2021 Jalen Hurts Fantasy Football Player Profile

It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We start off with the quarterbacks. We didn’t get a lot of 2020 Jalen Hurts (just four starts); what can we expect from 2021 Jalen Hurts for our fantasy football leagues?

2021 Jalen Hurts ADP & AAV:

Average Draft Position: QB9, Pick 72
Average Auction Value: $3.4 (QB9)

Jalen Hurts Statistics

aDOT+ is the quarterback’s average depth of target compared to the league average

2021 Jalen Hurts Fantasy Football Overview:

Jalen Hurts has an extremely limited sample size as a starting quarterback in the NFL. That small sample we have, however, was conducive to fantasy football value in 2021. He started four games at the tail end of 2020 and finished three of them (famously getting pulled so the Eagles could tank week seventeen). In the four games that he started, Hurts pulled down an impressive overall (for fantasy football) average line. While his 230 passing yards, 1.3 touchdowns, and 0.8 picks were pedestrian, his 68 rushing yards and three touchdowns in four games certainly helped matters. That all came out to 23.75 fantasy points per start last season, which would have ranked sixth among QBs with multiple starts. It was certainly an impressive start.

Now, Hurts gets one of his University of Alabama weapons back, as the Eagles spent their 2021 first-rounder on wide receiver DeVonta Smith. In 2019, with both as key parts of the Alabama offense, Hurts averaged 275 passing yards and 2.2 touchdowns per game. Undoubtedly this performance vaulted both players into the top-55 picks in their respective drafts. Smith, however, went on to win the Heisman Trophy, pushing him into the first half of the first round.

Hurts has some limitations, as well. He completed just 52% of his pass attempts his rookie year, while averaging pass attempts going just 8.8 yards downfield. He wasn’t vertical, and he wasn’t completing a lot of passes. But, he did rush a lot. Jalen Hurts appears to be the player people think they are discussing when they talk about Lamar Jackson.

2021 Jalen Hurts Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:

Jalen Hurts Auction Value: $3
Draft Ranking: Want rankings tailored to your league settings in a Beersheet? (coming early July)

Take Jalen Hurts, if you want him. It seems like a pretty straightforward proposition. His value isn’t too shabby. And after all, I put Hurts in my top-ten way back in January, so I can’t disagree with taking him there. He seems to have all the upside in the world, and the Eagles pairing him with DeVonta Smith and (hopefully) Jalen Reagor, along with Dallas Goedert, gives him enough weapons to succeed. His upside is 2019 Lamar Jackson, without the touchdowns. Hurts’ rushing ability will keep his floor from cratering too far; he completed just seven passes in week seventeen, and still finished as QB17 on the week. That’s a decent floor to have for a quarterback.

Best Case Scenario:

He’s 2019 Lamar Jackson. His rushing ability makes teams think twice about cheating into the passing game, and it lets the entire Eagles offense take a step forward. He finishes in the top-three at QB.

Worst Case Scenario:

Everything falls apart in Philadelphia as the line continues to erode. DeVonta Smith doesn’t produce up to snuff and we start giving Jalen Reagor the “bust” label. Hurts can’t undo this with his just-adequate passing, and you cut him in week six.

Check out all our 2021 player profiles as we publish them, here. 

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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Jalen_Hurts%2C_2020.jpg, cropped under CC BY SA 2.0