Welcome Back NFL! (Part 1 of 2)
With the preseason schedule complete, the NFL will kickoff its 104th regular season in early September. Here are eight players and cards that I am excited to watch as the 2023 campaign unfolds.
Jalen Hurts
After an uneven first two seasons in the NFL, Hurts improved significantly in 2022 to become one of the league’s top quarterbacks, finishing second in the MVP voting to Patrick Mahomes. In 2022, Hurts had the fourth best passer rating (101.5), while throwing twenty-two touchdown passes and running for thirteen more.
NFL history has not been kind to Super Bowl runners-up, and it will be interesting to see if the Eagles are able to overcome a second-place hangover. Another area of concern is how much Hurts runs the ball. He had 165 rushing attempts last season. While Hurts is listed at over six feet and 223 pounds (bigger than any of the running backs on the Philadelphia roster), running quarterbacks usually do not stay healthy in the NFL.
Jalen’s rookie season was 2020, and his Panini Prizm from that year has been one of the more actively traded cards of the preseason. In PSA 9 condition, this card costs $40, and in PSA 10 it costs $130.