Does Eagles QB Jalen Hurts have an NFL arm?
originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia  He cant throw!  If Ive heard it once this offseason, Ive heard it a million times. Jalen Hurts, the logic goes, cant throw the football well enough to be a successful NFL quarterback. Ive heard it from the usual Carson Wentz apologists, but Ive also heard it from some pretty knowledgeable Eagles fans and some highly respected NFL analysts. The answer I usually get is that 4th-and-goal throw to Quez Watkins in the end zone against Washington that fell about 10 yards short and wound up being the last pass Hurts threw last year. Ill give you that one. Terrible pass. Maybe the ball slipped coming out of his hand. Maybe it was just a bad throw. Maybe dismissing a QB for one pass at the end of his rookie year against the NFL's No. Theres no evidence Hurts cant throw, and if youre buying into it, you just havent been paying attention. Playing alongside a bunch of unproven rookies and aging veterans, the dude threw for 338 and 342 yards in his second and third career starts. Which makes him the second QB in NFL history to throw for 335 or more yards twice in his first three starts. And his 847 yards are the sixth-most ever by a rookie in his first three starts. In his first three starts  the only three games hes ever played start to finish  Hurts completed 55 percent of his passes with five TDs and two INTs. Hes one of only 10 quarterbacks in NFL history to put up those numbers in his first three starts as a rookie. Story continues  In his first three starts, Hurts had a higher completion percentage than Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas and Steve Young, threw more TDs than Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray or Cam Newton and was picked off less than Troy Aikman, Josh Allen or Andrew Luck. The Washington game was a disaster for everybody and it skewed his final numbers, but he didnt even get to finish because, hey, it was Nate Sudfelds day, and anyone who wants to draw conclusions about Hurts based on a half of football on the last day of a lost season against the NFL's second-ranked pass defense with that O-line and that play-calling and those receivers just isnt being honest with himself. If youre still hung up on the 52 percent completion percentage  and I wrote in detail about this last month  consider this: According to NFL advanced stats, 12 of his 71 incompletions were throwaways, one was a spike and four were drops. Remove the throwaways and the spike and turn the drops into catches and hes right at 60 percent. I dont know what Hurts future looks like. I dont know if hes the answer at QB. I dont know if theyre going to need to draft a quarterback next year. None of us do. So much goes into whether a quarterback succeeds or fails. Coaching, learning the offense, receiver play, play-calling, health, O-line. But I know one thing. If Hurts fails, it wont be because he cant throw a football. Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast:  Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube