From the episode
Jalen Hurts and the unwillingness or lack of preference that he has for throwing over the middle of the field...If he throws that ball to Dallas Goddard, that's all you needed...41% of his dropbacks featured an intermediate in-breaker, which was the fourth lowest rate in the NFL...Now 49% of his dropbacks feature an intermediate in-breaking route. That's 15th lowest...He's still throwing it at a 16% rate. That's eighth lowest.
STACKED’s take
Hurts targets middle of field only 16% despite 49% of plays featuring those routes
Hurts has a persistent pattern of avoiding throws over the middle of the field that has compounded over years. NextGenStats data shows that in 2024, 49% of his dropbacks feature an intermediate in-breaking route (15th lowest, league average), yet he targets those routes only 16% of the time (8th lowest)—actually throwing it less this year despite the offense calling it more. Since 2020, he targets the middle of the field only 18% of the time across all depths. This tendency allows defenses to call coverages specifically designed to play the sidelines. In the Eagles-Jaguars game, this cost Philadelphia a win; a throw to Dallas Goddard over the middle on third-and-three would have forced Jacksonville to burn a timeout and given the Eagles better clock management, but Hurts instead called an outside-the-numbers route that didn't work.
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