Draft Day Heists: How Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love Fell into the Laps of the Eagles and the Packers
Jalen Hurts went No. 53 overall in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. In that same draft, Jordan Love was the last quarterback taken in the first round at No. 26 overall, behind Joe Burrow (No. 1), Tua Tagovailoa (No. 5) and Justin Herbert (No. 6).
Hurts and Love were surprise selections by the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, respectively. Hurts was picked behind Carson Wentz, while Love was an absolute shocker behind Aaron Rodgers.
Hurts started out as a potential special package “gadget QB” as a rookie, but as Wentz fell out of favor for lame-duck Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson, Hurts took over full-time in Year 2 under Nick Sirianni, helping to reboot the Eagles as an NFC title-caliber powerhouse.
Love had to wait his turn longer, as Rodgers would his third and fourth MVP awards in 2020 and 2021. Then Rodgers was headed to leave the Packers after a big fade in individual and team success in 2022, opening the door for Love to finally start in his fourth NFL season in 2023. Love helped led Green Bay back to the divisional playoffs and a scored a big upset over Dallas in the wild-card round.
How did fortune favor the bold moves of the Packers and Eagles? Here’s revisiting the drafting of Hurts and Love.
