Jalen Hurts has officially moved on from the Eagles’ disastrous end to the 2023 season.
After starting the season 10-1, Philly ended the regular season 1-6 and crashed out of the playoffs to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Super Wild Card Weekend.
Quarterback Hurts went from an MVP favourite to having serious questions thrown at him about his ability to lead a Super Bowl contender. However, the 25-year-old is closing that chapter of his career and looking ahead towards the 2024 season. ‘Squat Machine’ Hurts has decided to usher in the new era without his signature goatee and was recently spotted out and about with a fresh-faced new look.
Hurts was in Washington, D.C. for Nike’s ‘Path to Progress’ event as the company celebrated the fourth year of its Black Community Commitment (BCC). BCC is a 10-year, $140 million investment to advance racial equity and help eradicate systemic racism and is backed by Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand.
Hurts was photographed next to Jordan Brand President Sarah Mensah, as well as Nike, Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe, Professional BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester, and Los Angeles Sparks Point Guard Kia Nurse. NFL fans had fun with the new look, pretending they were devastated at seeing the signal caller’s baby face and joking he doesn’t look as mean. “Hell nah – grow it back,” one fan on X, formerly Twitter, said.
Hurts sported his new look at a Nike event to celebrate its milestone year for its Black Community Commitment (BCC)
“Lost his aura,” another joked.
“He needs to grow it back expeditiously and never cut it off again!” a third commented.
“He need to grow it back asap,” a fourth responded.
“They done nerfed Mr perfect,” a fifth added.
Whether Hurts heads into the new season goatee-less remains to be seen, but either way he has the backing of his head coach, Nick Sirianni on the field regardless of facial fuzz. Sirianni was at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday where he discussed his starting QB1’s chances of being able to bounce back next year.
“Here’s what I know about Jalen, whatever we see that he needs to work on or he sees that he needs to work on, he’s going to get better at that because he puts everything he has into it, and that’s a form of leadership too,” Sirianni said.
“Like Jalen sees something that he feels is a weakness of his or we feel like is a weakness of his, he’s going to dive everything that he has and pour everything that he has into it to get better from that.
“Like that’s leadership. That’s a form of leadership. “I’ll keep some of the things we all talked about, what I need to get better at, what he needs to get better at, to ourselves. “But I know this, that he’ll put everything he has into getting better as a football player, being better as a quarterback so we can win more games as a team.”
While Hurts’ leadership has been called into question in recent times, his credentials speak for themselves. He finished second in MVP voting two seasons ago and led the team to an appearance in Super Bowl LVII where they were narrowly beaten 38-35 by the Kansas City Chiefs. Over the past two seasons, Hurts has been at the centre of an offense ranked top 10 in scoring and yards gained while earning back-to-back Pro Bowl honours.
He also has over 3,700 passing yards and 20 passing touchdown while winning 25 of his 32 starts. Not a whole lot needs to change for Hurts to get over the hump. Who knows, maybe it was his goatee holding him back this whole time.
