What makes Jalen Hurts special? His teammates say it’s his obsession with improving.

It didn’t take long for Jalen Hurts to extract the beauty from the pain of his lone Super Bowl loss two and a half years ago.

An hour after the red and yellow confetti fell from the State Farm Stadium rafters, Hurts was showered, dressed, and seated before the media. The then-24-year-old quarterback hadn’t yet crunched the film from the Eagles’ 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Still, Hurts spoke calmly with the perspective of someone who knew he would find the answers.

“I’ve been here before,” Hurts said. “That’s the beautiful thing about it. So, I’ll figure it out.”

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That confidence was rooted in experience. Hurts had been there before as Alabama’s starting quarterback, losing the national championship game to Clemson in 2017. His growth from that loss wasn’t linear. But he kept those moments of adversity close to his heart as fuel for his improvement year over year, from Alabama to Oklahoma to Philadelphia.

Hurts kept the promise he made in Arizona. He figured it out. Two seasons later, Hurts and the Eagles returned to the Super Bowl to face the Chiefs once again and handed them a 40-22 defeat to secure the franchise’s second Super Bowl. Out of 36 quarterbacks in NFL history to lose the Super Bowl in their first start, Hurts became just the fourth to return to that stage and win.

An hour after the green and white confetti fell at the Caesars Superdome, Hurts stood before the media, his play call wristband still snug on his forearm and eye black still painted on his cheeks. Despite the postgame celebrations, his tone was just as steady as it had been two years earlier. This time, he found the pain in the beauty of the moment.

“I’m that same kid that came, went to the national championship game, and lost, and went back, and got benched, and had to transfer, and had to go through this unprecedented journey,” Hurts said. “That kid always kept the main thing the main thing and was true to his vision of what he saw.”

No matter the circumstance, Hurts remains the same in his approach — just as focused, just as motivated, just as committed. He keeps his attention inward. When asked on the first day of training camp if he pays attention to outside chatter about how his talents rank among his peers at quarterback, Hurts responded that he’s “just focused on being the best that I can be.”

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Unlike the stats that define the quarterback position, such as completion percentage and passing yards, Hurts’ mentality can’t be quantified. It’s that sense of maturity that gives his teammates — past and present — the confidence that the 27-year-old can continue to ascend, regardless of what the 2025 season has in store for an Eagles team with a target on its back.

“You can tell why guys have that faith to go out there and trust that he’s going to get it done,” new running back AJ Dillon said last month.

When Hurts transferred to Oklahoma in 2019, Mykel Jones quickly gravitated toward his new quarterback. Just like Jones, Hurts was an “old soul,” the former Sooners receiver said.

Jones grew up in Patterson, La., a small city situated 70 miles south of Baton Rouge. Hurts’ native Houston is replete with Louisiana Creole influences. They had penchants for Creole and Cajun cuisine, which was hard to find in Norman, Okla., so the then-21-year-old Hurts would cook dishes like étouffée — a thick crawfish or shrimp stew served over rice — for Jones at his apartment.

They bonded over music, too. Like Hurts, Jones said he views the 1970s as the “best era of music.” Jones listed Frankie Beverly, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Anita Baker (a more recent selection) as some of their mutual favorites. Those artists often blared from the speakers in the Oklahoma locker room when Hurts was on the aux. Their teammates didn’t always approve.

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“It was like, ‘Oh, here he go with these oldies,’” Jones said.

That “old soul” showed up on the field, too, according to Jones. The receiver said he had “never seen somebody so mentally locked in” when it came to Hurts’ approach to football. As soon as road games would end, Hurts would hop on the bus and fire up his iPad to pore over film. He would debrief about the contest with Jones and his teammates.

At home, Hurts would stay late after games to get more work in with his receivers. Jones recalled instances when he would run routes without defenders present, with Hurts talking through timing adjustments based on something he saw in the game.

“He’s not going to do anything or ask nobody to do anything that he hasn’t done or wouldn’t do,” Jones said. “And I think it’s easy when you have a leader like that to just keep guys [wanting] to run through a wall for you, really.”

Where does that drive come from? Even though Jones said he considers Hurts the best quarterback in the NFL, he possesses an unrelenting “underdog mentality” that stems from the adversities he has faced throughout his career.

That mentality fuels his desire to grow. Alec Halaby, an Eagles assistant general manager, noted that Hurts has “found a way to improve” every year, in college and in the NFL. This past season, although Hurts wasn’t required to throw frequently in a run-heavy offense, he posted career-bests in completion percentage (68.7%, No. 8 among starting quarterbacks) and quarterback rating (103.7, No. 5 ).

There’s room for continued growth, especially now that opposing defenses have had more time to scheme against the Eagles’ potent rushing attack. But Jones never saw a satisfied Hurts in college, and from afar, he doesn’t see one now.

“Even though he’s at such an elite level that he’s at, he’s not afraid to ask or get help,” Jones said. “It could be the littlest thing like footwork or his release, if it’s quicker. I think when you reach a certain level, to still kind of want that knowledge and still have that want-to, that’s just what separates the great ones.”

Hurts has expressed that he isn’t satisfied, either. Even though the Eagles franchise quarterback said he derives a sense of confidence from winning the Super Bowl, he said during training camp that he hasn’t become complacent.

“I’ve always remained … teachable and to be open and be coachable,” Hurts said. “So I just want to continue to grow. I’ve been on a journey, and the journey’s still going. It’s all about winning for me and trying to experience that feeling more and more.”

Growing up an Eagles fan in Mount Laurel, Kyle McCord thought he knew Hurts. McCord respected his game. He said he viewed Hurts as “the most important person in the entire city, from the Eagles fans’ perspective.”

But he didn’t really know Hurts — specifically, his attention to detail — until he shared a meeting room with him. McCord, the Eagles’ sixth-round pick this past April out of Syracuse, recalled a moment early in organized team activities in the spring that captured the mentality required to play the position at Hurts’ level.

“We were talking about a backside concept,” McCord said. “And really just one route in particular. Obviously, you see it on paper and you see how they draw it up. And you’re like, ‘All right, cool. That’s how it’s supposed to be run.’ And [Hurts] went on a 30-minute tangent about how it needs to be run, what coverages it works against.

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“And I’m sitting there like, ‘All right. This is the next step.’ So that was really neat for me to see. It’s just kind of been a very consistent attention to detail really all throughout OTAs and camp.”

That obsession with honing the minutiae of the position is a reflection of Hurts’ maturity, according to wide receiver and punt returner Britain Covey. Someone younger than Covey, 28, might refer to that outward display of maturity as Hurts’ “aura,” the Eagles receiver and punt returner said.

“There’s something about his presence that communicates competence, is what it is,” Covey said. “I think people like to follow someone who knows what they’re doing. And Jalen will do something and do something until he knows what he’s doing.

“I think that’s why we have so much confidence in him. I think that’s one of the most underrated parts about him and why he’s as good as he is, is he just knows. He knows exactly what the game plan is. Exactly who we’re trying to attack. How we’re trying to attack it. There’s an air of competence about him.”

Hurts’ confidence also is apparent to his teammates. Left tackle Jordan Mailata said Hurts is “a lot more confident this year than any other year,” in terms of his leadership and his knowledge of the offense, even under a new coordinator in Kevin Patullo.

Still, Hurts is always curious about how to get better, according to Tanner McKee, his backup. McKee noted that Hurts is never satisfied with a given game or practice, regardless of his performance.

He’s always trying to expand the potential of the offense, McKee said. During practice on Sunday, McKee said he had a conversation with Hurts about a look the Eagles offense may present in Week 1 that the starter was particularly excited about. Hurts was even more excited about the plays the team could run off that look later in the season that would break the tendencies set early in the year.

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“I think his mind is always trying to evolve the offense and evolve his game,” McKee said.

Hurts is going on his 12th offensive play caller in 10 college and professional seasons. Patullo is the fourth Eagles offensive coordinator in the last five seasons since Hurts became the starter. In Hurts’ world, it seems like the only constant is change.

But in reality, the constant is Hurts. Center Cam Jurgens noted that at the foundation of the quarterback’s maturity is “consistency” and “repetitiveness” — he is the same person every day, no matter the circumstance.

His approach doesn’t change, whether he’s coming off a Super Bowl win or loss.

“Just being present in examining my game and saying, ‘How can I evolve? How can I grow?’” Hurts said. “Yet, No. 1, maintaining the main priority [— winning].

“That’s what the objective has always been. It’s always been that. And it’s going to continue to be that, regardless of how it looks as a team.”