We should rarely listen to kickers. We should especially rarely listen to kickers when they talk about quarterbacks. We should especially especially rarely listen to kickers when they talk about quarterbacks, and they’re all in their feelings after losing a conference championship game.
If you’re doing the math here, this means that we should completely disregard what San Francisco 49ers kicker Robbie Gould had to say this week about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
"If you make Jalen Hurts play quarterback, you're probably gonna have a pretty solid day on defense."@RobbieGould09 on which team has the edge in the #SuperBowl
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) February 9, 2023
“I think, from experience and talent, I like Kansas City over Philadelphia,” Gould concluded. “And I’m not taking anything away from Philly, I think they’re a really good football team. Obviously you have to be a good football team to get there, and they’ve done it pretty convincingly. They haven’t really had to play, in the playoffs, a full game, right? So you get in a game where they’re down? Obviously if Kansas City gets up on them early, it might take them a little bit out of their game, their run plan, which I assume they’re going to try to get going first, to get Jalen Hurts going. But if you make Jalen Hurts play quarterback, you’re going to have a pretty solid day on defense.”
The Eagles didn’t have to play a full NFC Championship game against the 49ers because their offense was going up and down the field, while their defense was knocking every San Francisco quarterback going back to John Brodie and Y.A. Tittle out of the game. So, there’s that. There’s also the fact that the 49ers changed their entire pass-rush plan to try and keep Hurts in the pocket, because they were terrified of him as a runner. If one team was actually affected by the other in a schematic sense, it was the 49ers.
As to the notion that you can beat the Eagles pretty easily if you “force” Jalen Hurts to play quarterback as opposed to being a crucial part of Philly’s run game… well, the numbers do not agree.
Jalen Hurts from the pocket this season: 309 of 429 for 3,644 yards, 1,799 air yards, 21 touchdowns, four interceptions. Of all quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts from the pocket, Hurts' passer rating of 109.9 is the NFL's best. His EPA from the pocket of 56.58 is 5th-best. https://t.co/qhqe5dCyco
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) February 10, 2023
Those numbers are from the good folks at Sports Info Solutions. Tape study will tell you that of the 52 explosive passing plays he’s created this season, 47 came from the pocket. So, as much as Hurts does add to his offense as a rushing component, he is far from a liability when throwing the ball. Perhaps Gould failed to watch any tape that would give him any actual insight into this subject.
Our refutation of this uninformed opinion should therefore include tape study, so here we go.
This 37-yard completion to A.J. Brown against the New York Giants in Week 18 showed Hurts pressured, and making one of those nutty “Vick flick” throws far downfield, right to his receiver, and right over cornerback Rodarius Williams. Hurts didn’t tuck and run as he might have in the 2021 season; he stayed in the pocket and did what great quarterbacks do.
Against the Chicago Bears in Week 15. Hurts had a similar one-on-one throw to his front side — this time, it was to DeVonta Smith, and once again, it was right on target. From the pocket. Go figure!
Here’s another Hurts zinger against the Packers in Week 12, this time to Quez Watkins.
Three great explosive throws to three different receivers against three different defenses in the second half of the season. If this isn’t the body of work of a guy you can legitimately call a franchise quarterback… well, I don’t know what to tell you.
Gould’s opinion is laughable because it is so obviously wrong. But it is dangerous and hurtful because it funnels into the ignorant and automatic opinion that Black quarterbacks can’t get things done from the pocket — that they can only be franchise guys when they’re running around. Yes, Hurts does his thing behind the NFL’s best offensive line. And yes, the Eagles’ dynamite RPO game does give Hurts some really easy openings. But those easy openings wouldn’t be there without Hurts’ threat as a runner, and he’s proven over and over this season that he doesn’t need to use his legs to win.
A lot of alleged experts recently insisted that Lamar Jackson wasn’t a good pocket quarterback, despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary. There are still people who assume that Patrick Mahomes can’t win from the pocket, despite the fact that in the 2022 season, no quarterback has been more dangerous from there.
We should be well past this kind of garbage in the same week of the first Super Bowl in which two Black quarterbacks are the starters, and it’s shameful that we’re not.
It is past time to stop polluting the air with these assumptions and deal with the truth: Jalen Hurts is a great quarterback, and he’s proven over and over that he can be a great quarterback when he doesn’t take a single step to run.
