Jalyx Hunt is fine with you noticing his ascent. Just don’t call the Eagles pass rusher a breakout player.
Hunt says he's not doing anything differently, but his continued preparation has helped fuel his training camp success.
Don’t call it a potential breakout season for Jalyx Hunt.
Hunt, the 2024 third-round outside linebacker out of Houston Christian, has been one of the standout defensive players in training camp due to his consistent disruption off the edge. His performance in joint practices against the New England Patriots, which included a diving interception of Drake Maye, provided more evidence of his stellar summer ahead of his third season with the Eagles.
But Hunt isn’t all that fond of the “breakout” label for any player who is putting in the work behind the scenes, let alone himself.
“I feel like to say ‘breakout’ is not disrespectful to any player, but the amount of work that the athletes on the field, whether it be practice squad, whether it be rotational guys, whether it be starters, the amount of work they put in ... it’s no surprise when someone is able to make plays or to do anything like that,” Hunt said Monday.
After all, there’s an argument to be made that Hunt has already broken out.
In his second season with the Eagles last year, the 25-year-old outside linebacker led the team in sacks with 6½, a dramatic increase over his rookie year output of 1½. His 16.5% pressure rate was the highest among all Eagles outside linebackers, too, according to Next Gen Stats.
The former Cornell safety also led the team with three interceptions.
Hunt said he has always known that he was capable of the production. The general public is just catching up with his potential.
“Last year was just a reflection of the work I put in,” Hunt said. “So I don’t think there’s any type of breakout. I think it’s just me and y’all are starting to see the type of plays I can make and the type of player I would like to be.”
Hunt could have plenty of opportunities to make more plays when the season begins. Jonathan Greenard has been sidelined for all of training camp with a pectoral muscle strain. Vic Fangio said on Aug. 19 that he didn’t know when Greenard would be back, casting some uncertainty about his availability for the season opener against the Washington Commanders in three weeks.
Greenard was sidelined during the offseason program, too, as he recovered from shoulder surgery earlier this year. At the time, Fangio didn’t seem too concerned about his ability to get up to speed in a new defense given his veteran status.
Still, if Greenard is sidelined for Week 1 or if he is on a snap count, that could mean more reps for the rest of the room, especially Hunt and Nolan Smith Jr. Even in training camp, Hunt is taking advantage of those additional opportunities, whether he’s going up in practice against Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata or Patriots tackle Will Campbell.
He was especially grateful to get away from Johnson and Mailata for two practices last week.
“In a very respectful way,” Hunt said. “They’re just really good at their craft, so it’s nice to go against people who are stronger in other areas, make me work different moves and different tendencies, and try to dissect the rush as I go along in the game.”
Hunt is learning from his fellow Eagles teammates on defense, too. No longer the least experienced player among the edge rusher corps, he still relies on the entire room for input, and vice versa. The group feeds off of one another, he said, regardless of age or experience.
That culture goes beyond the edge rusher room. Hunt said he has looked to Zack Baun for inspiration since both players arrived in Philadelphia in 2024. Baun had signed a one-year deal with the Eagles after spending four years with the New Orleans Saints primarily as a core special teams player.
But Hunt quickly picked up on Baun’s hardworking nature in training camp that year as he catapulted himself from a relatively unknown depth defender to an All-Pro inside linebacker and starter on a Super Bowl-winning defense.
Baun had put in the work early on, and when he earned his opportunity, he never gave it up.
“He became Zack Baun, the Bald Eagle, the superhero, the captain at the helm,” Hunt said. “So I learned that from him, too. You just have to keep putting in the work, and then when you’re put in those positions, your work will come through.”
Hunt is laying the groundwork with the aspiration of following the same trajectory as Baun. His progress in Year 3 is promising. Hunt has taken up residence in the backfield this training camp, but that isn’t a surprise to the outside linebacker given his work ethic.
Come Week 1, he will have an opportunity to replicate that performance in the regular season. He knows what he is capable of achieving, even if everyone else outside of the Jefferson Health Training Complex is just taking notice.
“I don’t think there’s any type of breakout,” Hunt said. “I think it’s just me and y’all are starting to see the type of plays I can make and the type of player I would like to be.”
The Eagles’ first-stringers get little to no action in exhibition games, annual joint practices with other teams become one of the few opportunities for starters to get preseason reps of consequence. This year, the Eagles traveled to New England for two days of live workouts with the Patriots. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Boston Sports Journal’s Greg A. Bedard recap what they saw, and explain why, even after the joint practices, the Eagles still haven’t shown much of an identity. Listen here.
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