Sakmann News, Entertainment and Sports
SNES Blog Network
Over the past twenty years or so, the NFL has evolved more and more in to a passing league, with championship teams driven by dominant star quarterbacks. While there are […]
Over the past twenty years or so, the NFL has evolved more and more in to a passing league, with championship teams driven by dominant star quarterbacks. While there are certainly some exceptions to the rule, almost every team to achieve sustained success since the turn of the century has done so through the power of the quarterback position.
Even more so in the past decade, talented young passers have been able to get drafted out of college and in to the NFL, achieving near immediate success at times. Gone are the days where quarterbacks took two or three years of clipboard holding before getting a crack at the starting job: these guys are getting Week 1 starting gigs just months after finishing their last college classes.
And yet, the hierarchy of the quarterback position seems more fluid in 2023 than it has on average over the last decade. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers dominated positional ranking lists for most of their careers, with Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, and Joe Flacco also occupying the list at times. Cracking the Top 5 or even Top 10 as a newbie was pretty hard to accomplish.
But today, almost every single one of those legendary passers is either retired, a free agent, or buried on a depth chart: save for Aaron Rodgers, who will enter presumably the last stage of his career as a member of the New York Jets.
The result is a Top 10 list that feels incomplete. That’s not to say these players aren’t incredible, as the league has more talented passers than ever before. But with some of the all-time greats hanging up their cleats, some quarterbacks make this year’s Top 10 list with some baggage that may have precluded them from making the cut in previous years.
I’ll be ranking the Top 10 Quarterbacks in the NFL Heading In To the 2023-24 Season. Under the same rough rubric as last year, I’ll generally be taking a look at:
If you like this list and want to see more content like this, or if you want to debate any of these rankings, be sure to connect with Sak Sports Blog on Twitter or on Facebook.
Top 10 Quarterbacks, Top 10 Running Backs, Top 10 Wide Receivers
Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers [Last Year: 3]: Retired
Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals [Last Year: 10]: Regress in play, injury
Russell Wilson, Denver Broncos [Last Year; 5]: STEEP regress in play
Derek Carr, New Orleans Saints [Last Year: Honorable Mention]: I see Derek Carr as a perennial honorable mention, a borderline Top 10 guy at it’s finest. For that reason, I find it a little odd the Las Vegas Raiders gave up on Carr after one slightly down year, but but after nine seasons together and no sustained success, I guess I can see why it was time for a change. Still, Carr had back-to-back 4,000+ passing yard, 23+ passing touchdown seasons in 2020 and 2021 prior to a subpar, 3,522 yard, 24 touchdown, 14 interception season in 2022 which led to a 6-9 record. With a fresh coat of scenery in New Orleans, Carr may abbe able to get back on #15-#11 track track in 2023, and maybe even crack the Top 10 on next year’s list with an incredible season.
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams [Last Year: 9]: After just cracking the Top 10 last season, Matthew Stafford takes a step back after an injury-riddled and disappointing season for the Los Angeles Rams in their Super Bowl defense 2022-23 season. In 9 starts, Stafford threw for 2,087 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions, with a high 2.6% interception rate ad a low 6.9 yards per attempt. With over 10,000 passing yards in the last three seasons, Stafford remains one of the NFL’s most capable quarterbacks, but heading in to the 2023-24 season, he’s imply not that hot
Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks [Last Year: Unranked]: Geno Smith had an incredible renaissance season as a full-time starter for the first time since 2014, earning AP Comeback Player of the Year honors following a 9-8 campaign for the Seattle Seahawks. Smith led the NFL with a 69.8% completion percentage, throwing for 4,282 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions on 572 attempts. Smith was certainly a Top 10 performer last season, but I just have to see more out of the veteran quarterback after eight seasons of either bad play or back-up obscurity.
In a perfect world, soon-to-be 35-year-old Kirk Cousins wouldn’t be considered a Top 10 NFL quarterback. But with extreme consistency: 3,600+ passing yards and 25+ passing touchdowns in each of the last eight seasons, Cosuins has at least earned himself a part in the conversation.
In 2022-23, Cousins and the Vikings went 13-4, with Cousins passing for 4,547 yards (4th in the NFL) and 29 passing touchdowns (5th in the NFL.) Like it or not, Cousins is putting up top level passing numbers.
The caveat is Cousins’ decision-making, with 14 interceptions that just seem to come at the worst of times. To be fair, Cosuins has cut down on his interception percetage signifcantly i the second half of his caeer (2.6% in Washington vs. 1.8% in Minnesota.)
Cousins’ 14 interceptions limit the Minnesota passer to a 92.5 rating, 14th in the NFL. His 7.1 yards per attempt also rank just 15th in the league among qualified passers.
With just two seasons under his belt, one pretty good and one not so good, Trevor Lawrence’s inclusion on this list feels a little preamture. But that’s just a testament to, as has been mentioned before and will be again, the level of quarterbackplay in today’s NFL. There’s five to eight great guys, depending on who you ask, and then a congolmerate of passers you could rank anywhere from 15 to 9.
I’m going with Trevor Lawrence at #9 after a huge leap in production in his second NFL season. This ranking is laregly based on what Lawrence has done, with a slight look and what he could do in the future.
Lawrence passed for 4,113 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions, completing 66.3% of his passes in 2022, leading the Jaguars to a 9-8 record. This was better in literally every way from Lawrence’s 3-14 rookie campaign, where he passed for 3,641 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions on 59.6% passing.
Lawrence’s Year 2 leap was pretty impressive, and if the former Clemson QB can continue improving or even hold his current stat line another year, he’ll likely be on this list for a few more years to come.
Dak Prescott earns his spot on this list less for his 2022-23 performance and more for his body of work for the Dallas Cowboys over the past seven seasons. Prescott will never be Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady, but he’s a consistent passer with a couple 4,000-yard passing seasons under his belt: and a couple more that would have hit and exceeded those marks if not shortened by injury.
Last season, Prescott appeared in 12 games, with the Cowboys going 8-4 in those contests. Prescott threw for 2,860 yards, 23 touchdowns, and a league-leading 15 interceptions in 394 attempts. Not exactly Top 10 QB numbers, but att the same time, Dallas sill won two out of every three games with Prescott at the heelm.
Looking back to last season, Prescott passed for 4,449 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions: essentially a career-year in most categories besides passing yards. Prescott has passed for 22+ touchdowns in all six seasons that he’s appeared in 12 games or more, and hasn’t been held below 65.1% completion percentage since 2017.
Prescott is admittedly a kind of “boring” inclusion on this list, but between quarterbacks retiring and young guns and veterans alike both regressing last season, Prescott’s consistency for the Cowboys shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Lamar Jackson is a curious case, and the 2022-23 season didn’t exactly help solve the puzzle. Jackson did essentially what he usually does: win games when he’s on the field, alternate between pedestrian and eye-popping passing numbers, and then ultimately, end the season on IR.
To be fair, Jackson has appeared in 12 games in each of the last two seasons, but it’s the season-ending, nagging injuries that seem to have followed Jackson. Jackson’s 15-9 regular season record over the last two years essentially goes to waste when the star quarterback isn’t around come playoff time.
But when he’s on the field, as he is roughly 75% of the time for the Baltimore Ravens over the past two seasons, Jackson is a special player and dual-threat quarterback. In 2022, Jackson passed for 2,242 yards, 17 touchdowns, and seven interceptions on 326 attempts. On the ground, Jackson carried the ball 112 times for 764 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 6.8 yards per carry and 63.7 yards per game on the ground. In addition to cutting down interceptions year-over-year (13 down to 7,) Jackson posted a career-low in fumbles (5.)
While Jackson still lacks the explosive downfield passing consistency of some of his peers, that could change in 2023 with new weapons including Odell Beckham Jr. Jackson’s play can be polarizing at times, but ultimately, he is one of the best quarterback in the game, and there are few players more talented available at the position.
After not being ranked on last year’s list, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts burst on to the scène at #6 with a hyper-successful and efficient season that very nearly culminated in a Super Bowl 57 victory.
As a pure passer, Hurts doesn’t always jump off the page. His 460 attempts in 15 games ranked 16th in the NFL, and even with the extra two games he wouldn’t have cracked the Top 10 in pass attempts. Hurts did rank 10th in passing yards, with 3,701, but just 14th in passing touchdowns, with 22.
But Hurts did finish 4th in passer rating (101.6) and 4th in QBR (66.4) which is really where the story begins: Hurts is a multi-faceted tool at the quarterback position. The 2023 NFL MVP runner-up uses a traditional passing game when needed, a short game when needed, and a multi-layered run game when needed.
Hurts carried the ball 165 times for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2022, famously punching in scores and earning first downs with Hurts pushing the ball the final inches himself.
The 2020 second round pick out of Oklahoma likely won’t break passing records (unless they’re for efficiency: Hurts already had a pretty low 1.3% interception rate in 2022) but he does the thing this list values most: puts his team in a position to win. Hurts was 14-1 in his 15 regular season starts, and 2-1 in the playoffs, but the heartbreaking, last-second Super Bowl 57 loss can hardly be placed n Hurts’ shoulders. He did everything in his power to put the Eagles in position to win in the final moments of the game.
This is one of the instances when the departure of long-time greats like Tom Brady create holes in this list. Is Justin Herbert a great quarterback who puts the Los Angeles Chargers in position to win as many games as possible? Of course. But there are knocks on Herbert’s game and resume that normally keep the Chargers quarterback just out of the Top Five conversation.
We can start with the good though: Herbert puts up monster numbers in the passing game for the Chargers. Over 17 starts in 2022-23, Hebrert threw for 4,739 yards (2nd in the league,) 25 touchdowns (8th in the league), and completed 68.2% of his passes (3rd in the league among qualified passers.) If you’re looking for high repetition aerial efficiency, Herbert is your guy: his 699 pass attempts and 477 completions were both second in the league behind Tom Brady.
But flipping the same stat: 699 pass attempts and only 8th in the league in passing touchdowns? And while 4,739 yards(again, 2nd in the league) sounds great, Herbert somehow finished 27th in the league in yards per attempt, behind Zach Wilson, Mitch Trubisky, and Mac Jones. Sure, some of it is a productive of the Chargers utilizing their roster: getting quick passes out to running backs like Austin Ekeler for instance. But at the same time, it shows that the flashy numbers can be inflated and lacking inother key categories.
Herbert did cut down on interceptions signifcianltyy year-over-year, throwing just 10 in 699 attempts, down from 15 in 672 attempts the previous season.
The biggest place Herbert’s critics would like to see him improve on is in the win column. The Chargers did earn one more win in 2022 than they did in 2021, going 10-7 and earning their first trip to the playoffs in the Herbert era. Los Angeles promptly blew a 27-point in the opening round to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But this list attempts to separate the quarterback from the team: I honestly think many of the Chargers’ shortcomings, especially in the win column, are not on Herbert. Hebert is an accurate and talented passer, and put in a hypothetical system with a defense and coaching staff that can hold on to 27-point leads, and I think Herbert would be seen as even more successful.
In retrospect, listing Joe Burrow as just an honorable mention last season may have not been giving the 2020 1st overall pick the respect he deserved at the time, but I simply wanted to see more after just a season-and-a-half of play from the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback. Last season, Burrow proved his aerial success in 2021-22 was no fluke, establishing himself as one of the best passers in the game and earning fourth place in 2022-23 NFL MVP voting.
Burrow finished 2nd in the league in passing touchdowns (35,) 5th in the league in passing yards (4,475) and 2nd in completion percentage (68.3%.) Burrow and the Bengals tore up opposing defenses en route to 12-4 regular season record with Burrow under center, and Cincinnati went 2-1 in the playoffs, nearly reaching a second straight Super Bowl before falling to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
While not nearly as known for his legs as some of other players on this list, Burrow got much more involved on the ground in 2022, nearly doubling his carries from the previous season. Burrow recorded 75 rushes for 257 yards and five touchdowns, as well as 28 first downs. Burrow shoecases the neccesary mobility to succeed at the quarterback position in 2023, and then some.
With one of the most accurate arms in the game, and an extremely talented wide receive crops, the 26-year-old Bengals quarterback is already a Top Five quarterback: can he climb even higher in the future?
Top Five quarterbacks changing franchises doesn’t happen very often, but Aaron Rodgers is following in the footsteps of some NFL greats that came before him: Brett Favre, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning come to mind, in the tradition of leaving a very long-term stay with one team to try something different in the twilight of their career.
After 18 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, three as an understudy to Favre himself and 15 as a starter, resulting in one Super Bowl title, Rodgers forced the next step in his career: a move to the New York Jets.
I ranked Rodgers #2 last season and he falls back just a spot this year, but he’s definitely trending backwards in the big picture as well. After three straight 13-3 seasons, back-to-back NFL MVP Awards, and four straight seasons with the lowest interception percentage among qualified passers, Rodgers looked surprisingly human in 2022. Some of this can probably be chalked up to a less than stellar Packers roster, but it’s fair to question if the 39-year-old is losing a step.
Still, looking at the larger body of the last three or four seasons, Rodgers would still rank near the top in most passing categories even with a so-so 2022 campaign averaged in. At his best, Rodgers picks apart defenses and takes care of the football at unprecedented rates. In last season’s struggle, Rodgers tossed 12 interceptions: more than the previous two seasons combined.
How Rodgers’ New York Jets career will play out remains to be seen, but at this point in time, there are simply few quarterbacks better equipped to jump in to a new organization and succeed. Some teams have a quarterback, and some quarterbacks have a team: Rodgers is going to New York to prove he’s in the latter category, even as he passes the once-dreaded 40-year age barrier this season.
On last season’s Top 10 Quarterbacks List, I listed Josh Allen and the top spot, gushing over his dual-threat capabilities and physical prowess as both a passer and a runner. I still hold many if not all of the same regards, but Allen does slide to #2 in this year’s rankings: partly due to the spectacular play of the one guy ahead of him and also partly in reference to what could be a plateau in play for the former seventh overall pick out of Wyoming.
Allen finished 7th in the league in passing yards (4,283) and 2nd in passing touchdowns (35), showcasing his place as one of the league’s best passers. But again, Allen sets himself apart from most quarterbacks due to his true dual-threat ability: Allen isn’t just a quarterback who can scramble for a few yards here and there, he’s a designed piece in the Buffalo Bills’ dominant run game.
Allen carried the ball a career-high 124 times this season: over 16 starts: 7.8 times per game. Allen gained 6.1 yards per carry, totaling 762 yards on the ground and finding the end zone seven times. This brings Allen’s total offensive contribution to 5,045 yards and 42 touchdowns.
The knocks on Allen include his accuracy (which held at 63.3% year-to-year) and tendency to throw interceptions (14 this season after 15 the previous season). Additionally, Allen’s body will eventually become a concern if he routinely takes more hits in the open field than the average quarterback. And while the Buffalo Bills have enjoyed sustained regular season success and playoff appearances under Allen: they have yet to break through to the Super Bowl, which some may consider a knock, but being in position to make a deep playoff run every year is also an enviable position. Finally, Allen’s production is plateauing somewhat: passing yards have decreased for three straight seasons, as have passing touchdowns (albeit one less passing touchdown per season.)
Nevertheless, Allen is one of the most electric players in the league, and in a schoolyard-style draft, he’s going in the Top 2 every time for the total package of what he brings to the table.
After, by his own incredible standards, a down year in the 2021-22 season, I ranked Patrick Mahomes as the 4th-best quarterback in the NFL heading in to last season. At the time it felt a little weird to write that not one, not two, but three quarterbacks were better options at the position, but given Mahomes’ recent play as well as the play of the three guys just marginally ahead of him, it felt somewhat justified.
But after an outstanding 2022-23 campaign that saw the sixth-year passer lead the league in passing yards (5,250) and passing touchdowns (41), earn his second career NFL MVP Award, and lead the Kansas City Chiefs to their second Super Bowl title in four seasons, it’s fair to say Patrick Mahomes is the undisputed best quarterback in the NFL.
Mahomes improved across the board from his 2021-22 stat line, completing a higher percentage of his passes (67.1% up from 66.3%), throwing for 411 more yards on one less completion, throwing four more touchdowns, one less interception, and improving his passer rating from 98.5 to 105.2, back on par with his career average.
In short, Mahomes is an efficient machine at the quarterback position, cutting down on unnecessary errors to maximize his team’s potential on each and every snap. The Chiefs went 14-3 during the regular season with Mahomes starting all 17 games, and including a 3-0 run in the playoffs climaxing in a thrilling Super Bowl 57 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City finished an elite 17-3 over the entire season.
Perhaps greater than his incredible arm, accuracy, or ability to keep plays alive, is Mahomes knack to simply find a way to win. Mahomes was 17-3 as a starter this season: winning 85% of his starts. Over his career, Mahomes is 64-16 in the regular season, winning an outrageous 80% of his 80 NFL games. In the playoffs, Mahomes is just as good, with an 11-3 mark, winning 79% of these starts, resulting in three Super Bowl appearances and two titles in five seasons as a starter.
Mahomes is on top of the game, and at just 27 years old, the Chiefs star quarterback has plenty of time to do additional damage to the NFL record books. Mahomes will be outplaying his contemporaries and chasing the ghosts of Hall of Fame greats for years to come.
Header Photo Credits (L-R): The Enquirer-USA TODAY Sports, Joshua Bessex/AP, Cooper Neill/Getty Images, Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Be sure to follow Sak Sports Blog on Twitter or on Facebook for more NBA and NFL updates!
Sakmann News, Entertainment and Sports 