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For one reason or another, we seem to put a lot of stock into Chris Simms’ annual quarterback rankings. Maybe it’s just because, for the past two years, he’s ranked Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts fairly low.
Last year, Hurts didn’t even make the cut in Simms’ top-40. At the time it was pretty blasphemous, with the likes of Kellen Mond, Case Keenum, and Marcus Mariota all ranking ahead of Hurts. In retrospect, Hurts’ absence in Simms’ list is even more laughable.
Simms acknowledged his mistake when he began putting together his rankings for this year.
I was wrong last year, I think that’s fair to say. He was one of those first few guys off my list, I had questions about him. The way the 2020 season ended, I went ‘I’m not sure, I’m not sure he can do it.’ He proved to me that he can do it, but within that, I didn’t come away watching every Jalen Hurts throw from last year or anything going ‘Oh, he’s definitely the future. They got it, there’s no doubt about it, I was totally wrong.’“
Round of applause everyone, an NFL analyst admitted they were wrong.
This time around, Hurts did make the cut on Simms’ rankings, coming in at 25th, behind three second-year quarterbacks, Zach Wilson, Trevor Lawrence, and Justin Fields, along with Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.
I can live with Lawrence ranking ahead of Hurts. He was a generational talent coming out of college who was handcuffed with an incompetent coach in his first season. Fine.
I like Fields and Wilson just as much as the next guy, but you’d be hard pressed to find many highlights from their rookie seasons. On a side note, how do either of those guys come in ahead of Lawrence? Lawrence started every game in his rookie season, something both Fields and Wilson can’t say. Plus, he posted a higher completion percentage than both Fields and Wilson.
Whatever, I guess.
The real kicker here is Daniel Jones somehow placing four spots ahead of Hurts. What’s even more inexplicable, is the fact that Jones actually rose from 26th in Simms’ rankings last year to 21st. There isn’t a stat you can point to that justifies that kind of movement.
Here’s a funny stat — Hurts won eight games last season as a starter, Jones has won nine games combined over the past two seasons.
New York Giants: poverty franchise.
If you’re drafting a football team from scratch, is anyone legitimately going to choose Daniel Jones over Jalen Hurts?
I’m not here to argue that Hurts is a top-10 quarterback. I shouldn’t have to argue that Hurts is a better quarterback than Daniel freakin’ Jones. But, here we go.
The running quarterback Jalen Hurts threw for 3,144 yards last season. Daniel Jones has never reached that mark in his three-year career.
Hurts had a touchdown pass percentage of 3.7 last year, Jones hasn’t surpassed that mark since his rookie season. Over the past two years, Jones has posted a touchdown percentage of 2.5 and 2.8 respectively.
Hurts had a passer rating of 87.2 last season, Jones’ career-high in passer rating is 87.7. Again, from his rookie season. Jones posted an 84.8 passer rating in 2021.
Jones had a QBR of 41.5 last season, Hurts posted a 48.5 in that category. And lastly, Hurts posted a Pro Football Focus grade of 77.1 last year (14th out of 37 qualifying quarterbacks). Jones finished the year with a 71.6 grade (21st).
This argument really solved itself with a minimal amount of effort.
The moral of the story: who cares what Chris Simms has to say about Jalen Hurts. Whenever any national pundit says something bad about a Philly sports team, they do it to get people talking. They know Philly fans are loud, especially when someone throws shade at them. If ranking Hurts lower than Jones will get more eyes on his list from a huge market in Philadelphia, and subsequently get more social media buzz, he’s going to continue to do it.
I know Hurts is better than Jones. You know Hurts is better than Jones. Hell, even New York fans probably think Hurts is better than Jones. That’s all that matters.