How Eagles QB Jalen Hurts went from getting benched in National Championship game to Super Bowl champion
In Super Bowl LVII, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles walked off the field at State Farm Stadium in Arizona to yellow and red confetti after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in a heartbreaker.
Hurts had a historic performance. He went toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes, but it wasn't enough to return the Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia.
Two years later, Hurts and the Eagles got their revenge in a 40-22 dominant win over the Chiefs, and Hurts won Super Bowl LIX MVP. Hurts became just the fourth Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, joining Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Doug Williams.
Hurts recorded three total touchdowns in the MVP performance and made big plays with his arm and legs, but it was a long journey for him to get to this point.
"It's been a very unprecedented journey, and the journey, there's always a beginning until it's the end," Hurts said Sunday night after the Super Bowl win. "It means a lot, quantifying all that work over the years, embracing everything, taking every challenge head-on and taking every joy and moment of achievement and success head-on as well and processing them all as one."
Hurts benched in 2018 National Championship Game
In Hurts' sophomore season at the University of Alabama, the Crismon Tide were in the 2018 National Championship game against the University of Georgia.
But Hurts struggled in the first half. He completed 3 of his 8 eight passes for 21 yards, and the Crismon Tide trailed the Bulldogs 13-0.
Nick Saban, the head coach of Alabama at the time, benched Hurts at halftime for Tua Tagovailoa, who is now the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.
Tagovailoa led Alabama to a comeback victory over the Bulldogs and tossed the game-winning touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith, who was drafted by the Birds years later.
After the 2018 National Championship game, Tagovailoa became Alabama's starter for the following season with Hurts as the team's backup, but he stayed ready.
In his junior year while he was Alabama's backup, Hurts replaced an injured Tagovailoa in the 2018 SEC Championship Game and led the Crimson Tide to a comeback win over Georgia.
In that game, Hurts completed 7 of his 9 passes for 82 yards and a touchdown and rushed five times for 28 yards and a score.
Following that season at Alabama, Hurts transferred to the University of Oklahoma for his final year of eligibility in college.
Hurts faced plenty of criticism during his time in Alabama for his throwing ability, so he took the challenge of learning then-Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley's air raid offense, and he succeeded. Hurts shattered Oklahoma's single-game yardage record in his first game and finished second in Heisman Trophy voting behind Louisiana State University quarterback Joe Burrow as the Sooners earned a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Eagles select Hurts in 2020 NFL draft
The success Hurts had at Oklahoma led the Eagles to select him with their second-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft.
But the pick wasn't popular at the time.
The Eagles selecting Hurts 53rd overall was met with backlash because the team had signed former franchise quarterback Carson Wentz to a record-setting four-year, $128 million contract the year before.
In the long run, the Hurts selection aged like wine for the Eagles.
Wentz, who dealt with multiple injuries during his up-and-down time in Philadelphia, floundered in the 2020 season, and Hurts replaced the struggling quarterback in his former head coach Doug Pederson's final season with the team.
Hurts was named Philadelphia's starting quarterback the following season in Nick Sirianni's first year as Eagles head coach, but plenty of questions remained about whether he was the right quarterback to lead the franchise.
Hurts, like he has at all his stops throughout his career, silenced his doubters. Before Philadelphia's Super Bowl win on Sunday, Hurts had led the Eagles to the playoffs, including another Super Bowl appearance in 2023, in every year since he was named the starting quarterback.
Even after the first year Hurts made the playoffs, the Eagles might've not been fully convinced by his play. The team reportedly tried to trade for Russell Wilson before making a Super Bowl run in the 2022 season, but the veteran quarterback had a no-trade clause and didn't want to play in Philly.
Luckily for the Eagles, Wilson nixed that reported deal.
Hurts finished second in MVP voting that season behind Mahomes before falling just short against him in Super Bowl LVII. That season landed Hurts a monster 5-year contract that made him the highest player in NFL history at the time.
In the 2023 season after the Super Bowl, Hurts and the Eagles faced questions again after the team collapsed down the stretch. They lost six of their seven final games, including playoffs, and Hurts and Sirianni didn't appear to be on good terms.
The success of the 2024 season cured all of the troubles of the 2023 collapse.
Hurts and the Eagles started off 2-2, but they then won 10 straight, took back the NFC East division crown and secured the No. 2 seed in the NFC in the playoffs.
Since Hurts officially became the Eagles starting quarterback in the 2021 season under Sirianni, he's 51-20, including playoffs. He's 6-3 in his four trips to the postseason. He's been named to two Pro Bowl teams and was named Second-Team All-Pro in 2022.
After Philadelphia's Super Bowl loss in 2023, Hurts' phone screensaver went viral. It showed him leaving State Farm Stadium in Arizona with yellow and red confetti falling down after a Chiefs win.
Now that Hurts and the Birds got their revenge, he'll need a new screensaver.
