Jalen Hurts waited until the No. 53 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to hear his name called by the Philadelphia Eagles. At the time, Hurts’ new team already had a starting quarterback, but he’s become one of the league’s premier passers and has a Super Bowl ring to show for it.
As he tried to think of a team that would take Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders if he slips in next month’s draft, Wave Sports + Entertainment’s Bomani Jones weighed the worth of such an investment.
“I’m of the belief that, if a quarterback is sitting there at 20, wait until 30, like, wait until 35,” Jones said last Friday on his podcast, “The Right Time with Bomani Jones.” “Ain’t nobody worth a damn. Unless it’s, like, Lamar Jackson, where there’s a clear market inefficiency that has taken place, you should probably wait.
“Do we treat Jalen Hurts the way we ultimately came around to treating him if he was the No. 12 pick in the draft or the No. 20 pick in the draft versus, like, being the 35th?”
Jones’ guest, Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald, pointed out that a player’s draft slot defines them to a casual fan. It takes a lot for them to shed the stigma of not being a first-rounder.
“I also think there’s, like, a mystique for these NFL evaluators. Like, ‘Oh, come on, these guys couldn’t be that wrong. Like, they wouldn’t let Dak Prescott slip to the fourth round. He can’t be all that good. They wouldn’t let Jalen Hurts slip to the second round. He can’t be all that good.’ … A lot of fans, they don’t know a lot about the sport, so you defer to the people who are in charge, which I think makes sense. But, you know, those guys make mistakes, too, all the time.”
