Cardinals, Jalen Hurts Grace Each Other With Mutual Respect
TEMPE -- You don't need to tell the Arizona Cardinals how good Jalen Hurts is.
The Philadelphia Eagles are 4-0, the last undefeated team in the league, and are playing some of the best football in the NFL as they stroll into State Farm Stadium for Sunday's matchup.
As a team, the Eagles trail just the Detroit Lions in yards earned per game with 435.5. Philadelphia is also fourth in points per game with 28.8, and Hurts is a big reason.
Here's where he ranks among the league in certain measurements:
Passing yards: 5th (1,120)
Completion percentage: 8th (66.7%)
Average yards per pass attempt: 1st (9.1)
Passer rating: 9th (99.6)
Hurts doesn't have the monster arm strength like Josh Allen, nor the elusiveness like Lamar Jackson. He's not quite a poised passer like Tom Brady, and the hype train coming out as a second-round pick didn't quite match Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert.
However, Hurts has turned a corner in his development, and through four weeks of play, is playing the best football of his professional career.
Here's what the Cardinals offered on Hurts this week:
DC Vance Joseph
"First, I would say the quarterback's playing really well. I mean, he's poised. He's smart. He makes quick, sound, clean decisions. As a passer he's grown. He's throwing the ball to really good players. They're o-line is very good. It's probably the best we've played in a long time, as far as the five guys across the board. The center is amazing as far as picking up pressures and different exotic looks. That's where it starts.
"Obviously, the offense has been built and designed for him (Hurts). He's done a great job of execution. It's not simple. It's really assignment-option football, so it forces you to be disciplined. If you make any mistakes, they're gonna take advantage of it. You can be simple but still be complicated when it comes to different ways to do certain plays. It's a hard offense to stop because the quarterback, if it's not cover zero, you don't have a gap for him, a player for him, and that makes it tough. If you're in cover three, cover four, cover six or eight, you can't account for the quarterback, right? So if he pulls one and runs, that comes from scheme and some poor guy having two gaps. And now the pass game happens.
"So it's a tough offense. Obviously it's been run in college for a long time. But now in this league, it's here. And he's doing a great job of not taking hits, taking care of his body, but also being up there as a runner, and that's tough. Their numbers speak for itself. They're winning. I mean, he's playing at a high, high level. So it's working for him."
LB Zaven Collins
"He's a big body of course, and he's a physical runner. He'll tuck the ball and run it, go get you 10-to-12 (yards). So kind of containing him in that aspect is something that I think every team has tried to do so far. I think he's really good, tough runner and makes good decisions when he has to."
HC Kliff Kingsbury
“He’s tremendous. I told our staff, he’s one of the best decision makers in the league as far as where to go with the football, when to throw it, when to tuck it, and when to make plays. He’s always been a winner. I remember recruiting him in high school and he just had a legendary work ethic —whether it was in high school, at Alabama or now Philly.
"You hear stories of how late he’s there, how hard he’s working, and it pays off. He’s a tremendous talent. They’ve done a great job building that offense around him. Great o-line, great skilled position players and he’s really operating on a high level.”
Jalen Hurts Gives Cardinals Respect
High words of praise, but the respect is mutual between the Cardinals and Hurts.
Hurts spoke with Eagles reporters earlier this week, and no questions were centered around Arizona.
Hurts made sure to let everybody know the Cardinals were getting his full respect and attention:
"I will say this too: I didn't get any questions about the Cardinals. So I don't want ya'll thinking this is [an easy game]. This is a really good team we're about to play. They have a really good defense, disruptive upfront. They have speed on the back-end, so let's not set the precedent for that. This is a good football team."- Jalen Hurts
When the two sides meet on Sunday, despite the difference in records/performance, both teams know it will be a long 60 minutes to see who will come out on top.
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