Jalen Hurts on blocking out the criticism: ‘This isn’t my first rodeo’
Hurts hasn't melted under the spotlight of constant critiques. In fact, he says he hasn't heard them.
On Sunday afternoon following the Eagles’ blowout win over the Las Vegas Raiders, Landon Dickerson didn’t have the patience to entertain an iota of criticism about his quarterback.
Jalen Hurts, the Eagles’ fifth-year starter, was fresh off a near-perfect performance. He went 12-for-15 for 175 yards and three touchdowns in the passing game, plus he added 39 yards on seven carries.
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It was a stark improvement over his performance in the previous two games of the Eagles’ losing streak, in which Hurts didn’t complete more than 56% of his passing attempts and turned the ball over seven times. When a reporter asked about Hurts’ showing against the Raiders in the aftermath of a “rough ride” during the losing streak, Dickerson bristled at the nature of the question.
“Oh, y’all just, like, dog him,” the Eagles left guard said.
But Hurts wouldn’t know that, or so he claims. The 27-year-old quarterback emphasized Tuesday that he tunes out the external criticism, making him impervious to the many opinions about his play that crop up in the media, locally and nationally.
His teammates, though, are more plugged into the discussions about Hurts that percolate online, especially during their string of losses. A reporter told Hurts on Tuesday that Nakobe Dean had said after the Raiders game that if he had been seeing the criticism about the quarterback, then he would bet that Hurts had seen it, too.
“He’d be a broke man if we made that bet,” Hurts said.
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Evidently, he didn’t tune into Nick Sirianni’s weekly radio appearance on 94-WIP, when the coach was asked whether Hurts would remain the starting quarterback. (“I think that’s ridiculous,” Sirianni responded). That Hurts didn’t hear a snippet on the radio or catch a glimpse of a chyron on a talking-heads debate show on one of the TVs at the NovaCare Complex over the last three weeks is an impressive feat.
How was he able to drown out the scrutiny?
“It’s who I am,” Hurts said. “It’s my focus. This isn’t my first rodeo, you know? So very unprecedented journey to be here. But unprecedented is unprecedented.”
Hurts has been here before. He often points to his benching at Alabama as one of the pivotal moments of his football career, one that taught him lessons of perseverance and determination.
He responded emphatically to that low point, leading Alabama to victory in the SEC title game the following season and finishing as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy after transferring to Oklahoma. Hurts was the fifth quarterback taken in the 2020 draft — and the first to win a Super Bowl.
The past month was a microcosm of Hurts’ football journey — you can doubt him, but you can’t underestimate his ability to respond, especially when the stakes are high. That’s part of the “clutch gene” that Jeffrey Lurie has said he identifies within Hurts. It’s a trait that the quarterback values, too.
“You work really hard to show up when your team needs you the most,” Hurts said. “All of the perceived pressure, whatever that is, just really preparing for a moment, preparing for an opportunity and knowing that resilience, determination, and perseverance can bring it home for the group. I’d say that’s pretty valuable for me, to take pride in showing up when my team needs me to the most.”
Soon enough, the stakes will be as high as they’ve been all season. The Eagles have a chance to clinch the NFC East on Saturday with a win over the Washington Commanders. They could be playing to improve their seeding in the NFC, too, depending on how the conference’s front-runners fare for the rest of the season.
Then, the playoffs will begin, providing Hurts with the stage to flaunt that “clutch gene” he has channeled throughout his career.
“I see it as an opportunity,” Hurts said. “That’s it. September, October [are] important games, kind of finding yourself. It’s a new team, you find your groove. But new things are found in December, January, and February. I think just being built off of perseverance, being built off of learning from all of my experiences and learning from everything, you definitely look forward to those moments.”
In those moments, the Eagles will try to build off the strides they took in the win against the Raiders. As the player with the ball in his hands on every offensive snap, Hurts will incur plenty more scrutiny. He is well-equipped to handle that job responsibility, according to Sirianni.
“I think that playing quarterback in the NFL, you’re going to get a lot of attention,” Sirianni said. “Positive, negative, all attention. When that happens — we talk about this a lot as a team — any little thing [that] distracts you [or] what can distract you, you need to block out.
“I think that why Jalen can handle it so well is because he’s so locked in and focused and not distracted by things to be able to lock in onto what he needs to do to get himself ready to play.”