Can Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen break the career rushing TD record?

philadelphia eagles‘Skill players have a knack when it comes to scoring touchdowns deep in the red zone.

“If you want to go down to 1, you can come in too,” the tight end said dallas goedertHis smile widened. “Because otherwise, you know how we’ll go in.”

he will through jalen hurtsChurning on the wave of speed generated by his street-grading offensive line, a healthy dose of lower body strength and, of course, a push from Bush.

Sunday’s marquee matchup between the Eagles and buffalo bill (4:25 PM ET, Fox) features two of the greatest rushing quarterbacks of all time in Hurts and. josh allen,

Allen already has the most rushing touchdowns by a QB in NFL history (77). Hurts, who was drafted two years after Allen in 2020, is third (63).

What he is doing in his position is already historic. But what they’re able to accomplish – should their bodies cooperate and if the stars align – will be truly epic.

Based on their respective speeds right now, Allen and Hurts have a chance to break Emmitt Smith’s career rushing touchdown record of 164. Interestingly, both are on track to surpass Smith’s mark at the start of the 2034 season.

To put that kind of potential feat into perspective, the current top 20 TDs in career rushing are all running backs – a list that includes LaDainian Tomlinson, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders and Jim Brown. derrick henry (5th, 116 TDs) is the only active player on the list.

One thing in Hurts and Allen’s favor is timing: It’s not unusual these days for top-tier quarterbacks to stretch their NFL careers to double-digit years. But there are a lot of factors working against them, including the now annual effort to ban the tush push.

Regardless, two of the best dual-threat quarterbacks of all time will share a field this weekend, and everyone — tight ends, backs and receivers included — knows what to expect.

What makes them so good at finding the end zone?

Alan: There are many factors that have made Allen a dynamic runner. His size (6-foot-5, 237 pounds) is certainly a major factor, but his overall athleticism and knowledge of the game enhance his potential and make him invaluable with both his legs and arm. He’s in a tight race with the Bills’ running backs James Cook III (each with 12 rushing touchdowns) finished the season sixth (out of eight he played) in leading the Bills in rushing and passing touchdowns, tied with Otto Graham (behind Cam Newton, seven) for the second-most such seasons in NFL history. What he is able to achieve at his size is difficult to replicate.

Allen has special abilities to both survive plays and evade defenders, leaping and breaking tackles.

“There are a lot of changes [of what Allen can do]And by the time you’re thinking that in your mind, he’s already passed you because suddenly he speeds up too,” Kendra Connor McGovern Said. “There are so many out there, he’s so unique and it’s hard to plan against everything he can do.”

It hurts: Some of it is by sheer force. Hurts, a powerlifter in his high school days, Can lift and squat over 600 poundsThis comes in handy when you are fighting for inches closer to the goal line,

“He’s a strong guy, he’s powerful and he wants to come in,” Goedert said.

But he is also effective in space. Excels in the zone-read and run-pass option game, adept at pulling the ball when defenders are committed to preventing the running back and taking it away from the sideline. The quarterback draw has also been a weapon for the Eagles under Hurts, who seems to know the exact right time to stop the ball and get to the crease.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Allen and Newton are the only QBs who have at least a share of the current NFL franchise’s all-time rushing touchdown record. Hurts is on track to become the third QB in that circle – he’s six rushing touchdowns away from tying Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren (69) for the most rushing touchdowns in Eagles franchise history.

impact of shock

Alan: Allen’s size makes him easy to use on the goal line. But unlike Hurts in Philadelphia, the tush push is a minor element of Allen’s rushing attack.

Since 2022, including playoffs, Allen has 18 rushing touchdowns, nearly a fifth of his total of 84. He has a total of 29 touchdowns from the 1-yard line, which shows that once the Bills get close to the end zone, using the quarterback’s legs is a strong option – but that’s not the top reason Allen is finding consistent success.

It hurts: This is a major factor in his touchdown production. He has 36 rushing touchdowns since ’22, twice as many as Allen, who is second.

The Eagles have been the heaviest users of the push sneak by far, running it 148 times since ’22. The Bills are next with 79. No other team has used it even 20 times in that period.

“I love everything that goes into making it successful and making it successful, just like any sport you go through,” coach Nick Sirianni said last month. “There’s so much that happens in every play that I think a lot of people don’t understand how much happens [it]Figuring out why to run it, when to run it, the details, coaching points, and the fundamentals needed to execute each play.”

Hurts had 43 1-yard rushing scores, the most ever by a quarterback in the Super Bowl era.

can do Will Allen or Hurts break the all-time rushing TD record?

Alan: It is possible, but impossible. The case is that during this period of Allen’s career, his rushing touchdowns have increased despite Allen and the Bills preferring to take fewer hits. Allen has not missed any playing time due to injury since his rookie year.

Over the past three seasons, Allen has averaged 13 rushing touchdowns per year (39 total). Compare this to his average of 7.6 per season during the first five seasons of his career (2018-22).

But as he grows, limiting hits will become even more important. When asked about Allen’s abilities as a runner, coach Sean McDermott said how he wants Allen to stay healthy, but the quarterback still enjoys it. “He loves to run. He runs, as you would think by now he would be like, ‘Oh, no, I’m good.’ But he’s very competitive, very tough.”

Although running will probably always be a part of Allen’s game, the level he can maintain as he ages will determine how high he can climb in the record books.

It hurts: Maintaining this level of production over the better part of the next decade seems like a stretch.

It appears Hurts is already taking things slow. He is at career lows in rushing attempts and rushing yards since taking over as the full-time starter in 2021.

He recently noted that the tush push play is “getting harder and harder” to execute as defenses continue to come up with new ways to prevent it.

Some people in the league are trying to ban the game completely. The “push” part of the game may be given a little more importance – a team with a massive offensive line and a QB like Hurts can still be largely successful without the push – but the degree of difficulty will still be increased further.