FanPost

A good time to check in on Jalen Hurts

This is a pretty good time to check in on how Jalen Hurts is doing this year because his snap count right now is about the same as it was after his first season.

First, his numbers from his rookie year.

Snaps - 334, Total Yards - 1,115, TDs - 9, Turnovers - 6, Yards per passing attempt - 7.2, Completion percentage - 52.

And now this year.

Snaps - 328, Total Yards - 1,626, TDs - 10, Turnovers - 3, Yards per passing attempt - 7.5, Completion percentage - 64.8.

The improvement is pretty obvious.

Now, the mitigating factors are that he went into the season as a starter rather than as a mid-season replacement. And I would argue that his receivers this year have been much better than those last year with the addition of Smith and the fact that Reagor and Watkins have more experience. There is also the argument that he has two games where he put up "garbage time" stats.

On the other hand, he is learning a new system and arguably his weakest category, TDs, has been hurt by four pretty obvious mistakes that weren't his fault. So if you fault him for garbage time stats, you have to credit him for TDs wiped out by bad mistakes outside of his control. There is also the constant changes on the offensive line, which has hurt him. Landon Dickerson being terrible hasn't been a great help to the cause.

Ultimately, it seems like he is trending in the right direction. If he can continue this level of production for the rest of the season, or perhaps get better, I don't think there is any question that he can be a QB1 in the NFL.

And I don't expect his performances to get worse. In his five games so far, two of them were against top 10 defenses (Panthers and 49ers.) We only face two top 10 defenses (in terms of yards allowed) the rest of the season (Raiders and the Broncos.) So 10 out of the final 12 games will be against mediocre or poor defenses (at least so far in the season. The WFT's regression on defense is somewhat hard to figure out, and I could see that being a good unit by the time we face them.)

Overall, these were the kind of numbers I thought would be required for Hurts to silence the critics. Apparently, that isn't the case, as the fan base still seems really divided about him. I know that he often struggles to pass the "eye test," in that he leaves plays on the field or relies on his receivers to gain yards after the catch too much. But should we be expecting him to transform into Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes? We need to have some realistic expectations for what he can become.

Pile up yards in an efficient manner. Limit turnovers. Score points. Those are the three things that matter. So far, I would argue that he is well on the way to accomplishing those goals.