Jalen Hurts as somehow stolen the show from all the prospects outside of the top-10 as everyone would be lying if they weren’t curious to see how high he has climbed on NFL Draft boards and which team ends up selecting him.
After the tailspin of quality quarterback play by Hurts from the Kansas State upset on, the former Alabama and Oklahoma quarterback appeared at the tail end of the third round or later in some of the earliest mock drafts in Jan. Since, Hurts’ stock has soared with Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN insinuating that the New England Patriots could take him at No. 23 or trade back and get Hurts early in the second round.
Lincoln Riley added more intrigue to the Hurts conversation on Wednesday.
“I’ve fielded calls from just about every different type of offense you can see in the NFL,” he told media in a conference call. “I think the interesting thing is there’s not many people who’ve crossed him off the list. I think he’s intreging to a lot of different people. I think the No. 1 thing for him, my No. 1 hope is he can just get in a situation where he can get some continuity. I think that’s the most important thing for him.
“I think he could potentially be very successful in a number of different offenses, but there are certainly some right now that are moving the quarterback around, taking advantage of athletic skill sets, kind of similar to what the Ravens have done for Lamar. I think anybody that takes Jalen is gonna be excited about where his throwing ability’s headed and then obviously excited about what he brings to the table from an athletic standpoint at quarterback.”
Hurts struggled with reading coverage, making decisive decisions in the passing game and lacked the consistency of those anticipation throws that made Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray so dangerous in 2017 and ’18 for Oklahoma.
He does present a unique running ability that is unlike that of Taysom Hill and Lamar Jackson at the NFL level. Hurts is very natural running in between the tackles. He makes guys miss at the second level and always seems to fall forward.
For Riley, Hurts’ journey of four different offensive coordinators matched with his progressing arm talent, overall talent and athleticism should give NFL teams something to be excited about.
I definitely think he’s come a long way. I think he’s pretty intriguing from their perspective. Kind of like we’ve said so much, he’s played in a lot of different systems and seen a lot of different defenses, has had to execute a lot of different concepts. He’s had sustained success at different places. His durability is incredibly impressive. And then I think what people saw the last couple years was a growth process for him. I think he’s just become way more of a factor in the throwing game. I think people see that he improved a lot his junior year at Alabama when he wasn’t the starter, and then I think this year was head and shoulders above that. I think he’s come a long way in that regard, been able to do it and have success at different schools with different systems, which I think always bodes well.
“So he’s a guy I think that’s very intriguing and a guy that’s trending in the right direction. Then I can keep saying that I think if someone is willing to invest and give him some type of continuity from a coaching staff perspective—there’s got to be some excitement about what that looks like.”
The NFL Draft is set to begin Thursday night at 7 p.m. CT on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.
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