ESPN published its annual top-10 quarterback rankings Monday, and Jalen Hurts is not in the top 10. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback appears in the honorable mention section of the survey, which Jeremy Fowler compiled from ballots submitted by more than 70 league executives, coaches and scouts. Counting the ten ranked quarterbacks and the honorable mentions listed ahead of him — Sam Darnold, Jayden Daniels, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield and Trevor Lawrence — sixteen names precede his.
The survey, whose No. 1 spot went to Josh Allen, ran one voter comment on Hurts, from an AFC offensive coach: “I know it has been up-and-down, but I’m still betting on the Super Bowl credentials, the intangibles and the toughness.” That is a defense, and the fact that a defense was required tells you where the league’s evaluators sit seventeen months after Hurts was named Super Bowl MVP. A turbulent 2025 that ended with a home wild-card loss to San Francisco erased most of the benefit of the doubt.
The divisional context is the uncomfortable part for Philadelphia. Dak Prescott ranked sixth outright, and Daniels — coming off an injury-wrecked season — was one of four quarterbacks in a tiebreaker for the tenth spot. Within the NFC East, the league’s voters see Hurts third.
There is a reasonable counterargument, and Fowler’s own reporting supplies it: fifteen passers appeared on at least 30% of ballots, and one head coach told ESPN that sorting quarterbacks 10 through 20 “is getting harder to decide on.” Hurts sits in a crowded band where a strong season moves a player ten spots. The film case for him has never rested on survey placement — it rests on whether the downfield passing efficiency that cratered in 2025 recovers once camp opens later this month. Evaluators vote on what they saw last. What they saw last was not good enough, and the correction is available to him in September.
For fantasy purposes, none of this should touch Hurts’s draft stock. His rushing volume and goal-line role give him a weekly floor that pocket passers ranked well ahead of him cannot match. Let the survey move his real-world stock, not your board.
