Trey Lance, Jared Goff, Justin Fields and Zach Wilson were some of the recognizable names in Part 1 of my rankings, and I was even able to get rookies like Malik Willis and Kenny Pickett on there!
So yeah, that was all fun and games... but now it's time for the Big Boys. The top 25. "Only for the big dogs," as I believe Dr. Dre said in Training Day.
Intros are boring. Let's get to the goods...
25. Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville: How much can we really judge from last season? I mean, can you fathom starting a rookie quarterback out with... Urban Meyer?? What a joke. Still boggles my mind to this day. On the bright side, I still liked what I saw from Lawrence's mechanics and disposition. I wouldn't quite call Doug Pederson a "franchise savior," but he did work particularly well with Nick Foles. Lawrence will have a much better experience with Pederson. Plus, Christian Kirk and Evan Engram bring some added athleticism and possible upside. New toys should help Lawrence, as well as promising draft additions.
24. Taylor Heinicke, Washington: Tough break for Taylor, with the addition of Carson Wentz... or is it? I dunno, I feel like Heinicke could potentially outwork Wentz, over time. At the very tip top of his game, Wentz was once an MVP candidate for a brief moment, but he's been livin' off the land since then. There might be more substance to Heinicke's game than Wentz's, going forward. Obviously Carson will get the job out the gate, but keep your eye on Heinicke because of his moxie and never-back-down attitude. As a teammate, I think Heinicke would instill more confidence in me. Wentz makes me worry, no doubt.
23. Mitchell Trubisky, Pittsburgh: ... The most underrated quarterback in the game, here? Is it possible?
Let's take a look at the facts, here... Mitch Trubisky was a Pro Bowler in 2018. Did you know that? Do you remember that? There was a preseason where he was one of the most popular "future" bets for league MVP. He's led his team to the playoffs... twice. In those two playoff games, he has zero total interceptions. In the playoffs, he basically averaged 250 yards per game and a touchdown on 63% passing. Again, no picks. So how bad could this guy possibly be?
He's still just 27 years of age. Certainly worth the gamble for the Steelers, post-Big Ben Era. Maybe Matt Nagy was simply the problem in Chicago? Maybe it was former GM Ryan Pace, simply not finding the proper complementary pieces? Well, on the bright side, no such problem exists in Pittsburgh when you have Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool at the wide receiver position. Najee Harris is obviously an all-around weapon you love to have by your side, and TE Pat Freiermuth showed some good things. Perhaps most importantly, Trubisky gets stability at the top with veteran Mike Tomlin steering the ship. We know who The Boss is in Pittsburgh. Mitch could really benefit from stability of leadership, for once.
22. Baker Mayfield, Cleveland: Look, at this point, we all know he played hurt last season. Still... how much of a pass do we really want to give him? I think he's a decent leader in the huddle - can get you believing in yourself out there - but he's small and his overall skillset remains limited at the game's top level.
You remember "The Group" from Volume 1 of my rankings? Well, Baker is in there. He might be near the very top of that list, but who cares? The nature of "The Group" is... you aren't getting anywhere long term with these guys. We know exactly who they are, and what their limitations are. By default, they should always be circling around on the league's Quarterback Carousel.
21. Tua Tagovailoa, Miami: How much do you upgrade a quarterback for the additions made around him? Always a tough question without a definitive answer.
Welcome aboard Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead, Chase Edmonds, Raheem Mostert and Cedrick Wilson. Miami's front office is making things very clear at this point: Tua, if you can't win with THIS group, we're moving on next season. And can we blame them, really? Like Baker before him on my list, Tua is also a member of the dubious "Group". Granted, I posted that on Twitter before some of these monster additions by the 'Phins. Still, you get the idea - he's yet another limited quarterback on this list. Management did exactly what it needed to do - the way to improve Tua's production is to greatly enhance the talent around him. He's not going to singlehandedly elevate your team; he's more like another spoke on the wheel.
20. Carson Wentz, Washington: Already discussed him a bit and, well, it wasn't pretty. I'm definitely not a "Carson Wentz Guy" at this point in his enigmatic pro career. Talking directly to Washington here, this quarterback move simply didn't move the needle for me. Playoff chances on the line vs. the lowly Jaguars and Wentz throws for 185 yards with 1 pick and just 1 TD. He also lost a fumble on the way to a putrid 74.6 QB rating in the most important game of the season for his team. And I think that's basically a microcosm of who Wentz is at this stage in his career. Sure, you can probably go 9-8 or 8-9 with him. You'll "hang around". But is that really what you want from your NFL starting QB? Of course not. That's how you end up ranked somewhere between No. 18 and 22.
19. Mac Jones, New England: Who will he be without Josh McDaniels? Naturally, that's the first question that pops into my mind. Jones was fantastic as a rookie - especially considering his draft slot in relativity to Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and even Justin Fields - but I think McDaniels was one of the best OCs in the game, especially when paired with Bill Belichick in the grand scheme. Now the OC reins are left to... wait, what? No one knows who the Patriots' Offensive Coordinator is at this particular point in time? What the hell is going on in New England? Belichick is starting to feel like that King who scares away everybody in his Court. He's been controlling everything for so long that many around him simply needed a change. Coaches Mick Lombardi and Bo Hardegree left for Las Vegas, too.
On the bright side, the Pats picked up WR DeVante Parker over the weekend. Still, I don't like the situation for Mac Jones with both McDaniels and Lombardi gone. I don't give a shit about how Dave Portnoy ranks Jones either, haha.
18. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia: Tricky, tricky, tricky. Two sides to every coin, indeed. I mean, how do you want to view Hurts? As the kid who led Philly to the playoffs as a true surprise team? Or the kid who very nearly lost his starting gig to Gardner Minshew? I'll take Door #1 for now, as Hurts led all quarterbacks in rushing in 2021 with 784 yards and a whopping 10 touchdowns. If you wanna throw he's not a pure pocket passer at me, I don't really care because the game is always evolving. The league is always evolving. If he gets the yards and touchdowns, do I really care how he gets them? In the short term, the answer is definitely no. Long term? Okay, we'd want Hurts to improve on his 48.5 Total QBR (behind the likes of Tua, Mac Jones and Wentz), but he's also still just 23 years of age. I'd like to keep it simple with: kid has dynamic athleticism and led a shaky team to the postseason at a very young age.
17. Matt Ryan, Indianapolis: Philip Rivers 2.0, as I noted on Twitter. "Matty Ice" just is who he is at this stage of his long career - a solid leader whose physical skills have slowly deteriorated. Still, the knowledge he has at the line of scrimmage is worth a ton. He'll be good enough for Indy, working together with Frank Reich who knows the QB position rather well. Ryan doesn't quite have Rivers' guts, but he'll protect possessions better than Phil did throughout his career. You don't have to cringe, worrying about the "gunslinger" mindset at exactly the wrong moments when it comes to Matt Ryan. Like Billy Beane says to David Justice in Moneyball, "We're lookin' to milk the last ounce of good ball you got left in ya." Or something like that. That's Indy with Matty Ice.
16. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota: You ever just get tired of talking about a guy? Kirk Cousins is 7th in the history of the NFL in standard QB rating. Like, whaaaaat? Yeah, yeah... but what's the bottom line? Guy is a solid quarterback who simply doesn't put you over the top. You're never winning a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins unless 100 different important pieces fall perfectly into place on your (extremely) unlikely run to a title. Solid, not spectacular. End of story.
15. Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee: Two distinct factions are developing on Tannehill: (1) Tennessee needs to move on! and (2) Since joining Tennessee, Tannehill is one of the highest rated quarterbacks in the league. I'm in group #2 because I'm always the first one to say, "It's almost impossible to find a good QB in the NFL!" The stats are there. The strong winning percentage is there. Obviously, something is working with Mike Vrabel/Derrick Henry, etc. Be careful what you wish for, Titan fans. Things might be a lot better than you realize.
14. Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco: Almost the same situation as Tannehill. Obviously, the one glaring difference is that Jimmy G has Trey Lance nipping - nay, biting - at his heels. But the idea is the same: Lot of Titans fans remain furious at Tannehill's late-game playoff performance against the eventual conference champion Bengals. The same could be said about Jimmy G down the stretch vs. Aaron Donald's hungry D. But Deebo Samuel - one of the absolute best football players in the universe - refers to Garoppolo as a "pure winner". That's the kinda confidence he instills in his teammates.
And like, we haven't made it to the standalone stars, yet. We're still in sort of a middling group, here. With that in mind, don't you want the guy who makes his teammates believe? Here's a guy who made a Super Bowl in one year, knocked off the No. 1 seed in another. Probably good enough for No. 14, right there.
13. Deshaun Watson, Cleveland: My initial iteration of this list had Deshaun in the No. 10 overall position, but the controversy simply wasn't as bad at that particular point in time. Now, it's looking pretty damn damning. How is any of this going to work out for the Browns and their faithful, in the end? What if this was all for naught? Baker Mayfield it is then... right?
12. Derek Carr, Las Vegas: The Raiders are lookin' to rival the Dolphins, in terms of offseason moves. Derek Carr was already a very good, solid pro quarterback. Now you give him Davante Adams, when you already have Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow and Josh Jacobs in your offense? And you give him the aforementioned, offensive-minded Josh McDaniels at the helm? All of the pieces are lining up for Carr, here. This could be a Matt Stafford kinda situation. We could see DC in my top 10, rather quickly.
11. Kyler Murray, Arizona: I LOVE having him on my fantasy teams, but... that playoff performance was awfully alarming, right? Just 55% on completions? Only 137 yards through the air? Only 6 net rushing yards? 2 picks and ZERO touchdowns? Scary stuff, indeed. On the bright side, Kyler is still just 24 years of age. He could easily turn things around in just a single postseason run. For now, given the quality of the gunslingers in my top 11, we'll have to see it before we believe it with Kyler.
Tune in next time for The Big Finish... my top 10!
John Frascella is a published sports author and Senior Writer for Aaron Torres Online. Follow him on Twitter @LegendSports7 for original sports content.
No comments:
Post a Comment