Jalen Hurts Proves Two Super Bowl Formulas Better Than One

In the aftermath of the rematch we NFL fans must swallow a hard truth. Elite QBs have never been enough and the Super Bowl formula is not linear. Just ask Jalen Hurts.

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Is it a coincidence that the only team to play its backup quarterback in the championship game won the Super Bowl? We think not! Jalen Hurts to Kenny Pickett for the win.

All joking aside, well, it still was not a coincidence. The Philadelphia Eagles dominated the defending champs so hard that the game was over, and Jalen Hurts was able to relax for the final portion of the game. By halftime, it was 24-0. By the start of the fourth, Philly was ahead 34-6. 

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This was a drubbing, and our wager of seeing more than 2.5 players throw a pass hit by the barest of margins with Kenny Pickett going 0-for-1. Though backup quarterbacks didn’t actually play a part in determining the league’s winner, it would have been nice to see Carson Wentz out there to match kneels with Pickett. 

It turns out that defense actually wins championships. Not sure you’ve ever heard that before, but people should start saying it. The Eagles battered Patrick Mahomes all game without even needing to blitz. It was the hardest we’ve seen an opponent dominate Kansas City in the trenches in some time. We knew the Chiefs’ o-line was weaker than it had been in year’s past, and it hadn’t mattered. In the Super Bowl, it finally mattered. With that said, its time to admit that the Super Bowl winning formula is not a one way street, but two paths that can both lead to glory.

Jalen Hurts Proves There Is Another Way

Todd Salem:

Not only did defense win this championship, but Mahomes was bad himself in the Super Bowl, outplayed by the mercurial Hurts. One year, we think Jalen Hurts is a top-five QB in the league; the next, he seems mediocre at best, carried by his teammates. His teammates were certainly elite in this game, but Hurts was really good too. The Eagles had the best roster in the league. When it mattered most of all, they also had the best quarterback. No one was beating them this time around.

Does this outcome change your opinion on the way Kansas City built its roster? It felt like the Chiefs were continually cutting corners, trimming at skill positions, along the offensive line, on defense, always assuming Mahomes would bail them out. He didn’t have a great season, though the team kept winning. It felt like picking the Chiefs was simply picking the infrastructure of Mahomes and Andy Reid. No one actually thought they were the best team. 

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And yet, they won 15 times and made the Super Bowl! As ugly as the final verdict ended up being, this plan worked. Also, cutting corners doesn’t mean ownership was cheaping out. Paying top dollar for your quarterback requires trimming payroll in other areas. There is no way around it. So, is this the ceiling for a team built in this vein? Battling to and perhaps through the playoffs, only to be easily vanquished by a much better, all-around roster?

If that is the case, Philadelphia may have found a cheat code to endless success. Hurts was given a massive extension, but he will not be paid like one of the top QBs in the sport. He sits a tier below. Common sense would indicate this as being a bad thing, reeking of Daniel Jones in New York or even Tua Tagovailoa in Miami. The worst thing a team could do is pay big bucks for someone not capable of carrying his teammates to glory.

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But the actuality speaks a little differently, if the pieces align. Hurts’ cap hit stays below 10% of the cap next season, and never reaches even 15% before his new contract runs out. For comparison, Mahomes was already at nearly 15% of his team’s cap, and that figure jumps up to 24%. Lamar Jackson will be at 15.9%; Josh Allen at 16.3%. Hurts isn’t as good as those guys, but his salary allows his teammates to be much better. It’s why the Eagles just won the Super Bowl.

Dan Salem:

The only way you can justify paying one player that much of your team’s overall salary is if the player can carry the team on his back and will them to victories. Quarterbacks are the players capable of accomplishing this, but most will fall short because football is in fact a team sport. The most logical and realistic way to win a team sport is by building a very good team. That means your quarterback must be very good, but if getting a great one means you don’t have very good players elsewhere, then it won’t work out. 

Josh Allen has never made a Super Bowl for a reason. Mahomes just got embarrassed for a reason. Lamar Jackson is behind them both with a team built like Philadelphia, yet he came up short in the playoffs, unlike Hurts. The AFC is full of teams being “carried” by elite quarterbacks, but not a single AFC team is very good top to bottom. The NFC is full of teams with very good quarterbacks and rosters trying to be very good top to bottom. I’m looking at Detroit, Minnesota this year, Green Bay, San Francisco last year, and even Tampa Bay to an extent. Those NFC teams like Washington who appear to have an elite quarterback are not complete teams, and look at what happened to the Commanders when they faced Philly in the playoffs.

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The point of all this is simple. When there is not a dominant team to compete with, elite quarterbacks will lead their teams to championships. Kansas City has proven this. But when a complete team shows up to challenge things, we see what happens. The Chiefs model works, as they’ve made five of the last six Super Bowls and won three. It’s also working for the Bills, who keep winning their division and making the AFC Championship game, ultimately losing to the Chiefs. 

Realistically, it’s easier to find an elite quarterback than it is to build a complete team full of very good players all around. That’s why everyone is trying to find their elite QB. But you still need a very good team, so finding very good players who excel in your system and then building around them is truly the best way to go. Being elite is overrated. Matthew Stafford is excellent, but nobody considers him elite. He won the Super Bowl when he finally found himself on a stacked team in Los Angeles. 

One player will never be enough to win, but Mahomes was enough to help Kansas City win all of its one-score games this season. That’s incredible. His team was also good and often great at times. My New York Jets lost most of their one-score games this season mainly because the roster was just okay and Aaron Rodgers was not great or elite this year. He likely will never be again. These may be the only two viable ways to build a championship team in the NFL, but two is better than one.

Meet our Sports Writers:

Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.

Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.

Jalen Hurts and The Super Bowl Formula – This Is The End

Jalen Hurts Photo Credits: cbssports.com and arrowheadpride.com; profootballnetwork.com via Getty Images

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