Eagles QB1 Jalen Hurts: 'He plays his best when he feels like people doubt him'

PHILADELPHIA -- Almost two years to the day, a familiar scene unfolded at Lincoln Financial Field.

The celebration spilled from the field to the locker room. Music thumped and players danced and the air was filled with a touch of chaos following a Philadelphia Eagles NFC Championship Game victory. In the back right corner of the room stood a stoic Jalen Hurts, calmly pulling on a giant cigar.

In 2023, he was the sizzling, new-on-the-scene MVP candidate, and his attire matched the moment. He sported sunglasses, purple pants and a leather, Michael Jackson-meets-Prince purple jacket, complete with zippers running halfway up the sleeves.

On Jan. 26, after a 55-23 thumping of the Washington Commanders, Hurts celebrated this win with more of a Michael Jordan-in-his-veteran-years vibe complete with pleated khakis, a black mock turtleneck and a conference championship hat turned backward to replace the Kangol hat he wore into the stadium. His play this season was equally modest -- save the moments that required more flair.

The results were ultimately the same: The Eagles are heading to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. They will once again face off against the Kansas City Chiefs (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET, Fox), setting up a rematch between Patrick Mahomes and Hurts, who played arguably the best game of his career in a narrow 38-35 defeat in Super Bowl LVII.

It has been a different kind of season for Hurts. After a 2-2 start that included way too many turnovers (seven of which were charged to the quarterback), the Eagles' coaching staff shifted to a more Saquon Barkley-heavy attack. Hurts in turn took on more of a game manager role. He threw for 200-plus yards twice from mid-November on. That approach fueled questions about the state of the passing game and whether Hurts would be able to dial it up when called upon.

He answered that decisively against Washington, going 20-of-28 for 246 yards through the air while racking up four total touchdowns.

"How about QB1, man? I love when people doubt him," left tackle Jordan Mailata said. "We always talk about limiting the outside noise or the white noise, whatever you want to call it. But I know he hears that and I think he plays his best when he feels like people doubt him."

WITH THE WIN, Hurts improved to 42-12 as a starter since 2022, second only to Mahomes (48-10) over that stretch. He now stands one win from delivering the city of Philadelphia its second Lombardi Trophy -- a victory that would cement his case as an Eagles all-time great and silence the critics who use his numbers to diminish him.

"I don't play the game for stats. I don't play the game for numbers, any statistical approval from anyone else," Hurts said. "And I understand that everyone has a preconceived notion on how they want it to look, or how they expect it to look. I told you guys that success is defined by that particular individual, and it's all relative to the person. And what I define it as is winning."

Back in December, Barkley was trying to explain to his family what it is about Hurts that makes him so successful.

He has won at every stop, from Channelview (Texas) High School to Alabama and Oklahoma (38-4 combined record) and now with the Eagles, with whom he has posted a record of 46-20.

"I don't really know how to explain it, but he has 'it,'" Barkley said. "And they were like, 'Well, how do you explain it?' I don't really know, but you know it when you see it."

Shane Beamer first saw it from across the field as a member of the University of Georgia coaching staff on Jan. 8, 2018. His Bulldogs were playing Alabama in the national championship -- the game where Nick Saban famously pulled Hurts at halftime in favor of Tua Tagovailoa, who led the Tide to a comeback win and went on to secure the starting job.

"Just being able to see how he handled that and how supportive he was to Tua in the second half, you realize then this guy is different," said Beamer, now the head coach of South Carolina.

Beamer left Georgia to become assistant head coach at Oklahoma and got an up-close look at Hurts' intangibles when he transferred in 2019 for his final college season.

Beamer said most transfers tend to acclimate gradually to their new environment, but with Hurts, it was different. He was at OU less than a week before taking command of the team following a weight room session.

"The whole team came together in one circle to break it down and there were some guys maybe talking a little too much, so he very forcibly told them to shut up," Beamer said. "And then he basically spoke about the work that needed to be done.

"He has been here two days and already may be the leader of this football team just walking in the door."

Hurts was coming from Alabama's pro-style offense and had to quickly learn Lincoln Riley's Air Raid system. He was asked to use his legs more (he set personal highs with 233 rushing attempts for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns) and to push the ball downfield through the air, as evidenced by his career-high 12-plus air yards per attempt.

Hurts erupted for 52 total touchdowns that year. He finished second in the Heisman voting behind Joe Burrow and led the Sooners to a 12-2 record.

Of all his moments with Hurts during their time together on the college stage, it was a gesture by Hurts after he was selected by the Eagles in the second round in 2020 that is among those that resonate the most with Beamer.

"Jalen's rookie year, my son was 6 or so playing flag football and was the quarterback. He threw an interception that cost his team the game. He was distraught," Beamer said. "I reached out to Jalen and Jalen called him and pumped him up and told him when you're a quarterback you're going to make mistakes and how you respond [is what matters]. Just for him to be willing to do something like that in the middle of his rookie season with the Eagles kind of tells you everything about the guy.

"He's a special player, special person, and all that adds up to the 'it' factor."

THERE ARE SUBTLETIES to Hurts' game that can go unnoticed.

Such as in the NFC Championship Game against the Commanders, when Hurts made a pair of checks at the line to get the Eagles into a favorable call against what Washington was showing -- resulting in a pitch to Barkley that went 60 yards for the score.

Hurts has taken over the pre-snap duties this season with center Jason Kelce retiring. One of the primary issues for Philadelphia's offense last season was its struggles against the blitz. This season, Hurts ranks second in QBR against the blitz with a 91 rating.

Hurts has become more vocal in his fifth NFL season, some teammates said -- a sign of growth after appearing to close himself off at times in previous seasons, particularly in down times like the collapse at the end of last season.

"I know for him, [there are] some things where he [believes he] can get better," defensive end Brandon Graham said earlier this season. "He was having fun, but even more now, just letting loose. Because if I'm going to be the No. 1 guy and people want to hear from me, I think that's what he's embracing this year, like, I'm going to make sure they hear me."

Still, there's a steadiness to Hurts' approach that can have a calming effect in hectic moments. One example came against the Commanders when linebacker Frankie Luvu jumped over the line of scrimmage and collided with Hurts multiple times in an attempt to counteract the tush push near the goal line.

"It was definitely all mental warfare," Mailata said. "Jalen did a tremendous job there to keep us cool, calm, collected, just with all the stuff they were doing, all the extra chatter. [He] just kept changing up the cadence on them and we had to stay locked in. The mental side of that, from my perspective, was wearing them down a lot."

Occasionally, Hurts will let his fiery side show on the field. It revealed itself with 39 seconds remaining in the second quarter of the NFC Championship Game after he zipped a pass to the right corner of the end zone to A.J. Brown for a touchdown that put the Eagles up 27-12.

"That's what the f--- I do!" Hurts shouted as he strutted to the sideline and gave coach Nick Sirianni a hard high five. Hurts later joked Sirianni "let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today" after weeks of conservative, turnover-conscious passing game plans.

Hurts' play hasn't always looked pretty this season, and it's fair to expect more out of a passing game that includes playmakers like Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert and Hurts. But the overall results are hard to argue with, which is what matters most to Hurts' coach.

"I don't want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him. He's a winner," Sirianni said. "He deals with so much criticism which just blows my mind because of the questions I have to answer ... it's just like, man, this guy wins. He's won his entire life."