During the 2018 NFL Draft, Hayden Hurst didn’t stroll across the stage to accept his jersey and get a picture taken with Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Instead, he was home with his support system — his family. Hurst was selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the 25th overall pick and the 24-year-old had his fair share of fans, and perhaps an unfair number of detractors, including myself.
After the last month of Ravens training camp, Hurst has done nothing but impress his coaches, teammates and fans with crisp route running, solid hands and refined athleticism.
After graduating from The Bolles School, a private college preparatory day and boarding school in Jacksonville, Fla., Hurst was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 17th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He only lasted two seasons in the rookie level of the organization, playing a total of 16 games as a hitter and one as a pitcher.
In 2015, he left the minor leagues and walked onto the South Carolina football team as a 21-year-old.
“I just take it day by day, that’s just how I approach life” Hurst told me. “The whole point when I left baseball was that I wanted to be the best football player I could become. I have a vision of what I can become … just have to stack days really.”
Hurst did just that as he went on to stack days at the expense of his team’s defensive unit.
Hurst is on his way to becoming a dynamic player after putting together sensational performances against the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams, the latter of which he also abused in joint practices held Aug. 6-8 in Owings Mills. His blocking skills have also improved exponentially since joining the Ravens, according to offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.
There are many ex-basketball players that make a living as efficient and star-level NFL players, including Julius Peppers and Tony Gonzalez. Hurst, though, has the unique perspective of a former baseball player trying to carve out his own path in today’s NFL. He joins an elite company of former baseball players that hoped to do the same, most notably Bo Jackson and Deion “Primetime” Sanders.
“Baseball is more of a mental grind” Hurst says. “There’s some of that in football but it’s more physical, you gotta come out in the heat and grind it out in training camp every single day … it’s a beast”.
As the regular season inches closer, Hurst has been able to focus on the sport that he loves and carve out a long, successful career. He is confident that his success in training camp and the preseason games can translate into the regular-season opener against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 9.
“The more that I understand the playbook, the faster I’m going to be able to play and cut it loose,” Hurst told me. “Me and Joe [Flacco] were talking about it and the reason that the game speeds up is because the playbook becomes so much more complex, once you have a grasp, it’s just football at the end of the day, so I’m just going to cut it loose.”
The passion and maturity that Hurst brings to the Ravens is something that, in itself, has the potential to end a three-year playoff drought. His love for the game is contagious. Players like Hurst are good for the NFL, and hopefully, the game will be just as good to him.
Many folks, as well as myself, are certainly glad Hayden ended up in Baltimore, and on Sept. 30, he will be making his triumphant return to Pittsburgh … this time as a professional football player.
