Playing the quarterback position at any level of football is a tough ask. Sure, when they're good, they're rock stars, even at the prep level. Still, it's a tough position to play, maybe the toughest in all of sports. No disrespect is intended to pitchers. Those poor guys work for a day and then have to take a few off, but think about Philadelphia Eagles star Jalen Hurts and all he has had to deal with. It wasn't that long ago that he finished second in MVP voting and led his team within four points of winning the Super Bowl, yet here we are, still asking if QB1 is good enough.
Look... Playing quarterback at the NFL level is a tough ask. They are the only members of a roster that have win-loss records attached to their names. Middle linebackers don't... Wide receivers, starting corners, and the other team captains don't. Then, there are the schematics. QB1 has to know what his job is on every play and the jobs of his offensive teammates.
Jalen, all things considered has done a good job. Can he improve? Of course he can! Does he need to improve? The truth is he must! Philly is only going to soar as high as he does.
Say what you will about Jalen. The Eagles could do much worse than their starter. Struggling at times in the NFL is a byproduct of the position he plays. No one is immune. Peyton Manning endured rough stretches. There were times when it didn't seem that Tom Brady was getting much done, and those are two of the best to ever play the position.
If playing quarterback is as simple as some would like you to believe, why the heck are four or five drafted in the first round of every NFL Draft?
The Birds need Jalen to continue his upswing. That can't be denied, but stack him against other signal-callers in the NFL, particularly the National Football Conference, and he ranks highly. It appears Pro Football Focus agrees.
Troy Sikkema ranked him ninth among all 32 starting QBs, and that's debatable. That ranking does however slot him as the NFC's third-best. Take a look.
Our advice? If you're Jalen Hurts (which we are not), we'd assume this will be used as fuel. PFF also recently ranked C.J. Gardner-Johnson as their choice for Philly's potential bounce-back candidate, but something tells us Jalen's bounce-back will also be wildly entertaining.
