If you were to take a look at Chris Simms' 2021 iteration of his annual top 40 quarterback rankings, you might expect there to be 32 starters and eight backups. It's simple math, really, and an NFL team's quarterback has to be pretty bad for there to be nine backups ahead of him, thus excluding said QB from the list.
But when you do head over to this year's list, you'll notice that there are only 31 of the 32 NFL teams represented, meaning one starting quarterback is left off. This probably isn't news to you if you're an Eagles fan as by now you likely would have realized, whether through word of mouth or due to social media outrage, that Jalen Hurts is nowhere to be found. Rookies like Kellen Mond and Trey Lance, in addition to perennial backups like Marcus Mariota and Case Keenum, are happily sitting in the top 40. But Hurts, the electric dual-threat signal-caller that has replaced Carson Wentz — who is No. 18, for what it's worth — is not.
Who better for Simms to argue his case against than the one and only Howard Eskin? The two discussed the rankings in an interview, available here on 94.1 WIP and Audacy.
I need to see a little bit more. You know, I think — listen, we're talking about a guy who went 1-3 down the stretch. And I'm not here to sit here and blame wins or losses on the quarterback or do any of that, but it's part of the conversation...
Running? Pretty damn good. Better than I thought it would be coming out of Oklahoma or Alabama. I wasn't sure he'd be able to do quite what he did last year, so that impressed me. But, when you go back and watch some of the throwing and decision-making and all of that... I had to put him on the outside looking in there. There's way too many slam-dunk, easy completions that I would expect a good senior high school quarterback to make that are not made. And we're talking about defenses, again, where he has the advantage of, 'hey, we're trying to stop him from running, let's make a pass defense really easy because we're gonna be all about stopping him from the running game and doing those things.' He was provided optimal, optimal looks in the passing game and all that.
So that's really my big question mark. Again, as teams get used to his style of play, and then the offense itself that you have to run with Jalen Hurts, I'm not sure — and I can't say yet — that I feel like, well, when they stop that, Jalen Hurts will still be able to drop back and make enough throws and do what he's gotta do as a pure quarterback to make the team win or make them successful, and I think that's just the part that I gotta see more to believe, and that's why he was just on the outside looking in for me.
Listen to the full interview below.
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