Tom Brady vs. Jalen Hurts: Who Will Throw for More Passing Yards in Bucs vs. Eagles?

Week 6 provides us, football bettors, a fantastic matchup between the reigning Super Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles.

The real excitement here will be the quarterback battle between Tom “The GOAT” Brady and Jalen Hurts. One is perhaps the greatest football player of all time and the other is Jalen Hurts. Jokes aside, Hurts has looked good for the Eagles and his electric play has paid off for the team. Sure, they are entering this game with a 2-3 record, but those losses came to the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, and San Francisco 49ers. 

So, what can we expect from these two QBs when they face off on Thursday night? 

Currently, the odds at WynnBET have Jalen Hurts’ total at 290 yards while Brady’s sits at 299. With that in mind, let’s explore some recent stats and make a prediction for who comes out ahead in Thursday Night Football. 

What is there to say about Tom Brady that hasn’t already been said. The guy is all-time and at the ripe age of 44 is still outshining competitions 20 years his junior. That includes Hurts, who was just two years old when Brady was drafted. 

The veteran has led his team to a 4-1 record with their only loss coming to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3. They had a pretty close call in Foxboro Week 4, but bounced back to stomp the Miami Dolphins 45-17 last week.

As far as Brady’s performance this season, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from him. He leads all passers in yards with 1,765 and ranks second in the touchdowns with 15. Compare that with just two interceptions, and you can get a good idea of how Brady has been doing this year. 

Twice he has thrown for more than 400 yards, including last week against the Dolphins. This is a feat that Hurts has yet to accomplish in his nine NFL starts. 

Now, to the bad.

First off, the injury to Rob Gronkowski can’t be overlooked. Despite reports stating he “might” play on Thursday, he won’t be at full strength. Brady managed without his favorite target last week but it was clear he was missed in the red zone and third downs. 

The other major issue with Brady in this game is the Philly passing defense. As a team, the Eagles rank third in the league behind Carolina and Buffalo in terms of yards given up in the air. With average passing yards from opponents at less than 200 per game, it will be hard to even Brady to break through this secondary. Last week, they allowed just 158 yards passing to Sam Darnold and the Panthers. 

On the Eagles side of things, the biggest issue for Hurts to outhrow Brady in this game will be the absence of tight end Dallas Goedert. Goedert was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list yesterday and will not be suiting up Thursday night.

Goedert’s presence on the field has become something of a safety blanket for Hurts, a function many tight ends serve for young quarterbacks. Goedert has quickly grown into one of Hurt’s go-to guys and ranks third on the team in receptions. The tight end has so far averaged 14.5 YPC this year and has scored twice in five games. 

This does leave the door open for former star tight end Zach Ertz to possibly step up and contribute and makes for a tempting streamer for anyone with a tight end bye in fantasy this week. In limited action, Ertz has shown why he was once so highly regarded in the league. On the year, Ertz has 14 catches for 160 yards and a touchdown. His YPC of 11.4.

Now, despite all of this, Hurts has a good chance to outshine Brady on Thursday night just because of how bad the Bucs passing defense is. The reigning champs rank dead-last in stopping the pass, surrendering on average 314.4 yards passing per game. Now, they have played a few teams that have strong passing games like the Cowboys and Rams, but they gave up almost 300 yards passing to the Dolphins last weekend. It was the most yards that Jacoby Brissett has had in the air since Week 12 of the 2019 season when he played for the Indianapolis Colts. 

This is a tricky game to predict quarterback yardage totals because the Eagles' defense is so good and the Bucs defense is so bad. However, on the other side of the ball, the Eagles have a second-year quarterback who is pretty good while the Bucs have freaking Tom Brady.

I think I'll go against the matchup stats on this one and bet that Brady can continue to build on the massive win against the Dolphins last week on Thursday Night.

Prediction: Tom Brady has more passing yards than Jalen Hurts.

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