Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has a reputation as a hard worker, and he’s certainly earning it. Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen says the young signal caller is among the first players into the building and the last to leave, and his work ethic is carrying him to new levels.
“He doesn’t leave the building,” Steichen said during his September 27 press conference. “Like this guy is here all day every day. All he cares about is football. When all you care about is football, you’re going to be successful. That’s what he does. It’s all he thinks about. He never takes days off. I mean, he’s always working.”
Steichen said Hurts is hard at work after most, if not all, of his teammates have already gone home.
“Shoot, on Friday we met after practice this past week,” Steichen said. “I’m walking through the weight room, 4 o’clock, kind of everyone is gone, he’s in there working. Shoot, last week, I don’t even remember what time it was, maybe 8 o’clock at night. He came up and he said, ‘What’s up?’ I said, ‘Going to go home, get some rest?’”
But Hurts wasn’t about to head home and relax, not even close.
“[He said] ‘I am going in the weight room and getting on the bike.’ He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop,” Steichen said. “He’s relentless in everything he does. And it’s showing up. When you work like that, good things are going to happen.”
That type of drive is found in most of the all-time greats, which doesn’t guarantee that Hurts ends up on that level, but certainly improves his chances.
Jalen Hurts Has Improved His Decision Making
It’s not just work in the weight room that’s helping Hurts, he’s also improved on the mental side as well.
“Just the quick decisions he’s making,” Steichen said. “You see it day in, day out. The processing, how he’s going through his reads. It’s very impressive. We have to continue that. The consistency is big. We talk about it all the time offensively.”
Quicker decision making should lead to more completions, and that’s been the case for Hurts so far this year. Hurts completed 52% of his passes as a rookie, 61% last year, and he’s up to 67% so far this season.
“I think with anything, you keep getting reps at certain things that he’s good at, you give him multiple looks in practice of, hey, what if this happens? What if this happens? You go through that process,” Steichen explained. “You give him all the different looks. When it comes up on game day, he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw this, this week.’ It’s good.”
NFL Insider: Jalen Hurts is a Top 10 Quarterback
Coaches around the league are taking note of what Hurts has accomplished on the field so far this season, and at least some of them are revising their top 10 rankings.
“He’s a top 10 quarterback, for sure,” an NFL quarterbacks coach told Heavy’s Matt Lombardo. “The way he’s playing right now.”
The statistics back it up. Hurts is third in the league in passing yards, leads all starting quarterbacks in yards per attempt, and sits fifth in quarterback rating.
If the young quarterback keeps this up, he could be in for a hefty raise soon.
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Eagles’ Jalen Hurts is Putting in Late Nights