January 10, 2026
Mark Konezny/Imagn Images
Will Jalen Hurts run more in the playoffs than he did during the regular season?
The question people appear to have for Jalen Hurts as the Eagles enter the playoffs is: Will he run more?
It's a fair query given his history of back-breaking runs throughout his career, but it's also based more on past performance than any current trend.
Hurts in 2025 set a personal-best with 25 passing touchdowns and had 300 more passing yards this year than he did in 2024 on 93 more attempts, but he only rushed for 421 total yards, his lowest since becoming the full-time starter in 2021.
Here's a look at Hurts' rushing yards and rushing averges by year since 2021:
| Rush Yards/Game | Average/Rush | |
| 2021 | 52.3 | 5.6 |
| 2022 | 50.7 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 35.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 42 | 4.2 |
| 2025 | 26.3 | 4.0 |
Aside from a small jump from 2023 to 2024, Hurts' average rushing yards per game has dropped year after year, including a 15-yard decline from 2022 to 2023 and almost 16-yard descent from last year to this season.
In 2025, Hurts averaged nearly half as many rushing yards per game as he did in his first full season.
Also, the dropoff in average per carry from 2021 to 2025, more than 1.5 yards, shows his reluctance to extend runs, as Hurts has wisely chosen to get down or out of bounds before absorbing a big hit.
Being a more reluctant runner has been a great decision for self-preservation; Hurts didn't appear on the injury report one single time this season for the first time in his starting career and started all 16 games until the Eagles rested starters in Week 18.
But Hurts' threat to run has always been a vital part of the Eagles' overall offense and rushing attack. Defenders, especially edge rushers and linebackers, needed to account for a potential Hurts carry on every shotgun run, and many defensive coordinators still incorporate "spy" concepts into their game plans to attempt to keep Hurts from bolting the pocket.
Asked this week about his decreasing rushing yards, Hurts suggested that first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo's play calling was mainly responsible for the drop-off.
"The season has just kinda gone the way it has. The approach this year, and how the games have been called, with this coordinator, with Coach KP, it's just kind of gone that way," Hurts said in his weekly press conference. "So just kind of taken it in stride and giving my best with whatever position I've been put in."
The data supports Hurts' claim that play calling has changed to limit his designed runs. Per NFL Pro, he averaged a career-low 1.7 designed rush attempts per game. In each of the previous five seasons, Hurts averaged at least 2.4 designed runs per game.
This year, Hurts picked up 143 yards and nine first downs on 27 designed runs, including one touchdown, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
But designed run data only tells half the story, as Hurts' scrambling yards are also way down. Scrambles aren't a byproduct of play calling, they're instinctual decisions by Hurts to leave the pocket and head for greener pasture.
Also according to NFL Pro, Hurts scrambled on a career-low 19.8% of his dropbacks this season – this data intentionally doesn't include designed runs, only runs from dropbacks – with about 81 percent of his dropbacks ending inside the tackle box, the second-highest rate of his career.
So it's not just Patullo's play-calling or the offensive design that's taken the rushing bite away from Hurts' overall arsenal. For whatever reason, he just hasn't dialed his own number as much as he did in the past.
What's that all mean for Sunday's Wild Card showdown against the 49ers at the Linc, and beyond if the Eagles survive and advance?
There's some evidence to suggest Hurts might pick up the rushing pace in the postseason. Last year, he averaged 3.8 designed runs per game during the four playoff games, including the Eagles' Super Bowl over the Chiefs. It represented just a .6 increase from the regular season, but it's an increase nonetheless.
But the idea that Hurts will simply flip the switch and run much more in the playoffs is as ambitious as thinking that the Eagles will magically improve their third-down offense because they've been saving plays for the postseason. That's just not reality.
The more viable viewpoint is that Hurts will run about as often, or perhaps a tick more, than he did in the regular season – and maybe that's enough.
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