American Football

Jalen Hurts wins his first major honor as the Maxwell Club’s 64th Bert Bell Professional Player of the Year

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NFC Divisional Playoffs - New York Giants v Philadelphia Eagles
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

It’s been an eventful year for Jalen Hurts. Many would say an MVP-caliber year for the three-year pro out of Oklahoma.

While the NFL MVP award is still yet to be announced, Hurts will be getting his first major NFL award this offseason, selected as the 64th Bert Bell Professional Player of the Year Award by the prestigious Maxwell Club announced on Wednesday morning by Maxwell Football Club Director Mark Wolpert.

Under the direction of Hurts, the Eagles scored a franchise record 477 points in 2022, including team records for total touchdowns (59), scrimmage TDs (57) and rushing TDs (32). Hurts also guided the Eagles to franchise records in third-down conversions 45.9%, previously 45.7 in 2021) and red-zone TD efficiency (67.8%, previously 66.7% in 2019).

During the regular season, Hurts led the Eagles to a 14-1 record (.933 winning percentage) as a starter, completing 306 of 460 (66.5%) attempts for 3,701 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in addition to 760 yards rushing and 13 scores on the ground in leading the Eagles to their eighth NFC championship game.

Since 2000, Hurts became the fourth NFL quarterback to lead his team to 14-plus victories, while amassing 35 total touchdowns and eight-or-fewer giveaways, joining future Hall of Famers Tom Brady (2010) and Aaron Rodgers (2011), and Patrick Mahomes (2020). At 24, Hurts became the second-youngest quarterback in NFL history to win 14-plus games, trailing only Hall of Famer Dan Marino with Miami in 1984 when he was 23.

Hurts shares the Eagles’ single-season record with 35 total touchdowns with Randall Cunningham (1990), which ranks No. 4 in the NFL behind Mahomes (45), Josh Allen (42) and Joe Burrow (40). He also led the NFL in 20-plus yard touchdowns (15) and his 13 rushing TDs are the second most by a quarterback in NFL history trailing Cam Newton in 2011 (14).

Among quarterbacks with at least 500 pass attempts, Hurts finished second in passer rating (101.5), yards per pass attempt (8.1), and TD/INT ratio (3.7). Hurts also averaged the third-most yards per game (297.4), trailing only Mahomes (329.9) and Allen (315.3).

In 2022, Hurts was voted second-team All-Pro and earned his first career Pro Bowl honors. At 23, he became the youngest quarterback in franchise history to start a playoff game (Donovan McNabb was 24), and his 13 rushing touchdowns in 2022 is a single-season franchise record by quarterback and his 157-yard rushing performance against Green Bay is a single-game team record for rushing yards by a quarterback, surpassing Michael Vick (130 on Dec. 19, 2010 in the Eagles’ historic 38-31 victory over the New York Giants).

Hurts joins an elite list of Eagles players including Norm Van Brocklin (1960), Pete Retzlaff (1965), Ron Jaworski (1980), Randall Cunningham (1988-1990-1998), Michael Vick (2010) and Carson Wentz (2017) to win the Bert Bell Award.

Hurts will be honored Thursday March 9, 2023 at the 86th Maxwell Football Club National Awards Gala which will be held at the Mohegan Pennsylvania Resort. Also receiving awards at this event will be Caleb Williams – USC (Maxwell Award), Will Anderson Jr. – Alabama (Chuck Bednarik Award), Sean Clifford – Penn State (The Brian Westbrook Regional Player of the Year Award), Drake Maye –North Carolina (Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award), Willie Fritz –Tulane University (George Munger Collegiate Coach of the Year Award) and Joe Klecko – New York Jets (The MFC Legends Award presented by Mohegan Pennsylvania). The Club will be announcing additional winners this week.

Tickets for the Maxwell Football Club National Awards Gala are available for purchase on the club’s website https://maxwellfootballclub.org/purchase-tickets/ or by calling 215-643-3833. Questions concerning any of the Maxwell Football Club’s awards or programs can be directed to MFC Executive Director Mark Wolpert at [email protected].


Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who has written features for SI.com, ESPN.com, NFL.com, MLB.com, Deadspin and The Philadelphia Daily News. In 2006, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for a special project piece for ESPN.com called “Love at First Beep.” He is most noted for his award-winning ESPN.com feature on high school wrestler A.J. Detwiler in February 2006, and his breaking story on Carson Wentz for PhillyVoice on January 21, 2019. In 2015, he was elected president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

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