(670 The Score) 94WIP reporter Eliot Shorr-Parks made waves with a heavily criticized viral tweet Wednesday in which he expressed his belief that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurt is more of an “ideal QB” to build a franchise around than Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“If you built the ideal QB from scratch, you’d build a QB closer to Jalen Hurts than Patrick Mahomes,” Shorr-Parks tweeted. “That’s just a fact when looking at what matters in today’s NFL.”
On the Mully & Haugh Show on 670 The Score on Thursday morning, Shorr-Parks defended his stance and elaborated on what he meant.
“I think Chicago fans will probably end up liking this, the reasoning behind this quite a bit,” Shorr-Parks said. “I think in today’s NFL, it’s almost a requirement – and especially moving forward – to have a quarterback that can put a lot of pressure on the opposing defense as a runner. I’ve seen it this year in Philadelphia. You’re seeing it around the league start to happen more and more. When you’re facing a quarterback that you have to commit a defender to in the running game, it makes running the ball so much easier and so much more effective.
“Obviously, that’s just one part of it, right? Patrick Mahomes does a ton of amazing things. But the difference to me is, if I’m going to build my ideal quarterback, to have Jalen’s legs and what he does, I think is such a huge advantage. And the reason I think it’s comparable now is because of what Jalen did as a passer this year. He really, really improved this year. They had one of the best passing offenses in the league this year. So is Mahomes a better passer? Yes, Mahomes is a better passer than Jalen Hurts. It might not even be close in some ways. But I know with Jalen Hurts, I can have an elite passing offense, because the Eagles have that this year. But I don’t know with Mahomes, if he has to win the game, like a few games a year or whatever, with his legs and by committing to being a true threat in an RPO offense, I don’t know if he can be that. So ultimately, if I’m building a quarterback from scratch, I’m happy if either comes out like Mahomes or Hurts. Because they’re both outstanding quarterbacks. But I’ll take the one that can run if I’m building my ideal guy.”
Hurts averaged 246.7 passing yards and 50.7 rushing yards across 15 games in the 2022 regular season. He threw for 22 touchdowns and six interceptions and added 13 rushing touchdowns. He had a 101.5 passer rating and a 66.3 QBR.
Mahomes averaged an NFL-leading 308.8 passing yards and 21.1 rushing yards across 17 games in the 2022 regular season. He threw for 41 touchdowns and 12 interceptions and added four rushing touchdowns. Mahomes had a 105.2 passer rating and an NFL-best 77.6 QBR.
Mahomes is the presumptive MVP front-runner, while Hurts also drew MVP consideration as well.
“When it comes to Patrick Mahomes, there’s this kind of thing where anybody that says he’s not the best quarterback in the league gets backlash on that,” Shorr-Parks said. “And look, Mahomes has earned that. But I didn’t say that Jalen is a better quarterback than Patrick right now. I’m saying if you’re building a skill set from scratch (Hurts is more ideal).”
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