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Chris Simms believes nine NFL QBs are better than Jalen Hurts, including Jayden Daniels and C.J. Stroud

“I would have a hard time, I think, finding coaches in the NFL that would tell you he’s a top 10 quarterback,” Simms said.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts tiptoes down the line during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIX.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts tiptoes down the line during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIX.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Despite playing in his second Super Bowl in three years, bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia, and earning Super Bowl MVP, Jalen Hurts isn’t unfamiliar with facing criticism from both fans and the media.

Critics questioned the quarterback’s not-so-flashy stats and throwing for less than 150 yards in their first two playoff wins. Hurts silenced those critics in the Eagles’ NFC championship win over the Commanders, throwing for 246 yards and one touchdown and rushing for three scores.

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In the Eagles’ Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Hurts threw for 221 yards, two touchdowns and rushed for another score.

Hurts’ performances were still not enough for NBC NFL analyst Chris Simms. On Chris Simms Unbuttoned, he’s counting down the top NFL quarterbacks in the league. In the most recent episode, he placed Hurts at No. 10.

“The Super Bowl champ, the Super Bowl MVP, really kind of an incredible year when you really think about it,” Simms said. “He brings a skill set to their offense that makes them almost indefensible with all the talent they have. And then what he brings to the table that kind of puts it over the top.

“Now, is he perfect? No. There’s a reason he’s at No. 10. There’s still flaws in his football game that need to be addressed, need to be fixed. They win the game still with him not playing perfect. … There’s no quarterback in football that has more advantages on the field at the position than Jalen Hurts. They’re a super team and that’s not a shot on him, but he gets the advantages of not having to worry about all these other things, right? And with all the greatness of the Philadelphia Eagles, he cannot play great and they can still win. He gets a lot of great looks on defenses where I go, ‘Wait, no one would ever play this defense against Lamar [Jackson] or [Patrick] Mahomes or anybody like that.’”

This is the third year in a row Hurts was featured in the top 10 of Simms’ quarterback rankings — falling further down the list with each passing year. In 2023, Hurts was ranked No. 7 before falling to No. 9 last year. Leading up to the 2022 season, Simms had Hurts at No. 25.

Maybe it’s just us, but it seems a little personal.

“If you just went purely on passing and throwing, he’s below 10,” Simms said. “It’s one of the slower releases in all of football. Like, he’s not in the top half of football as far as being able to get the ball out of his hands and do that. Arm strength, it’s not in the top half of football with arm strength either.

“Decision making wouldn’t be in the top half of football, as far as what he does in the pocket, but the other stuff that he brings to the table — hanging in the pocket tough, scrambling and making big plays there, making plays on the run with big throws, buying time in the pocket at times, handling pressure … his ability to rise to the occasion in big moments, his ability to not mess up games in big moments — yeah, those are things that are all taken into consideration here.”

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And if fans aren’t already upset about the ranking, just wait until you see who is listed ahead of him:

  1. No. 10: Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

  2. No. 9: Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  3. No. 8: Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers

  4. No. 7: C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans

  5. No. 6: Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams

  6. No. 5: Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders

“Some people are going to look at this and go ‘Man, this is harsh. He’s a little low on Jalen Hurts,’” Simms said. “But I think at the same time, right, with some of the play and what he did and everything like that, some of these games were closer. Or, the ones they lost, or letting teams hang around, were like that because Jalen Hurts didn’t play great football within the pocket week in and week out throughout long periods of the season.”

Pro Football Focus released its NFL quarterback rankings last month, with Hurts at No. 5 in the high-end starters category and Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud at No. 14 in the solid starters category. Simms believes Stroud should have been moved above the Super Bowl MVP.

“I would put C.J. Stroud in front of — over there in front of Jalen Hurts,” Simms said on The Herd last month. “We have a little bit of revisionist history here. He won the Super Bowl and everybody just forgot about the 10 weeks before that, where we were like, ‘Wait, the passing game and the quarterback was the issue.’”

Now, Simms got his wish, placing Stroud above Hurts in his own quarterback rankings.

“There’s some people who think [Hurts is] way too highly overrated and I would say most of them are outside of football,” Simms said. “It’s the biggest disconnect between what the public thinks and what the league thinks about a player, that I think I’ve ever come around. The public thinks he’s one of the best three or four quarterbacks in football. I would have a hard time, I think, finding coaches in the NFL that would tell you he’s a top 10 quarterback.”