2020 NFL Draft: Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts scouting report

Arm Talent Evaluation

Hurts continues to show his strong athleticism with his arm talent. He has shown he can fit the ball into tight windows and make throws downfield. His arm strength is not going to make anyone say “wow,” but it is enough to make quality throws into tight windows and get the ball downfield to his deep threats.

With ball placement, Hurts tends to struggle with fine precision and giving his receiver the best chance to make plays. This will hurt him in the NFL draft process. Down the field, balls were occasionally underthrown and either lost possible YAC or allowed a defender to come back and make a play on the ball. His intermediate throws were the best, on time and on target, letting his receivers make plays with the ball in their hands.

One of the biggest issues I saw with his ball placement was on short routes, specifically the wide receiver screens Oklahoma likes to run. On almost every throw, Hurts put the ball in an awkward place for the receiver and forced them to either change their angle or make a strange play on the ball. This kills the momentum of the receiver moving towards the boundary and makes them rework their angles of attack against the defense.

When seeing a player like Tom Brady throw the screen, they will throw ahead of their receiver to create forward momentum, but Hurts needs to learn to stop hurting his receivers and allow them to make plays after the catch. This is an obvious issue that will hurt him in the NFL draft process.

Throwing on the run was one of Hurts’ strongest attributes, making plays downfield and on intermediate concepts rolling out to both sides. Fitting the ball into tight windows on the move is difficult, but when there is space for the receiver to eat, Hurts does a good job of laying the ball out into an open area and letting his receiver track it down.

The final major issue I saw with Hurts was his release time. His mechanics are very slow and give defenders the time they need to make plays on his throwing arm. When timed, Jalen Hurts had a release time of approximately 0.5 seconds.

When compared to a player with a quick release like Brady (0.375 seconds), he looks sluggish and uncoordinated. His windup is too long and needs to be cut down. When releasing the ball, his throwing hand is high and the ball path through the windup makes a semi-circle around his shoulder. When looking at a player like Brady, his arm has the same motion through to the shoulder, then cuts off and moves straight out towards the target.

Release time was calculated by counting the frames taken from downward motion to release, and then dividing by 24 (approximate frames per second on an average television broadcast) to find release time.

As a whole, Hurts impressed but produced via many tendencies that will become self-destructive at the next level. His career will be very dependent upon his year one to year two jump in development, similar to Jackson. He has the physicality and mobility, but his mental capacity for the game will be the factor that makes or breaks his production at the next level. Overall, he is a fascinating 2020 NFL Draft prospect, but he needs a lot of work.