With six games left in the regular season, the Eagles are 10-1 in large part because Jalen Hurts has been one of the three best quarterbacks in the NFL this year.
If you'd told basically any Eagles fan in the world that would be that case when the season began, they would've been absolutely bowled over.
And while the No. 1 seed and postseason success are the clear-cut two biggest goals of any Birds fan right now, there's definitely hope among the fanbase that Hurts will also become the first Eagles player in franchise history to win MVP.
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If it were up to former Rookie of the Year and dual-threat QB Robert Griffin III, that's exactly what would happen.
Griffin appeared on The Dan LeBatard Show this week for a wide-ranging discussion about his career, his time as a player and his current time as an analyst, and more. And then at the end Stugotz made sure to ask Griffin for his MVP pick:
"Right now, Jalen Hurts is the MVP. Okay? After what he just did with 157 yards rushing and willing them to victory, he's the MVP. But the Top 3 are Jalen, Tua [Tagovailoa], and Patrick Mahomes. The Dolphins I believe are 8-0 with Tua Tagovailoa as their starting quarterback, when he starts and finishes a game. They're 0-3 when he doesn't. That sounds like an MVP to me. But based off what Jalen just did, he kind of leapfrogged both of those guys to be No. 1."
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That's fair! The Eagles clearly have a ton of talent at basically every position, but on Sunday night against the Packers there was no more valuable player on the field than Hurts. He was the engine that drove the offense through the air and on the ground. He was absolutely unstoppable on a national stage. It was tremendous.
I still have a hard time arguing for anyone over Mahomes, because I think football fans have really accelerated the LeBron James timeline on Mahomes. He is likely the most talented QB we've ever seen and his brilliance is in danger of becoming monotonous because he does it every single week. Every fanbase across the league would take Mahomes, who is once again putting up astronomical numbers and winning games despite losing the most dynamic wide receiver in the NFL and dealing with widespread injuries to the wide receivers at his disposal.
That said... Hurts is having a great year, and if he wins I don't think it should be viewed as a robbery. I think you can make the case for any of the Top 3. Here's a quick look at the trio, with stats that I find to be indicative of successful QB play in 2022:
- Hurts: 67.3% COMP | 8.1 Y/A | 25 total TD | 4 turnovers | 597 rush yards
- Mahomes: 66.1% COMP | 8.1 Y/A | 30 total TD | 8 turnovers | 274 rush yards
- Tua: 69.7% COMP | 9.0 Y/A | 19 total TD | 3 turnovers | 35 rush yards
Those are three tremendous players. Mahomes takes more chances in the passing game so he has more turnovers than the other two guys combined, but he's also more deadly. Hurts is clearly the best rushing threat of the three. Hurts and Tagovailoa are both really good at not turning the ball over. They're all supremely accurate and productive in the passing game.
There's not really a wrong answer in here, but if Hurts wins it'll be a staggering accomplishment for a player who as recently as this past August wasn't the clear-cut QB of the future for this franchise.