Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts is the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who won Super Bowl LIX and its MVP, set the QB single-season rushing-TD record, and anchors the tush push.
Jalen Hurts is the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles and the most prolific dual-threat passer in franchise history. A two-college transfer who was benched in a national championship game before resurrecting his career at Oklahoma, Hurts fell to the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, then grew into an MVP runner-up, a two-time Super Bowl starter, and the MVP of Super Bowl LIX. His signature short-yardage play — the tush push — reshaped how the league legislates the quarterback sneak, and his 63 career rushing touchdowns through the 2025 season put him within striking distance of a franchise record that had stood since the 1950s.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 7, 1998, Houston, Texas |
| Position | Quarterback |
| Teams | Philadelphia Eagles (2020–present) |
| Draft | 2020, Round 2, No. 53 overall, Philadelphia Eagles |
| Contract | 5 years, $255M signed April 2023; 3 years, $154.5M remaining as of October 2026 |
| Number | 1 |
Alabama and Oklahoma
The freshman phenom. Hurts arrived at the University of Alabama in January 2016 out of Channelview High School near Houston and won the starting job as a true freshman. He threw for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns with 954 rushing yards that fall, earning SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors and leading the Crimson Tide to the national title game.
The benching. The sophomore season ended in one of the sport’s most famous substitutions: trailing Georgia at halftime of the January 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship, Alabama coach Nick Saban replaced Hurts with Tua Tagovailoa, who rallied the Tide to a title. Hurts spent his junior year as a backup, then entered the transfer portal as a graduate.
The Oklahoma revival. As a graduate transfer under Lincoln Riley in 2019, Hurts threw for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns and added 1,298 rushing yards and 20 scores, finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Across four seasons at two schools he totaled 9,477 passing yards and went 38-4 as a starter.
The early Eagles years
A developmental pick. Philadelphia drafted Hurts 53rd overall in 2020 behind incumbent Carson Wentz, a selection widely questioned at the time. By December of his rookie year he had supplanted Wentz, starting the final four games. In 2020 he completed 77 of 148 passes for 1,061 yards.
The full-time job. With Wentz traded in 2021, Hurts started 15 games, threw for 3,144 yards and ran for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns, and pushed the Eagles into the playoffs. The passing was uneven, but the mobility that defined his college tape translated immediately to the NFL.
The 2022 leap and Super Bowl LVII
An MVP-caliber jump. In 2022 Hurts cut his interceptions to six, posted a 101.5 passer rating on 3,701 yards and 22 touchdown passes, and rushed for 13 more scores. He finished runner-up to Patrick Mahomes in NFL MVP voting, won the Bert Bell Award, and was named second-team All-Pro as the Eagles went 14-3.
A record-setting defeat. Philadelphia reached Super Bowl LVII in February 2023, where Hurts delivered one of the great losing performances in the game’s history: 27-of-38 passing for 304 yards and three rushing touchdowns in a 38-35 loss to the Chiefs. He became the first quarterback to run for three scores in a Super Bowl. Weeks later the Eagles signed him to a five-year, $255 million extension.
The rushing record. Across the 2023 regular season Hurts scored 15 rushing touchdowns, breaking Cam Newton’s single-season quarterback record of 14, a mark Josh Allen would later match.
Super Bowl LIX and the MVP
The rematch. After a 2024 season in which Hurts posted a career-best 103.7 passer rating, the Eagles returned to the Super Bowl to face the Chiefs again. On February 9, 2025, Philadelphia routed Kansas City 40-22, and Hurts was named MVP.
The MVP line. Hurts completed 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, and ran for 72 yards and a score. The 72 rushing yards set a Super Bowl record for a quarterback, breaking his own mark of 70 from Super Bowl LVII. He joined Nick Foles as the only Eagles to win Super Bowl MVP.
The follow-up. In the 2025 season Hurts threw for 3,224 yards with 25 touchdowns against six interceptions and earned a third Pro Bowl selection.
The tush push
The play. The tush push — also called the “Brotherly Shove” — is a quarterback sneak in which Hurts takes the snap behind a surging offensive line while two teammates shove him forward from behind. Philadelphia leaned on it so heavily that it became the most reliable short-yardage play in football: ESPN reported the league converts the tush push at 84.8% on fourth-and-1, against a 67.0% rate for conventional fourth-and-1 plays since 2022.
The ban attempt. After the 2024 season the Green Bay Packers led a proposal to outlaw the play, citing player safety and pace of play. Twenty-two owners voted in favor — two short of the 24 needed — and the tush push survived.
By the numbers
| Season | GP | Cmp–Att | Pass Yds | Pass TD | INT | Rush Yds | Rush TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 15 | 77–148 | 1,061 | 6 | 4 | 354 | 3 |
| 2021 | 15 | 265–432 | 3,144 | 16 | 9 | 784 | 10 |
| 2022 | 15 | 306–460 | 3,701 | 22 | 6 | 760 | 13 |
| 2023 | 17 | 352–538 | 3,858 | 23 | 15 | 605 | 15 |
| 2024 | 15 | 248–361 | 2,903 | 18 | 5 | 630 | 14 |
| 2025 | 16 | 294–454 | 3,224 | 25 | 6 | 421 | 8 |
Per StatMuse, regular season.
Career totals
Ranks
- 1st Rushing TDs by a QB, single NFL season (15, 2023; tied)
- 1st Rushing yards by a QB in a Super Bowl (72, LIX)
- 2nd Rushing TDs, Eagles franchise history (63, trailing Steve Van Buren's 69)
Honors
- Super Bowl LIX champion (2025 season)
- Super Bowl LIX MVP
- NFL MVP runner-up (2022 season)
- 3× Pro Bowl (2022, 2023, 2025)
- Second-team All-Pro (2022)
- Bert Bell Award (2022)
- CFP national champion (2017, Alabama)
- Heisman Trophy runner-up (2019, Oklahoma)
Per StatMuse and the Philadelphia Eagles, through the 2025 season.
The arguments
Is he elite, or elevated? The central debate around Hurts asks how much of his résumé belongs to him and how much to a roster that has featured an elite offensive line, All-Pro skill players and a dominant defense. Skeptics point to stretches of inconsistent downfield passing; his defenders counter that he cut his interception totals, won a Super Bowl MVP against the Chiefs, and raised his game in the postseason, where his rushing has repeatedly swung field position and short-yardage downs.
Should the tush push be legal? Opponents — led by the Packers in the 2025 ban proposal — argue the play is a safety hazard and an aesthetic blight that no other team can replicate as reliably. Supporters, including the coalition of teams that voted the ban down, argue there is no injury data establishing the play as uniquely dangerous and that legislating against a legal, well-executed play punishes Philadelphia for being good at it. The league sided with the supporters, keeping the play by a two-vote margin.
Was the draft slide a scouting miss? Hurts lasted until the 53rd pick in 2020, drafted behind Carson Wentz as a change-of-pace option. One camp treats his rise as proof that evaluators undervalued his intangibles and dual-threat ceiling; another notes that his development curve — benched in college, uneven early as a pro — was real, and that his breakout required both time and the structure Philadelphia built around him.
Why it matters
Jalen Hurts turned one of the more improbable career arcs in modern football — benched for a future rival, transferred, drafted on the second day — into a Super Bowl title, a Super Bowl MVP, and a genuine rewriting of how quarterbacks score. His rushing records and the tush push forced the NFL to reckon, in rule-book votes and defensive game plans, with a style of play Philadelphia weaponized better than anyone. Whatever the final verdict on his ceiling as a passer, Hurts delivered the Eagles their second championship and stamped an era of their football with his name.