Jalen Hurts Has Been Eagles' X-Factor All Season

The Eagles' QB is trying to join Joe Montana from 1984 as the only two quarterbacks to go 17-1 in a single season, and win a Super Bowl yet he remains unfazed by it all

PHILADELPHIA – Each game in an NFL season has an X-factor, a player or situation that could have the biggest impact on the game.

Really, it was Jalen Hurts all along for the Eagles.

The quarterback got a big bear hug from two 30-something veterans Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox as the clock wound its way toward zeroes in the Eagles' 31-7 dismantling of the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, pushing Philly into Super Bowl LVII vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Man, just proud of him because of all the doubters this year,” said Graham on Thursday as the Eagles returned to work to prep for their Super Bowl LVII showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Graham said all he was asked about during the offseason was, "What’s Jalen going to do?"

“I don’t know how many times I got that from fans and some media people,” the defensive end said.

He would respond by saying, “'I don’t know, the X-factor is Jalen we don’t know what Jalen’s going to do.'”

Now we know.

Hurts is 16-1 this season and will try to join Joe Montana as the only two quarterbacks to go 17-1 in one season and win the Super Bowl.

“I’ve seen him this offseason work,” said Graham. “I’m just happy that it paid off for him. That’s the stuff y’all don’t see. You see some bad days at practice, and people judge off of that because that’s the first thing they saw.

“I remember him throwing a couple of picks, or something happened in practice. And it’s like, man we’re here to get better in training camp. I’m excited. I was just telling him (when he hugged him on Sunday) I just appreciate him because of all the things he had to overcome this year, and you didn’t see him get rattled, not one time.

“I’m going to fight for a guy like that every time, somebody that just keeps their nose clean, keeps their head on, and gets to work.”

Hurts certainly isn’t losing his head now after making it to his first Super Bowl, and, at 24 years, 189 days, will become the seventh-youngest QB to start a Super Bowl.

The others:

• Miami’s Dan Marino in 1984 (23-127). The Hall of Famer never made it back to another Super Bowl.

• Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in 2005 (23-340)

• Miami’s David Woodley in 1983 (24-97)

• LA’s Jared Goff in 2018 (24-118)

• Patrick Mahomes in 2019 (24-138)

• New England’s Tom Brady in 2001 (24-184)

“We have a heck of an opportunity in front of us,” said Hurts when asked how it feels to be playing football in February on the NFL’s biggest stage. 

“We worked really hard to be where we are now, so to have the opportunity is something that you earn. We want to work really hard to take advantage of it.”

Perhaps after the season, Hurts’ pulse rate will rise, and he’ll be willing to dive into exactly what it means to be in a Super Bowl – and potentially even win it.

As for now, it’s business as usual, as summed up by his answer to a question about what he thought his best play was this season.

“Season’s not over,” was his reply.

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.