interview in full:
"I mean, it tells you all about his mental toughness, right? Because that's the kind of situation where it's embarrassing and you just don't sort of recover from it mentally or emotionally. So it tells you how mentally tough he is, and they said he was the first guy to high-five [TuaTagovailoa] in the locker room and was as celebratory after that win as all the players that were involved in the game...I mean, he's played so well in both those Super Bowls, but I like the way he goes about it.
"He calls me a lot, and asks me lots of questions. They (Eagles) actually run a lot of plays that we (Manning's Colts) used to run, Sirianni to Frank Reich to Tom Moore, sort of that chain, and he calls me with very specific questions about certain plays. So he's a student of the game." [PFF]
Manning went on to acknowledge the typical praise given to Hurts, from the 600-pound squat, to his ability to power through tacklers on the run, and to how well he can throw it downfield.
But for Manning, neither of those attributes are what truly make his game special.
"His appreciation of the cerebral part of the game is what's impressive to me, and how he's taken his game to the next level," Manning said. "I think the sky's the limit for thisguy."
Manning has praised Hurts in the past, but offered this latest round during yet another summer where the Eagles star has been regularly disregarded as one of the NFL's elite QBs.
Hurts took tremendous care of the football, led the most dominant season in Eagles history, and then put on an all-time dominant performance that crushed the dynasty Chiefs in the Super Bowl and shocked almost everyone...
And yet you'll still see analysts and even league executives championing someone like Chargers QB Justin Herbert, who hasn't gone any further than the Wild Card round during the same stretch of time where Hurts has already been to two Super Bowls and just won the latest one.
Manning isn't among that group, though. He knows firsthand how good Hurts is, and how intense he can be.
"I haven't had aface-to-face with him in a while," Manning said. "We do a lot of texting and a lot of voice memos, but I imagine he's reading those with a very straight, serious face.
"I don't crack any jokes with him. I don't test my material on him, because I'd imagine I would hear crickets."
You can check out Manning's full PFF interview with Collinsworth below, or over on YouTube HERE. The Hurts part starts at around the 29:10 mark.
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