How Hurts Showed Progress Dealing With Knee Injury

Jalen Hurts describes himself as a triple-threat quarterback. He can beat you with his arms, his legs and his mind.

He had no legs on Sunday.

Nevertheless, he delivered one of the best performances of his career.

Even with a lingering knee injury that apparently robbed him of his ability to scramble and run for chunks, Hurts still led the Eagles to a 38-31 victory over the Commanders. These other two elements – arm and spirit – were on full display.

“I think he has great numbers under his belt and just proves what he can do,” tight end Dallas Goedert said. He doesn’t need his legs, even though they are a great weapon for him. But also the things he can do with his arm and his mind are really at an elite level.”

Hurts was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week on Wednesday for a performance in which he completed 76.3% of his passes for 319 yards, 4 touchdowns and a passer rating of 135.7.

Jalen Hurts on Sunday became just the third Eagles QB ever to complete 75% of his passes for more than 300 yards and more than 4 passing TDs in a game:
Hurts: 10/29/23 (at Commanders)
Nick Foles: 11/3/13 (at Raiders)
Donovan McNabb: 9/23/07 (vs. Lions)
McNabb: 9/18/05 (vs. 49ers)
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) October 30, 2023

When Hurts was asked about his knee injury at his postgame news conference Sunday in Washington, he simply said, “I’m here.” When the final question of his Wednesday news conference centered on his knee, Hurts simply stood up and left.

Hurts doesn’t want to talk about his knee injury.

And while it’s worth noting that Hurts is not on the injury report, meaning the Eagles fully expect him to play against the Cowboys, anyone watching the last game can tell: Hurts is not at 100 Percent. He finished the game with four rushing attempts for 6 yards.

This is the lowest rushing total of Hurts’ career as a starter (42 games) in the NFL. But he was named player of the week for the third time in his career.

Think about how unlikely that would have been just a few years ago.

“I think it’s pure execution,” Hurts said Wednesday. “Just go out there and get it going, get it going. I don’t measure numbers and it’s all based on our success. It’s all about winning. Obviously a lot of great things are happening. I can acknowledge that. But it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win.”

A game like the one Hurts played against the Commanders really illustrates the development we’ve seen from the Eagles’ franchise quarterback over the last two seasons.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni cited experience as one of the main reasons for this growth.

“I know that’s crazy considering he’s been doing this for almost three years now, but that’s it,” Sirianni said. “It’s that memory of all those different plays that he made against those different defenses where he became more and more consistent in knowing where to go with the football and then just getting more reps and being accurate as a thrower. As far as his passing goes, he makes good, quick decisions and throws with good accuracy.”

When asked about his save stock on Wednesday, Hurts brought up a press conference from the 2021 season when he was still in his first year as an NFL starter and things weren’t going well. At the time, the biggest question surrounding the Eagles was whether or not Hurts could develop into a franchise quarterback.

Sitting in the same seat in the Eagles’ auditorium in 2021, Hurts said experience is the greatest teacher.

So far, this experience has taught him a lot.

“That doesn’t change. That’s the real thing,” Hurts said. “So when you experience things, the reality is that times have changed, but the mentality has never changed. The times have changed, but the mentality has not. Experience that you hope will help you grow or progress the further you put in with the work you put in. When you see these different things and have all these experiences to draw from, it’s definitely always helpful.”

Hurts said using his memory on the field is second nature. It just comes with experience.

After a relatively slow start to the season, Hurts is now firmly back in the MVP race. According to PointsBet, he has the second-lowest MVP odds behind Patrick Mahomes.

1. Patrick Mahomes: +250
2. Jalen hurts: +300
3. Tua Tagovailoa: +350
4. Lamar Jackson: +600
5. Josh Allen: +1200

We’ll all be keeping an eye on his knee injury as the season progresses, but after Sunday it’s off week to give him a chance to rest. And Hurts’ best game of the season came while he was playing through it.

“It just shows his work ethic,” Goedert said. “He relied on something to get here and he knew he had to improve something. That’s exactly the guy he is. He spent a lot of time in the offseason working with different coaches and it just shows in practice. He works on everything to get better. You can see it every time in the last four years he’s been here.”