Instant Analysis: Jalen Hurts Heading to Philadelphia at No. 53

The Sports Illustrated team discusses the interesting selection of quarterback Jalen Hurts by the Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles have selected quarterback Jalen Hurts with the No. 53 pick in the 2020 NFL draft.

Hurts tallied 3,851 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions during his senior season at Oklahoma and led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff semifinal. He transferred to Oklahoma after playing three seasons at Alabama. Hurts was relegated to a backup role behind Tua Tagovailoa in his junior year after starting his first two seasons and leading the Tide to two consecutive national championship game appearances in 2016 and 2017.

Sooners transfer quarterbacks have seen success in recent years with both Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley found a way to fit both into his program after Mayfield arrived from Texas Tech and Murray moved from Texas A&M. The Browns selected Mayfield with the overall No. 1 pick in 2018 and the Cardinals took Murray with the top pick in 2019.

The Eagles went 9-7 in 2019, losing to the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card Round. Hurts will backup quarterback Carson Wentz, who threw for 4,039 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions last season.

"I think that Jalen set a great example when he was here, when he was a player," Nick Saban said about Hurts. "He was a good leader. He was a good performer. And I also think when things didn’t go his way he showed a lot of character as a person to continue to try to improve himself and do everything he could to help his team. And in this day and age you don’t often see that. But I think it was a really, really great example on his part and because he did it that way when he got an opportunity he was able to do extremely well, and actually won the SEC Championship Game for us. 

"We’re really happy for him, not only in the way he handled himself throughout this entire process, but now that he’s having success as well."