Stats Are For Nerds. Winning Is All That Matters
Perry Knotts. Getty Images.Jalen Hurts has been a starting quarterback in the NFL for 4 seasons now. The majority of those 4 seasons have been filled with people questioning his abilities and doubting if he's actually "the guy" in Philadelphia. Maybe some of that was initially due to the way his college career played out with losing the starting job at Alabama. But mostly now it just seems to be due to the fact that he doesn't put up 300+ yards every week.
He's led the Eagles to the playoffs every year that he's been a starter, and now he's playing in his 2nd NFC Championship Game on Sunday. Even still, you turn on your TV every morning and you'll find a roundtable discussion about whether or not Jalen Hurts will be able to do enough to lead the Eagles to another victory. They'll talk about what a great quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are. They'll talk about what an electrifying young talent Jayden Daniels is. How he's the Mahomes of the NFC. And right before they end the show, they'll shit on Jalen Hurts for a few minutes questioning whether or not he has it in him.
The man just wins. Everywhere he goes, he wins football games. It might not always be pretty. Those wins might not always come via 300+ yards through the air, 4 throwing touchdowns, and a perfect pass through a tight window to ice the game. But at the end of the day, winning football games is all that matters. And finally, ESPN gets that. They finally understand that stats are nice, but they don't mean shit if you don't end up getting the win.
So wait a minute. When Josh Allen doesn't have the statistics to back up the fact that he's one of the best players in the world, then it's okay to make the argument that "it's not about how it looks". That winning is more important than the stats, and that it all comes down to who has the best team. But that narrative has never been awarded to Jalen Hurts over the last 4 years.
Having a great team around you matters. Some guys are put into better positions than others. There's no doubt about it, and Jalen Hurts has been put into an all-time position with an elite offensive line, the best running back on the planet, and 2 absolute stud wide receivers. But the ball is still in his hands every single snap, and there are plenty of guys out there who wouldn't be able to win at the rate that Jalen Hurts simply wins football games.
I'm not claiming that everybody needs to start putting Jalen Hurts in that category of "superstar". But it's so bizarre that a guy who does nothing but win constantly gets doubted and disrespected as much as he does. When literally the exact argument is made for Josh Allen. Nerds care about stats. Nerds care about what it looks like. Winners know the only numbers that matter are the ones on the scoreboard at the end of the game.