Eagles select Houston Christian LB Jalyx Hunt with 94th overall pick of 2024 NFL Draft

Jalyx Hunt is the first ever Houston Christian player to be selected in the NFL Draft.

BY JIMMY KEMPSKI
PhillyVoice Staff

GREGG PACHKOWSKI/USA TODAY

Eagles pass rusher Jalyx Hunt (13) during the 2024 Senior Bowl.

With the 94th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles selected Houston Christian linebacker Jalyx Hunt.

Hunt was a safety at Cornell who transferred to Houston Christian and became an edge rusher. The Eagles announced him as a linebacker. He'll likely play the SAM position.

The last two seasons (21 games) at Houston Christian, Hunt had 13.5 sacks and 5 forced fumbles. He had an impressive Combine performance.

I won't pretend to have watched Houston Christian games, so we'll let Lance Zierlein of NFL Network do the heavy lifting on the scouting report here: 

Hunt is a small-school edge defender possessing notable athletic traits and the potential to get bigger and stronger. He currently lacks the lower-body anchor and general play strength to go up against NFL opponents, but the team drafting him is likely to view him as a developmental prospect in need of time to build his frame and his game. Hunt's speed is obvious as a pass rusher and in run pursuit, but proving he can survive against a downhill running attack could be the difference between challenging for a rotational role or hoping to become a designated pass rusher.

The Eagles have plenty of short-term depth on the edges in Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, and Zack Baun. Hunt is developmental prospect and likely won't get much playing time as a rookie. The Eagles will hope that they can get the most out of his raw athletic ability long-term.

The Eagles have selected defensive players with each of their first three picks.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-select-houston-christian-linebacker-jalyx-hunt-94th-overall-pick-2024-nfl-draft/

I hate picking a guy in the 3rd who’s probably going to be on the inactive list every week. Payton Wilson would be a potential starter this year if/when Dean gets hurt or at least next year when White leaves via free agency. 

12 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

I hate picking a guy in the 3rd who’s probably going to be on the inactive list every week. Payton Wilson would be a potential starter this year if/when Dean gets hurt or at least next year when White leaves via free agency. 

If Payton getting hurt playing again high school kids and he's be on IR most of his career playing again NFL players.

16 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

I hate picking a guy in the 3rd who’s probably going to be on the inactive list every week. Payton Wilson would be a potential starter this year if/when Dean gets hurt or at least next year when White leaves via free agency. 

15 hours ago, Getreal said:

If Payton getting hurt playing again high school kids and he's be on IR most of his career playing again NFL players.

The false narratives Philly fans believe in amazes me. Dean played all through high school and college without missing a practice or game, comes into the NFL and doesn't miss a practice or game his rookie season. Then the year he is set to start, he hurts his foot, elects to heal without surgery comes back after 4 weeks, plays for a month before reinjuring the same foot. The elephant in the room that nobody talks about is that the foot wasn't fully healed without surgery. They hoped it would hold up, but the gamble didn't pay off. He went back to IR and had the surgery. It's similar to Lane Johnson's ankle injury or Desean Jackson's groin injury. The players hoped to get back to the field as quickly as possible by avoiding surgery and it ended up backfiring. 

Now, all of a sudden you keep hearing (or reading) people acting like Dean has some kind of extensive injury history and that's just not true. They read (or hear) someone else make the claim and pass it along as gospel ... and here we are --- reading a post suggesting college's biggest walking medical test dummy (Payton Wilson), currently playing without 1 ACL, who most scouts project to have a 1-contract NFL career is somehow more reliable than Dean ...

Never underestimate the power of the Negadelphia hive mind.

7 hours ago, brkmsn said:

The false narratives Philly fans believe in amazes me. Dean played all through high school and college without missing a practice or game, comes into the NFL and doesn't miss a practice or game his rookie season. Then the year he is set to start, he hurts his foot, elects to heal without surgery comes back after 4 weeks, plays for a month before reinjuring the same foot. The elephant in the room that nobody talks about is that the foot wasn't fully healed without surgery. They hoped it would hold up, but the gamble didn't pay off. He went back to IR and had the surgery. It's similar to Lane Johnson's ankle injury or Desean Jackson's groin injury. The players hoped to get back to the field as quickly as possible by avoiding surgery and it ended up backfiring. 

Now, all of a sudden you keep hearing (or reading) people acting like Dean has some kind of extensive injury history and that's just not true. They read (or hear) someone else make the claim and pass it along as gospel ... and here we are --- reading a post suggesting college's biggest walking medical test dummy (Payton Wilson), currently playing without 1 ACL, who most scouts project to have a 1-contract NFL career is somehow more reliable than Dean ...

Never underestimate the power of the Negadelphia hive mind.

The fact is Dean is undersized for an ILB and the one year that he actually played, he couldn’t stay healthy. Could that be an anomaly, maybe or it could be a trend. We’ll see this year. You’re also putting words into my mouth, I never said all those things you mentioned.

As for Wilson, he does have an extensive injury history but he has come back after every injury and been successful. No reason why he cant be like Landon Dickerson or DK Metcalf who both had injury issues in college but not in the NFL. 

2 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

The fact is Dean is undersized for an ILB and the one year that he actually played, he couldn’t stay healthy. Could that be an anomaly, maybe or it could be a trend. We’ll see this year. You’re also putting words into my mouth, I never said all those things you mentioned.

As for Wilson, he does have an extensive injury history but he has come back after every injury and been successful. No reason why he cant be like Landon Dickerson or DK Metcalf who both had injury issues in college but not in the NFL. 

I didn't mean to suggest you said all those things. I quoted your post as an example of how people read or hear something (right now there are people on this board that keep acting like Dean has a concerning injury history which is far from the truth) and then accept that narrative as fact and pass it on. Your exact words were " ...if/when Dean gets hurt..." which is an expression of expectation. 

In the modern NFL, Dean isn't as undersized as people make it seem. You won't see anymore Levon Kirklands playing ILB in today's defenses. Guys with great athletic ability and more  size get moved to edge positions (see Parsons). Ray Lewis was 6 foot 0.4 inches tall and 235 coming into the NFL. Most players will actually gain some weight during their rookie contract, but they aren't getting any taller. It's great when you can find a bigger player that can do all the same things as an average size player, but that doesn't make the average size player undersized or the bigger player necessarily better.

But if we're looking for an anomaly in a player that played 4 years in high school, 3 years in college and 2 years in the NFL and has only missed games because of a right foot injury in 1 season, it's safe to bet that's the anomaly, not the other 8 seasons. Even a guy like Maddox that has an extensive injury history in the NFL and deservingly has the "injury prone" label has managed to play in 2/3 of the games his team has played since he was drafted. 

Blech. Terrible pick.