Jalen Hurts Nowhere Near Top-10 QBs on ESPN list: Why It Doesn't Matter

In the spirit of "list season" around the NFL, fitting Jalen Hurts doesn't make the cut.

The league has been helter skelter on Hurts for years, as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback breaks the trend on what a quarterback should be how how a quarterback with his unique skill set performs.

All Hurts does is win, and wins are a stat that defines quarterbacks. They are the ones that touch the ball every possession right?

In one of the highlights of "list season," ESPN does a ranking of the top-10 players at each position. There's a caveat to it.

League executives, coaches and scouts rank the top 10 players at 11 different positions, based on the year 2025. This is a good compilation of the list, and Hurts wasn't a top-10 quarterback last year.

Given Hurts' resume, should it matter anyway?

Hurts' postseason resume speaks for itself

When looking at the top-10 list by the voters at ESPN (and these are important people around the league), there are few quarterbacks that you can argue Hurts has a better resume than -- based on how Hurts has fared in the postseason.

Dak Prescott is No. 6, Justin Herbert is No. 7, Drake Maye is No. 8, Jared Goff is No. 9, and Caleb Williams is No. 10. This list is compiled based off the 2025 season, but the combined playoff wins for these five quarterbacks with their current teams is eight.

Hurts has six playoff wins in his career, four more than Prescott and Goff, and six more than Herbert. Prescott has played on teams with excellent rosters like Hurts, and so has Goff. Herbert has played on rosters with less talent, but has struggled in the postseason.

Of course, Hurts has an impressive postseaosn resume of his own. The Eagles have made the playoffs every year with Hurts as the starting quarterback (2021-2025) to start.

Hurts has even upped his game in the postseason, as he as completed 65.6% of his passes with 11 touchdowns to three interceptions with a 93.4 passer rating in 10 playoff games. Hurts also has 10 rushing touchdowns in the postseason -- an NFL record for a quarterback. He's the only player in NFL history with 10 passing touchdowns and 10 rushing touchdowns in the postseason.

Playoff success has to matter when ranking quarterbacks. This is part of the reason why "list season" needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Hurts is better at his 'weaknesses' than many think

Numbers do tell a story, even if some choose to ignore facts. This is a part of sports that gets lost in the equation -- literally.

The eye test tells you Hurts is not an elite thrower with Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert. I can agree with that, but how does Hurts stack up on the throws the analysts think he's weak at?

The Eagles didn't use play action much, but Hurts is 141-of-208 (67.8%) in play action, throwing for 13 TD, 3 INT, and a 107.3 passer rating over the last two seasons.

Hurts doesn't throw across the middle of the field much -- which is an issue -- but he is 36-of-47 throwing between the hashmarks (76.6%) over the last two seasons. He has thrown for 393 yards with 6 TD to 2 INT for a 122.6 passer rating in that span.

The three stats that should matter for passing are yards per attempt, touchdown-to-interception ratio, and passer rating. Hurts is ninth in yards per attempt (7.5), fourth in touchdown-to-interception ratio (3.9), and eighth in passer rating (100.8) over the last two years.

Those are top-10 numbers right? There's also a Super Bowl title included in that mix.

Not everything is about completion percentage and passing yards. Hurts doesn't have a high volume of those numbers, but his football team isn't trailing much.

That's a plus in the win column for Hurts, not a minus.

Hurts wasn't a top-10 quarterback in 2025

This is fine to admit, as Hurts did have an up-and-down season. The offense struggled as the game went on, the offensive line wasn't healthy, and the passing game was inconsistent.

In the three statistics mentioned above that should define a quarterback, Hurts was 18th in yards per attempt (7.1), third in touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.2), and 12th in passer rating (98.5). That's about the 11th-to-15th range for quarterbacks, and Hurts had a bad year running the ball.

The list is accurate for 2025, but more than 2025 should be taken into account -- especially since the quarterbacks rankings very after the elite signal callers.

Hurts is definitely better than where he was ranked.

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