Jalen Hurts isn’t just a quarterback. He’s a tank with a cannon for an arm. The Eagles‘ rise up the NFC standings? Yeah, a lot of that is because of him. In 2022, he made his first Pro Bowl, throwing for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns while running for another 760 yards and 13 scores. Defenses had to pick their poison—get torched through the air or run over by a quarterback built like a linebacker.

Fast forward to this season, and Jalen Hurts is still doing Jalen Hurts things. Passing for 2,903 yards, 18 touchdowns, and just five picks? Check. Adding 630 rushing yards and 14 scores on the ground? Also check. The dual-threat machine has kept Philly rolling, and now he’s staring down another Super Bowl shot against the Chiefs—this time, to settle unfinished business.

One reason Hurts can take (and dish out) punishment? The dude is built different. Always has been. Back in college, he was already throwing around weight like a lineman. Now, that freakish strength makes Philly’s infamous “Tush Push” borderline unfair. Try stopping a QB who can squat half your defense. Good luck.

In 2023, Hurts sat down with Jason and Travis Kelce on the New Heights podcast, where Jason brought up the obvious. “Everybody knows you’re the ‘Squat Machine.'” Hurts just laughed. He may have laughed but just know that it was a kind of laugh that’d make you think! How much? So, Hurts can squat 600 lb. No, we are not kidding, and neither was he when he responded with a: “I could,” when Jason cheekily questioned if he could do it still or not.

But some people just have it all. Jalen Hurts is one of them. Good looks? Check. Stupid rich? Yep. One of the best quarterbacks in the league? No doubt. Oh, and he also happens to be a freakishly strong ex-power lifter. Life’s just unfair sometimes.

Jalen Hurts path to becoming a hunk

Not many quarterbacks are out here deadlifting like a lineman. Jalen Hurts? He’s been doing it since high school. “I always had strength as a kid, but it came outta nowhere,” Hurts told the Kelce brothers. Back in Channelview High School, Texas, he wasn’t just a football player—he was throwing shots in track, swinging bats in baseball, and running sprints. But after an injury, his dad, Averion Hurts, steered him toward powerlifting. Smart move. By his sophomore year, he was already squatting 440 pounds. By junior year? A mind-boggling 570.

At just 15, Hurts was competing in the 198-pound weight class, placing second out of 85 lifters in Texas. You read that right—a teenage quarterback qualifying for a state powerlifting meet. By the time he hit Alabama, the numbers only got crazier. In 2018, a video surfaced of Hurts casually squatting 600 pounds, and when he transferred to Oklahoma, he did it again—leaving teammates, coaches, and pretty much anyone with functioning eyes in disbelief.

Even in the NFL, Hurts hasn’t ditched his powerlifting roots. In 2021, he ripped a 620-pound deadlift in the offseason. For a quarterback who takes hits like a running back, that kind of strength isn’t just for show—it’s survival. “This guy’s committed,” Darius Butler said on The Pat McAfee Show. “You want a guy that can survive that type of beating in the league.” And let’s be real, when your QB is built like a tank, it’s no wonder the Eagles’ “Tush Push” is borderline unstoppable.

At the 2020 NFL Combine, Hurts measured in at 6’1″, 222 pounds, with a solid 31 ¾-inch arm length. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. He’s not just a quarterback. He’s a human wrecking ball in cleats and the kind of guy built to take a hit—and then deliver one right back.