Jalen Hurts can’t be labeled as a quarterback. It’s what makes him and the Eagles great together.

Right away someone asked Jalen Hurts, after the Eagles had finished their first training-camp practice, about the polls and the scuttlebutt and the judgments of others.

What did he think of them and the debates and hot takes they inspired? Was he the ninth-best quarterback in the NFL? Was he the second-best? Was he not in the top 10? Is he elite? Is he a rider of so many coattails that a couple of backups around the league, if they had started Super Bowl LIX for the Eagles, could have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs?

Hurts began to smirk before the question was complete. It was a look that said, I knew this question was coming. I have heard the noise and considered this question. And I’m not going to answer this question.

“I’m just focused on being the best that I can be,” he said Wednesday. “Purely focused on being the best that I can be.”

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OK, but how does Hurts define what his best is? This is a relevant matter to consider not just in the context of his NFL career but in the context of the Eagles’ fortunes, their chances to win another Super Bowl. If he’s at his best, they’ll be at their best. But what does that best look like, and what are the conditions that allow it to manifest itself?

Hurts has been something of a mystery in this regard. He defies pigeonholing. In an age when every aspect of every sport is recorded, analyzed, and labeled, it’s difficult to find a label or evaluation that sticks to Hurts and captures him in full.

Calling him a winner is on the one hand accurate and could be taken as the highest of praise. On the other, though, it carries the connotation of a backhanded compliment. That is, his team is often so good that it can win and does win even when he doesn’t play spectacularly well or doesn’t appear to be the engine of the offense.

That’s what happened, for instance, in the Eagles’ first two playoff games last season, and it has been an overriding theme throughout his four seasons as the starter, given that in 2021 and 2024 the Eagles felt the need to dial back the number of passes they had him throw. In both cases, they were better for the play-calling shift.

The problem of viewing Hurts as just another passenger on the Eagles’ train is that he actually has been excellent in some of the biggest games during his tenure — and in games in which there was pressure on him to prove himself as a passer: Super Bowl LVII, his matchup against Josh Allen in 2023, his bounce-back game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last season, his outstanding performances in the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl.

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Those moments and the Eagles’ general philosophy over the last couple of decades — that, all things being equal, a great passing game will lead to more points and more victories — have led, of course, to more questions about Hurts. If he’s truly elite, why don’t the Eagles throw the ball more? And doesn’t Hurts want to throw the ball more, if for no other reason than to show those who doubt his ability that the Eagles can just hand any game over to him and say, Go win it for us?

Remember: He was the one who, after passing and rushing for four touchdowns against Washington in the conference-title game, said he was pleased to be “let out of my straitjacket a little bit.” Isn’t there a part of him that wants to be the nexus of his offense just like Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson are of theirs?

“No,” he said. “No, there isn’t. It’s a matter of finding ways to win the game. My mentality and my desire to win have evolved over time because of my experiences. I went a very long time being told that I’ve got to do it a certain type of way. That didn’t get me the win when I did it the way everybody wanted me to do it. So that’s something I carry with me.”

He was talking about that Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs in 2023, when he was brilliant except for one fumble, one terrible mistake. He had wanted to show everyone that on the biggest stage in the sport, he could be and was Mahomes’ equal, at least.

“But when you put so much energy toward the product and performance, you kind of lose sight of what the main thing is: winning,” he said. “Having that loss has done nothing but motivate me from that point on, from 2022 to now — just finding ways to win regardless of how it looks. … That’s all that matters to me. And I want the team to have the same mentality as well.”

No smirk this time. Maybe that was Jalen Hurts at his best. Maybe that’s his best attribute. There are certain topics he finds funny. Winning isn’t one of them.