2020 NFL Draft: Justin Herbert goes No. 1 in first-round NFL mock draft

With the “Tank for Tua” prophecy done for the Miami Dolphins, it is time for this team to settle on a quarterback in this year’s draft. Some might think it would be wiser to wait one more year for Trevor Lawrence. But the injury to Tua has shown that a team cannot put its hopes and dreams on a player a year away.

Jalen Hurts is currently ranked fourth on USA Today’s Draftwire list of the 2020 NFL drafts available quarterbacks. But I believe in the combine, Jalen Hurts will stand out as a phenomenal talent worthy of building a team around.

For starters, Hurts has thrown for 3,039 yards this year, 28 Touchdowns, to just 5 interceptions, according to ESPN. Joe Burrow might have more touchdowns this year, but Hurts has gotten more production from opting to run than Joe has. Hurts has 983 yards rushing this year with 15 touchdowns from 152 attempts, while Burrow has just three touchdowns, 215 yards from 75 attempts so far this year.

This is significant because of the nature of the NFL and the division Miami plays in. It is a copycat league after all. The only two teams to give New England’s historic defense in 2019 trouble, the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens, incorporate a running quarterback similar to how Oklahoma uses Jalen Hurts. I don’t expect that first-year head coach Brian Flores missed that headline.

Jalen Hurts is far from just an imitation of Lamar Jackson though. Jalen can throw deep, with accuracy. Hurts has a completion percentage of 73%, with a 12.3 yards per attempt. This beats out Joe Burrow, who has only 10.3 yards per attempt, according to ESPN stats.

Besides his production, Hurts’ story is very compelling. Replaced by Tua in a championship game in 2018, Hurts left Alabama for a chance to play this year, rather than play second fiddle on the bench.

Like the Miami Dolphins, his peers gave up on him, was relegated to the funny papers, was relegated to bottom rungs of their respective position. But while their peers sneered, these underdogs rejected their circumstances and set out on their own to find their own path forward. They took calculated risks, accepted irrelevance in the short term, for big payoffs in the future.

Too poetic for you? Well, how about this? Hurts has spent the last year under the tutelage of Lincoln Riley, one of the most innovative coaches in the college scene. His football program has pumped out the likes of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, the two most recent Heisman winning quarterbacks.

Like Hurts, these quarterbacks were vagabonds, rejected by the more traditional football zeitgeist for a variety of reasons. They are now leading their respective NFL teams out of the darkness and into relevancy for the first time in years.

Riley has helped Hurts put up the best numbers of Hurts’ young career. Joe Burrow has had an exceptional year as well and is the current frontrunner for the Heisman. But it can be argued that he has benefitted from a change in coaching, and is more of an unknown than Hurts.

For Miami, they cannot afford to screw up their quarterback selection in the 2020 NFL draft. They need a quarterback who can do it all. With Hurts running the offense, they will have a quarterback who can do it all.