Jalen Carter chased Hurts around practice this week and came away sounding like a guy who just watched a magic trick. "It's like a movie, it feels like I'm going slow," the Eagles defensive tackle said, and he's not exactly out of shape doing the chasing — Carter reported to camp 10 pounds lighter and still couldn't close the gap. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio backed it up too, saying flatly that Hurts "looks faster" and that defenders keep thinking they've got him wrapped up before he's gone.
Hurts, who just turned 28 on August 7, says he hasn't changed anything about his training. Maybe that's true. But the timing matters, because new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion is reportedly building in more designed quarterback runs this year, a departure from the shotgun-heavy, play-action system that leaned on Hurts as a passer first over the last two seasons.
That's a real shift worth paying attention to. Hurts' rushing numbers cratered last year by his own standards: 105 carries for 421 yards and 8 touchdowns, a career low across the board and a full step down from the tush-push, red-zone-vulture version of himself that made him a top-3 fantasy quarterback in his prime. If Mannion is genuinely scheming him more runs, and the tape in camp backs that up, the ceiling that made Hurts a league-winner isn't gone, it just got buried under a pass-heavy offense for a season.
For fantasy purposes, this is exactly the kind of camp buzz that should nudge a draft board. Hurts is currently sitting around QB6 off the board, with an ADP hovering in the late sixth round on most sites, roughly pick 69 or 70 in 12-team formats. Projections already had him pegged for about 470 rushing yards and 9 scores on the ground to go with 3,475 passing yards and 23 touchdowns through the air. That QB6 price already assumes some rushing rebound. If the designed-run reports are legit and not just August noise, there's a real case he's underpriced relative to quarterbacks going a round or two ahead of him.
Worth remembering: Hurts is doing this without A.J. Brown, who's no longer catching passes in Philly, which changes the target math for the whole offense and puts more pressure on Hurts to create with his legs rather than rely on a true alpha receiver bailing him out downfield. That's another reason a run-heavier approach makes sense for this roster as currently built, and another reason to buy the speed reports as more than just a training-camp puff piece.
The betting market hasn't fully caught up to this storyline yet, and that's the window. If Hurts starts stacking rushing touchdowns in the preseason or early regular season, expect his MVP and QB1 finish odds to shorten fast, the same way they did during his 2022 and 2024 peaks when the ground game was humming. Fantasy managers drafting late should treat every camp report about the tush-push package or designed runs as signal, not noise.
None of this means Hurts is suddenly a top-3 lock again. Sixty-nine touches on the ground doesn't happen by accident, and offenses change plans between August and September all the time. But when the guy tasked with tackling him in practice is comparing it to slow motion, and the coordinator is publicly saying the runs are coming back, that's worth a few extra minutes of research before your draft. Keep an eye on preseason reps and goal-line packages over the next few weeks, because that's where this either becomes real or fades into just another camp story.