Can Jalen Hurts Throw for 4,000 Yards? It's a Difficult Milestone to Reach

Only one QB has done it for the Eagles and two teams never had a 4,000-yard thrower in the 16-game era which began in 1978, so here's a walk through history

Pro Football Focus released its projected yardage leaders for the Eagles this season.

If PFF is right, Jalen Hurts will set the franchise record for yards passing in a single season while falling just short of a career-high in yards rushing,

Also, A.J. Brown will break the team’s drought of not having a 1,000-yard receiver since Jeremy Maclin in 2014, and DeVonta Smith will come up just short of the yards he posted as a rookie.

The numbers themselves look like this:

• Hurts – 4,138 yards passing (3,144 last year), 782 yards rushing (784 last year)

• Brown – 1,151 yards receiving (869 last year)

• Smith - 906 (916 last year)

Predictions are easy; achieving them is not.

Take the passing yards, for instance.

It’s not easy making it to 4,000. At least it wasn’t in a 16-game season.

Two teams never had it happen in the 16-game era that began in 1978. They are the Chicago Bears and New York Jets.

Stat of the Night: With the NFL expanding to a 17-game season in 2021, the Chicago Bears and New York Jets are the only two team’s to not a have a 4,000 yard passer in the 16-game era which started in 1978. pic.twitter.com/pcX863L49c

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) March 29, 2021

At least the Jets had Joe Namath do it in the pre-16-game era when he threw for 4,007 yards in 1967.

The closest the Bears got to having one was Erik Kramer in 1995 when he finished with 3,838. Jay Cutler is Chicago’s all-time yardage passer, but he never topped 4,000.

Donovan McNabb never did, either.

The Eagles’ all-time passing yards leader with 32,873 would have done it in 2004 but he sat the final two games of the regular season after the Eagles clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and settled for 3,875.

McNabb has the second-most passing yards in a single season as well, putting up 3,916 in 2008.

Here are the quarterbacks with the top 10 single-season marks in Eagles history

Carson Wentz

USA Today

The former first-round pick from 2016 is the only QB in the team's history to eclipse 4,000 yards passing, collecting 4,039 in 2019. He also owns the fifth-best single-season mark of 3,782 from his rookie year.

Donovan McNabb

Philadelphia Eagles

The former first-round pick from 1999 holds the team's career passing yardage record of 32,873 as well as the second, third, and eighth-best single-season yardage marks of 3,916 in 2008, 3,875 in 2004, and 3,553 in 2009.

Randall Cunningham

Philadelphia Eagles

The former second-round pick in 1985 has the fourth and 10th best single-season passing marks with 3,808 in 1988 and 3,466 in 1990.

Sam Bradford

USA Today

Acquired from the Rams for Nick Foles, the former first overall pick in the 2010 draft threw for 3,725 yards in 2015 which is the sixth-best total in team history.

Sonny Jurgensen

USA Today

His stay in Philadelphia lasted just four years before becoming a star in Washington, but in 1961 he threw for 3,723 yards, which is the seventh-best mark in Eagles history.

Ron Jaworski

USA Today

The first QB to take to the Eagles to a Super Bowl, "Jaws" threw for 3,529 yards in 1980, which is the ninth-best single-season total in team history.

The Eagles went 86 years without a quarterback eclipsing 4,000. 

Then along came Carson Wentz, who threw for 4,039 yards in 2019, doing so without a receiver going over 500 yards, though tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert did with 916 and 607, respectively.

Does Hurts have what it takes to top 4,000 yards, to go higher than anyone else before him in franchise history?

The odds are slanted in his favor if only because he has 17 games to do it, but also because he has a pair of wideouts in Brown and Smith who could both be called No. 1 receivers.

The key to doing it for Hurts, however, will be his ability to take advantage of the middle of the field, the area between the numbers, and even the hash marks, that Hurts has been hesitant to exploit in volume.

That part of the field figures to have openings with the sort of defensive headaches that come with figuring out how to cover a pair of threats on the outside in Brown and Smith.

Still, it’s not easy an easy milestone to hit unless you’re Peyton Manning, who had 14 seasons’ worth of 4,000 yards-plus. 

Tom Brady has 13 while Philip Rivers and Drew Brees each had 12. Three active QBs are after that with Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers sitting at 10 each and Matthew Stafford at 9.

Let’s say Hurts hits the passing yards number PFF projects – 4,138.

That would vault the QB into the Eagles' top 10 in career passing yards despite starting just two seasons. He currently sits at No. 17 with 4,205 career passing yards.

Add the PFF number and he would be at 8,343, pushing him into tenth place on the career list ahead of current No. 10 Bobby Thomasen, who had 8,124 yards from 1952-57, and dropping Norm Van Brocklin into 12th position with his 7,497 yards passing from just 1958-60.

If Hurts hits that number or comes close, chances are he will become a very rich man in the offseason as the Eagles lavish him with a contract that has lost of zeroes.

That would allow the QB to continue climbing the yardage list.

Ahead of him would be Nick Foles (8,703) at No. 9, Sonny Jurgensen (9,639), Mike Vick (9,984), and Tommy Thompson (10,240).

It may take a third contract for Hurts to get into the top five, where sitting at No. 5 is Norm Snead with 15,672 and Wentz in fourth (16,811). Ahead of them and behind McNabb is Ron Jaworski at No. 2 (26,963) and Randall Cunningham at No. 3 (22,877).

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.