‘He has the clutch gene’: Eagles had little question in QB Jalen Hurts

PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts‘ father, Averion, was ready by the sector entrance contained in the Superdome as the ultimate minutes of Tremendous Bowl LIX ticked off the clock on Sunday.

Occasional roars, whistles and E-A-G-L-E-S chants echoed by way of the tunnel as Philadelphia put the ending touches on a powerful 40-22 win over the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, and Averion’s son was about to be named MVP. Hurts, who had 293 yards and three touchdowns, definitively outdueled Patrick Mahomes. Quickly, Averion would make his means onto the sector and share a protracted embrace along with his son, inexperienced and white confetti beneath foot.

“I’m simply so humbly comfortable for him. That is before everything and that is all I care about as a daddy,” Averion stated, speaking with a cadence and exuding a command that sounded and felt like Jalen’s.

“I cried just a little bit earlier. And I have never cried since USC-Alabama. I hadn’t shed a tear since then. However for no matter purpose, it got here out. So I assume it was the best time: They gained that sport and so they gained this sport so evidently, the tears introduced pleasure and victory.”

USC-Alabama was Hurts’ first collegiate sport. He had lately graduated from Channelview Excessive College, the place Averion coached him, and joined the Tide. Jalen got here off the bench and scored 4 touchdowns to guide a 52-6 rout.

A lot has transpired between then and now. From turning into the primary true freshman to start out for Nick Saban and lead Alabama to the nationwide title sport in every of his first two seasons, to being benched at halftime within the 2018 championship sport towards Georgia and subsequently dropping the beginning gig to Tua Tagovailoa.

There was the rebound after transferring to Oklahoma, the place Hurts completed second within the Heisman Trophy voting earlier than being chosen by the Eagles within the second spherical of the 2020 NFL draft. He beat out Carson Wentz for the beginning job, had an MVP-caliber season in Yr 2 and the sport of his life towards the Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVII, however fell simply brief in a 38-35 heartbreaker. The promise of a return to that stage in 2023 was rocked by a historic collapse.

There was a catch in Hurts’ usually regular voice as he mirrored on a few of these moments on the podium after the Tremendous Bowl victory.

“It isn’t regular,” Hurts stated, carrying a grey championship T-shirt with the matching hat turned backwards, a smile briefly creeping throughout his face. “It has been a really unprecedented journey. It is at all times the start till it is the tip.

“It means so much: Quantifying all that work over time, embracing every little thing, taking each problem head-on and taking each pleasure and second of feat and success head-on as properly and processing all of them as one.”

It was a special sort of 12 months for Hurts. The offensive teaching employees determined to grow to be extra centered round operating again Saquon Barkley following a 2-2 begin suffering from turnovers, seven of which had been charged to Hurts.

He had simply three giveaways the remainder of the best way and ended up tied for the fewest amongst quarterbacks on the season, serving to Philadelphia rattle off 10 straight wins. However with one passing efficiency of 200-plus yards over the ultimate seven regular-season video games, there have been questions on whether or not Hurts might activate the aerial assault.

Hurts answered that emphatically within the NFC Championship Recreation towards the Washington Commanders (20-of-28, 246 yards, TD) and within the Tremendous Bowl versus the Chiefs (17-of-22, 221 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT). He punctuated it with a 46-yard knockout-punch landing throw to DeVonta Smith late within the third quarter that prolonged Philly’s result in 34-0.

“Going into this sport, he was the least of my worries,” stated Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie, his voice barely rising over the postgame celebration within the Eagles locker room a stone’s throw away. “I knew he would play nice, simply as he did two years in the past. It’s important to fear about virtually every little thing; that is one factor I did not even take into consideration. I simply stated, ‘We have got the quarterback.’

“He is 26, extremely clutch, he is aware of what correlates with successful. Typically it is by way of the bottom sport, typically it is by way of the passing sport. You’ve got received to have the ability to do each. They actually did an important job towards Saquon immediately, however Jalen is a superb thrower of the soccer, a fast decision-maker when he must be. He has the clutch gene.”

At all times grinding, one of many challenges for Hurts coming into this season was to step into extra of a vocal, forward-facing function. In line with teammates, that occurred.

An instance of Hurts stirring his teammates along with his phrases got here on the eve of Tremendous Bowl Sunday. As he had within the first championship matchup with the Chiefs, coach Nick Sirianni opened the ground for the gamers to talk through the staff assembly on the resort on Saturday evening.

“I am going to let you know proper now, I knew we had been successful that soccer sport after all of the gamers talked in entrance of that room,” defensive again Sydney Brown advised ESPN.

Brown cited two individuals particularly after making that assertion: security C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Hurts.

“I do not know easy methods to clarify the emotion that Jalen had in his speech,” Brown stated. “It was unbelievable. There is a purpose why he gained Tremendous Bowl MVP. He is one of the best on this planet.”

Gamers from that 2022 squad have not been shy concerning the lasting sting of the Tremendous Bowl LVII loss to Kansas Metropolis and the way it continued to gas them two years later. Early the next season, a teammate’s livestream throughout a staff perform inadvertently confirmed that Hurts had modified the lock display screen on his cellphone to an image of him strolling off the sector following that defeat with the crimson and gold confetti falling from the sky. It stays his lock display screen to this present day.

Requested whether or not he’ll change it now that he has numerous celebratory photographs to interchange it with, Hurts stated he could preserve it as continued motivation to get again to a different Tremendous Bowl. In spite of everything, the story of Hurts’ triumphs cannot be advised with out prefacing them with the setbacks he has bounced again from.

“I watched him stroll off the sector beneath that confetti and felt his ache,” Averion stated. “I simply did not need to really feel that ache once more.

“And I am so comfortable — I do not really feel it as a result of he would not. I am simply comfortable for him. It is a blessing due to how exhausting he works.”