In the National Football League's opening game of the 2025 season, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts put on a near perfect performance at the Linc against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Cowboys played zone coverage all night in an attempt to limit big runs by Hurts. The strategy would have been well executed if the quarterback was anyone else in the league.
On the third play of the Eagles' opening drive, the design of the play was to hit AJ Brown behind the linebackers off run action to Saquon Barkley. As Hurts got his head around off the fake, he had to pull up in the pocket and saw a cluttered picture in the secondary. This was a difficult layered throw that needed firm touch over the second level.
Understanding it was first down in the first quarter, he didn't force the throw into heavy traffic. He simply put his foot in the ground and got upfield for seven yards.
In the second quarter down 14-7, Hurts faced a third and five. He got another zone look. This time it was three deep and four under. The coverage was perfect again. The defense wins, right?
Instead Hurts sidestepped and evaded two linemen and, as my young kids say, ankled linebacker Damone Clark for fifteen yards and a first down.
On two different red zone plays in the game, Hurts dropped back and saw five defenders perfectly spaced across the field on the goal line with two safeties staring at him and reading his eyes.
Both times his pulse remained steady as he calmly went through his progression, bounced and weaved in the pocket, and allowed the zone defenders to attach to the receivers and disperse. Then he pulled it down and ran it in for a touchdown.
Hurts had three game changing scrambles that only a few men on the planet could make and threw a 51 yard dart in stride to receiver Jahan Dotson on a post route.
The most underrated play of the day was when he shrugged off Trevon Diggs to avoid the sack after being drilled by him on an undetected corner blitz.
But the most impressive part of his performance by far was his mental game. He played with poise and maturity and his decision making was impeccable.
In the opening game of the 2025 season, Jalen Hurts may have just played his most complete game as an NFL quarterback.