Jalen Hurts knows all eyes are on him. And he understands that criticism comes with the job of being a starting quarterback in the NFL.
That doesn’t mean he listens to it.
“It’s who I am,” Hurts said on Tuesday. “It’s my focus. This isn’t my first rodeo. Very unprecedented journey to be here. But unprecedented is unprecedented.”
Hurts had a very good performance against the Raiders on Sunday as the Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak. He completed 12 of 15 passes for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns and also rushed for 39 yards on 7 attempts. It was one of his better games of the season.
But before that game? It’s not unfair to say that Hurts had been struggling. And with those struggles, came plenty of external criticism.
On Tuesday, a reporter told Hurts that Nakobe Dean said if he heard the criticism, he’d bet Jalen did too. Hurts had a quippy response.
“He’d be a broke man if he made that bet,” he said.
If you’d expect Hurts to use criticism as fuel, that would be understandable. After all, his idol is Michael Jordan, whose drive was famously fueled by his critics. And there’s even a viral image of Hurts making a face as he walks by a television with a bunch of experts picking against the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Even if Hurts doesn’t use that criticism, he’s aware of the attention on him as an NFL quarterback. After Sunday’s game, Hurts mentioned that “everybody’s watching” and that it comes with the territory.
How is Hurts able to deal with all that attention?
“I think that playing quarterback in the NFL, you’re going to get a lot of attention,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “Positive, negative, all attention. When that happens — we talk about this a lot as a team — any little thing [that] distracts you, 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.”
The Eagles have had a bit of a weird season but with three games left on their schedule are just one win (or one Cowboys loss) away from locking up the NFC East for the second consecutive year.
A couple weeks ago, the thing Hurts struggled with most in that overtime loss to the Chargers was that — after everything that went wrong that night — he had the ball in his hands with a chance to drive down the field and win the game. Hurts takes a lot of pride in those exact situations.
Because Hurts takes a lot of pride in being a clutch player.
“It means a lot,” Hurts said. “You work really hard to show up when your team needs you the most. All of the perceived pressure, whatever that is, just really preparing for a moment. Preparing for an opportunity and knowing that the resilience, determination and perseverance can bring it home for the group. I’d say that’s pretty valuable for me to be able to take pride in, showing up when my team needs me the most.”
Hurts might not feel that pressure like most folks would expect. On Tuesday, he said that pressure is “perception by those who are watching.”
“I’m not watching, I’m living,” Hurts said before a pregnant pause. “… Doing.”