Jalen Hurts ... Hall of Famer??? (Mailbag Pt. 1)
No, Too Deep Zone has not been drinking Eagles Kool-Aid. Just lots of beer. Enough, perhaps, to flood Lincoln Financial Field.
Welcome to Part 1 of the latest Too Deep Zone Mailbag, where readers pick the topics so I don’t have to! This segment will cover Philadelphia Eagles and Pro Football Hall of Fame-related questions. An Aaron Rodgers-heavy segment will arrive on Tuesday, with a third segment later in the week.
Let's say Jalen Hurts chugs along at roughly the same clip as he has since he became a starter for another 5 years. The team makes at least 1 or 2 more really deep playoff runs (conference championship or better) with him as the starting quarterback. He'll have over 100 rushing TDs plus, say, 200-250 passing TDs. I think given his level of play, these benchmarks are reasonable. Do you think he gets any Hall of Fame consideration when he retires? – Bobby
Bobby just described Russell Wilson, except for the rushing touchdowns: two early-career Super Bowl appearances for stacked teams, followed by a decade of playoff runs and Pro Bowl-caliber efforts. Wilson was on a Hall of Fame trajectory until 2021 but has since derailed; he needed either All Pro-caliber seasons or a return to the Super Bowl to stay on track.
Reader GT Counter replied to Bobby in the chat:
That's not enough. Hurts was sub-4,000 passing yards and less then 3,000 in 2024. He’s certainly efficient at 8 yards per attempt in 2022 and 2024. But he's not the same level as Josh Allen and Lamar. — GT Counter
The statistical benchmarks aren’t all that interesting, but the comparison to peers like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson is everything when it comes to Hall of Fame context. Among quarterbacks in Hurts’ general age group:
Patrick Mahomes is already a Hall of Famer.
Lamar Jackson has two MVP awards and a variety of rushing-related records.
Josh Allen has one MVP award and lots of ancillaries.
Joe Burrow has a Super Bowl appearance, a led-the-NFL-in-everything 2024 season and, somehow, two Comeback Player of the Year awards.
Jalen Hurts has a Super Bowl ring and MVP award, another Super Bowl appearance and some unique rushing touchdown records.
Allen, Burrow, Hurts and Jackson, in other words, all have some Hall of Fame attributes right now. They will spend the next decade jockeying for their places in history. One or more of them may fall off, while someone like Justin Herbert might start to exert himself. There will only be so many MVP awards, rings and All Pro selections to go around among them. The quarterbacks who finish fourth and fifth in the group will be the ones likely to get lost in the Hall of Fame shuffle.
GT Counter went on to indicate that Super Bowl excellence is less predictive of future success than the things Allen and Jackson do every year. That sounds correct. But it’s safe to say that Hurts deserves his bullet point on the list above. Many other quarterbacks have yet to earn one.
As a closely related follow up, who do you think on this Super Bowl roster could reach the Hall? – Bobby