Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Thought He Was Going to End Up With Steelers
Before the bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a double-digit loss to the Philadelphia Eagles thanks to an extraordinary performance from their quarterback, Jalen Hurts. As it turns out, the former Oklahoma Sooner might have had a chip on his shoulder in his first-ever matchup against the black and gold.
In a recent interview with the “New Heights” podcast hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce, Hurts gave an interesting draft process revelation. For the first time publicly, hurts revealed that he believed he was heading to Pittsburgh to be a Steeler.
When asked about being picked by the Eagles, Hurts explained that “ironically, we play Pittsburgh this week, we played Minnesota and Vegas (last year) and I thought I’d be at one of those places.”
Hurts recalled, “Pittsburgh had maybe the 48th pick, their first pick was in the second round and I thought I was going to Pittsburgh.”
Needless to say, when a Pennsylvania area code popped up on his phone, he was pretty surprised that it was the Eagles general manager Howie Roseman on the other side of the line.
When the 215 area code popped up, Hurts expressed confusion because the Steelers had just picked moments before. Hurts went on to explain that he didn’t exactly have a strong connection with Philadelphia during the pre-draft process despite a couple of interviews, and was genuinely surprised that it’s where he ultimately ended up.
The Steelers ended up selecting Chase Claypool out of Notre Dame with pick 49. After two and a half up and down seasons, the Steelers have since traded Claypool to Chicago Bears for a 2023 second-round selection.
Meanwhile, Hurts has rapidly developed into one of the better younger quarterbacks in the NFL at the moment. The Eagles are currently the number one seed in the NFC conference, partially thanks to Hurts's 18 touchdowns in the first eight games of the season.
Coming out of college, Hurts needed to improve his post-snap processing and ability to win from within the pocket. In year three, he’s shown improvements in those areas which has made him extremely dangerous to try and defend. Hurts has completed 47.4% of his passes that travel further than 20 yards down the field this season, fifth best in the league.
Steelers fans got a good look at that in their Week 8 matchup as Hurts threw three long bomb touchdowns to A.J. Brown in the first half alone. He’s still a gifted playmaker with his legs who factors into a lot of the things they do with their run game but he’s now developing into a more well-rounded signal caller.
When looking back at draft night, It’s hard to argue that things didn’t work out in Hurts favor. He was drafted to a situation where he’s surrounded by an excellent supporting cast featuring a stout offensive line with several explosive weapons to throw to. That's not meant as a knock on him whatsoever, as his play has certainly put him into the MVP conversation.
At the time, Pittsburgh was awaiting Ben Roethlisberger’s return from season-ending elbow surgery. In the short term, passing on Hurts doesn’t hurt as much given the fact that they were able to make the postseason in back-to-back seasons following that decision.
Pittsburgh certainly hopes that they’ve got their franchise-caliber quarterback now in Kenny Pickett. As long as he lives up to their expectations, this story goes down as just a fun tale where everyone wins in the long run.
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