Dec 8, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) in action against the Carolina Panthers during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Bill Streicher
Chris Simms is at it again with his commentary surrounding Jalen Hurts. The NBC Analyst always seems to be shrouded in controversy whenever he talks about Hurts, and this week he's back in the headlines.
The latest news comes as Simms unveils his 2025 QB Countdown on his show, Chris Simms Unbuttoned, where Hurts was ranked 10th. Hurts was behind quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud, Mathew Stafford and Jayden Daniels. The quarterbacks were separated into different categories, with Hurts being placed in one labeled "The Truth Hurts" by himself.
"Is he perfect? No there's a reason he's at No. 10," Simms said. "And there's still flaws in his football game that need to be addressed and need to be fixed."
Simms being somewhat low on Hurts doesn't come as a surprise. Last offseason, he called Hurts the "most overrated player in football," and then throughout the season he was critical of Hurts' play. Even three weeks ago, he held back on his praise of Hurts during an appearance with Colin Cowherd. Simms said people have revisionist history because of the Super Bowl — where Hurts earned MVP — and that everyone forgot about the 10 weeks before, where the Eagles' passing game struggled.
That doesn't mean Simms didn't give Hurts any credit.
"The Super Bowl champ, the Super Bowl MVP. Really kind of an incredible year when you really think about it," Simms said. "The ultimate leader, that's the first thing I'll say. He's tough, he's the same guy all the time. He can handle the Philadelphia criticism good or bad and seems to take it all in stride.
"He brings a skillset to (the Eagles) offense that makes them almost indefensible with the talent they have. What he brings to the table puts it over the top where you're like like, 'Oh my god, what do we defend?'"
Although, whenever there was a moment of praise from Simms, there was always a but. It sounded like whenever he had something positive to say, he forced himself to follow it up with a negative.
The crux of Simms' criticism was that the Eagles' passing offense was flat during the middle portion of the season. That point has some validity. Hurts didn't throw for at least 250 yards in eight straight games from Oct. 20 to Dec 8, including three consecutive tilts with less than 200. The passing offense looked stagnant and Hurts was hesitant in the pocket at times.
However, the quarterback played his best football when the Eagles needed him to. Across the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LIX, he completed 37 of 50 passes, threw for 467 yards and accounted for seven touchdowns.
Simms also didn't ignore that, but docked Hurts for the team around him. He called them a superteam and mentioned there's no quarterback who has more advantages on the field at the position than Hurts, due to having weapons like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley.
"He is clutch, he's got ice water in his veins, no doubt about that," Simms said. "But he does miss too many throws. There's too many plays left on the field, yards, points, whatever throughout the year."
This isn't anything new from Simms. Before each of the last five seasons, Simms has ranked the top 40 quarterbacks in the NFL. Simms infamously left Hurts off the list entirely in 2021, even ranking Kellen Mond ahead of him. The following season, Hurts was 22nd. After leading the Eagles to a Super Bowl appearance in 2022, he shot up to seventh, but dropped to ninth last offseason. Hurts is still in the top 10 this year, but barely.
After revealing Hurts' ranking, Simms spent 12 minutes discussing it. The next longest segment about a quarterback was eight minutes, showing that Simms has a lot to say about Hurts.
"Some people are going to look at this and go, 'Man, this is harsh. He's a little low on Jalen Hurts,'" Simms said. "But I think at the same time, right, some of the play and what he did and everything like that, some of these games were closer. Or the ones they lost, or letting teams hang around, were like that because Jalen Hurts didn't play great football within the pocket week in and week out throughout long periods of the season."
The comments will cause a lot of noise, considering that Simms hasn't always been the biggest fan of Hurts. Some of his criticism's were valid, which nobody is disputing. Though Hurts is coming off a Super Bowl MVP performance, which would've been his second in three seasons if his defense didn't let him down in Super Bowl LVII.
