Jalen Hurts May Become First Philadelphia Eagles Player To Win NFL’s MVP Award

In March 2021, the Philadelphia Eagles traded quarterback Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts, just three years after the franchise won its first Super Bowl and Wentz finished third in the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award voting.

The deal wasn’t too shocking. Wentz reportedly wanted to leave, and he had lost his starting job late in the 2020 season to rookie Jalen Hurts. Still, there were plenty of questions about Philadelphia’s quarterback situation and if the Eagles would (or should) stick with Hurts, draft a rookie or sign a veteran to challenge Hurts.

Now, Hurts has established himself as among the league’s top quarterbacks and the major reason the Eagles are playing so well.

The Eagles (12-1) have the NFL’s best record and are the only team to already have clinched a playoff spot. They are the favorites to win the NFC, according to DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and PointsBet, as compiled by RotoWire. They have the second-best odds to win the Super Bowl, only trailing the Buffalo Bills, who are 10-3. And they have the largest point differential (138 points or a 10.6 point average margin of victory) in the NFL.

Hurts, meanwhile, is a heavy favorite to become the first Eagles player win the MVP, according to those four sports books. Hurts’ odds range from -140 to -175, so a $100 bet would net between $157.14 and $171.43.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the 2018 MVP, has the second-best odds ranging from +150 to +200. That means a $100 bet would net between $250 and $300.

Hurts has completed 68% of his passes for 3,157 yards, 22 touchdowns and only three interceptions. He leads the NFL with a 108.4 quarterback rating and has an NFL-best 0.8% interception percentage. He also has 139 carries for 686 yards rushing and 10 rushing touchdowns.

During last Sunday’s 48-22 road victory against the New York Giants, Hurts threw for 217 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 77 yards and a touchdown, becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to have consecutive seasons with at least 10 rushing touchdowns.

Hurts’ versatility is what attracted the Eagles to select him in the second round (53rd overall pick) in the 2020 draft.

After playing for three years at Alabama and losing the starting job to current Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, Hurts transferred to Oklahoma. In his lone season with the Sooners in 2019, Hurts completed 69.7% of his passes, threw 32 touchdowns and ran for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind quarterback Joe Burrow of LSU, which defeated Oklahoma, 63-28, in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

As a rookie, Hurts began the year on the bench, attempting only three passes in the season’s first 11 games. But during the third quarter of the Eagles-Green Bay Packers game on Dec. 6, 2020, Hurts replaced Wentz, who had been struggling. Hurts completed 5 of 12 passes for 109 yards in the Eagles’ 30-16 loss.

Hurts then started the season’s final four games, although he didn’t look anywhere near the MVP-form he’s showed this year. During that stretch, the Eagles went 1-3 with Hurts completing 51.9% of his passes for 919 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

After the Eagles traded Wentz, they eschewed bringing in an established, veteran starter to challenge Wentz, although they did trade for Gardner Minshew just before the 2021 season. Minshew had started 20 games for the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, but the team decided rookie Trevor Lawrence would start last year, making Minshew expendable.

Still, Minshew has not made much of an impact in Philadelphia and remains Hurts’ backup.

As a full-time starter for the first time last season, Hurts completed 61.3% of his passes for 3,144 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions and ran for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns. But the season ended on a sour note as the Eagles lost, 31-15, to the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the playoffs. Hurts went just 23-of-43 and threw two interceptions in his first playoff game.

Hurts will be looking to avenge that defeat starting next month when the Eagles enter the postseason in likely a much better position. With four regular season games remaining, the Eagles are two games ahead of the next-best NFC teams (the 10-2 Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings), so Philadelphia is in good shape to clinch the top seed, a bye and home-field advantage.

For the Eagles, sticking with Hurts and trading Wentz looks like a shrewd move, one of the best in the league recent years. Not only is Hurts an MVP frontrunner and Wentz struggling with the Washington Commanders, but the Eagles have used picks obtained in the Wentz trade to draft receiver DeVonta Smith and obtain receiver A.J. Brown. Smith (66 catches, 775 yards and 5 touchdowns) and Brown (65 receptions, 1,020 yards and 10 touchdowns) are Philadelphia’s top two receivers.

Hurts, who turned 24 in August, still has a year remaining on the four-year deal he signed after the 2020 draft, so he can become an unrestricted free agent following the 2023 season if the Eagles don’t sign him before then. He has a cap hit of just more than $1.6 million and is the 52nd highest-paid quarterback in the league, according to Spotrac, making him perhaps the NFL’s biggest bargain.

NBC’s Mike Florio pointed out this week that teams can sign draft picks to long-term extensions following the completion of the player’s third regular season. He speculated that the Eagles could sign Hurts during the gap between the regular season ending and the playoffs beginning, although he noted no team has ever done that.

Regardless, Hurts is in line for a big contract. For instance, Spotrac calculates his market value at $45.7 million per year, the fifth-highest mark in the NFL and more than $44 million higher than his current contract. It’s just another reminder of how far Hurts has come and how smart the Eagles look for building around him.