The Quar­ter­back Whis­perer

Who are the Best 32 Quar­ter­backs Avail­able in the NFL Right Now?

In a league where mas­sive con­tracts are thrown at Quar­ter­backs, the rank­ings among quar­ter­backs be­gin to get skewed. If con­tracts were not con­sid­ered, who would be the top 32 quar­ter­backs avail­able? This ar­ti­cle is based on the per­for­mances of the 2019-2020 Sea­son, through week 11.

32. Gard­ner Min­shew

Gard­ner Min­shew is a quar­ter­back that not many peo­ple can place. In the games that Min­shew started this sea­son, Min­shew went 4-4 with a 92.8 Passer Rat­ing. Though Min­shew had a .500 record, he showed star po­ten­tial in his nine games played through week 11, as well as a few too many Rookie Mis­takes. I think that Min­shew showed po­ten­tial to be a Start­ing quar­ter­back in the NFL, and that is why he cracked into my top 32.

31. Mitchell Tru­bisky

Mitchell Tru­bisky went 11-3 in 2018 and showed the signs that he sig­nif­i­cantly im­proved from his 2017 sea­son, but in 2019, Tru­bisky has seemed to re­gressed. Tru­bisky will al­ways be viewed as a bust, be­ing drafted ahead of both Patrick Ma­homes and De­shaun Wat­son. Tru­bisky is hin­dered by his en­vi­ron­ment due to be­ing in Chicago and hav­ing Matt Nagy’s Of­fense tak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step back­ward. Tru­bisky has shown flashes of ath­leti­cism and abil­ity to make plays off of the play-ac­tion. How­ever, the play-call­ing has slowed down his growth, pre­sent­ing doubts that he is a fran­chise quar­ter­back.

30. Mar­cus Mar­i­ota

Mar­cus Mar­i­ota en­tered the NFL com­ing off of a his­toric col­le­giate ca­reer. Since then, Mar­i­ota has not shown much growth, even be­ing benched for Ryan Tan­nehill in the 2019 Sea­son. I do not think that Mar­i­o­ta’s ca­reer is over, but his time with the Ti­tans is com­ing to an end. Mar­i­ota is in des­per­ate need of a new sit­u­a­tion, as he has been the sta­tus-quo of the NFL.

29. Andy Dal­ton

Speak­ing of the sta­tus quo – Andy Dal­ton has been the base­line of the NFL whether your team needs to bring in a new quar­ter­back or not, as his ca­reer in Cincin­nati has been sub­par at best. Dal­ton was benched this sea­son fol­low­ing an 0-8 start.

28. Daniel Jones 

Daniel Jones came into the league with a lot of pres­sure, due to every­one pen­cil­ing him in as a bust be­fore he could even leave his draft party. Al­though Jones has sur­passed most peo­ple’s ex­pec­ta­tions, Jones still has a long way to go if he wants to be the fran­chise quar­ter­back of the New York Gi­ants. He turns the ball over too much but has shown flashes, in­clud­ing a game-win­ning drive against the Buc­ca­neers. 

27. Sam Darnold

Sam Darnold con­tin­ues the trend of young quar­ter­backs at­tempt­ing to make a name for them­selves. Darnold, now in his sec­ond sea­son, has been in­con­sis­tent. With a record of 3-4, Darnold has looked great in his wins, and poor in his losses. Un­der the mi­cro­scope that is New York me­dia, Darnold has to find more con­sis­tent pro­duc­tion if he wants to be the face of the New York Jets.

26. Ryan Tan­nehill

Since Re­plac­ing Mar­cus Mar­i­ota, Ryan Tan­nehill has been im­pres­sive. Tan­nehill has been win­ning but has not been game-break­ing. Tan­nehill kicks off the next tier of quar­ter­backs, and if his play can con­tinue through­out the rest of the sea­son, he will earn a start­ing quar­ter­back op­por­tu­nity some­where.

25. Teddy Bridge­wa­ter

Fol­low­ing an in­jury to Drew Brees, Teddy Bridge­wa­ter was called on to keep New Or­leans’ play­off hopes alive. Al­though the Saints might have the best ros­ter in the NFL, Teddy came in and went 5-0. Bridge­wa­ter showed flashes of why he was a first-round se­lec­tion year back, but fol­low­ing his grue­some knee in­jury, many viewed the ca­reer of Bridge­wa­ter to be over. He is one of the quar­ter­backs whom all foot­ball fans hoped would per­form well due to his in­jury tak­ing his prime sea­sons away from him. Then, of course, he out­per­formed any­one’s ex­pec­ta­tions.

24. Jameis Win­ston

Com­ing out of the same draft class as Mar­i­ota, there were de­bates about which Heis­man win­ner would be more suc­cess­ful in the NFL. Win­ston was se­lected over Mar­i­ota, and as of Week 11 of 2019, it seems that was the cor­rect pick. Al­though Win­ston is bet­ter than Mar­i­ota, he still finds him in the bot­tom third of NFL Start­ing Quar­ter­backs. Win­ston shows flashes of be­ing a top 15 quar­ter­back, but as you are ready to move him up from this place­ment, he throws a back foot in­ter­cep­tion on first down. Un­til Win­ston can cut out those mi­nor mis­takes, he will re­side at quar­ter­back num­ber 24.

23. Phillip Rivers

Com­ing into the sea­son, Phillip Rivers would have eas­ily been a Top 15 quar­ter­back. Rivers was once viewed as an age­less won­der, but it seems that Rivers is fi­nally show­ing his age. The 37 year old Gun Slinger still can read a de­fense and keep his team close, but he now lacks the arm strength to make the big time clutch throws that he has made a liv­ing out of through­out the past 15 sea­sons.

22. Jared Goff

Com­ing off of a Su­per Bowl loss, Jared Goff and the Rams have strug­gled with con­sis­tency through­out the 2019 Sea­son. Goff just re­ceived a mas­sive con­tract but is still play­ing like a quar­ter­back on his Rookie Deal. Goff has shown flashes of be­ing a great quar­ter­back, but flashes do not mean any­thing when you have the in­con­sis­ten­cies that the Rams have been hav­ing de­spite their top tier ros­ter.

21. Nick Foles

Nick Foles is a for­mer Su­per Bowl MVP, has had mul­ti­ple play­off runs, but since sign­ing his new con­tract with the Jaguars, Foles has only played just over four quar­ters due to his bro­ken col­lar­bone in week one. It is too early to jump the gun, but Foles has not played much bet­ter than his backup Gard­ner Min­shew. That be­ing said, Foles was paid like a top 10 quar­ter­back in the off­sea­son, mak­ing it hard to write him off af­ter five quar­ters.

20. Cam New­ton

Cam New­ton has been struck with the in­jury bug over the past cou­ple of sea­sons. The for­mer MVP has been in­con­sis­tent over the past three sea­sons due to in­juries to his shoul­der, back and foot in­clud­ing two surg­eries to his throw­ing shoul­der. When New­ton is 100% healthy, there has­n’t been a player in NFL His­tory that can do what he can do. If he can get healthy, he will be a top 10 quar­ter­back in the NFL. How­ever, I would­n’t be sur­prised if the Pan­thers move on from New­ton in the off­sea­son. 

19. Josh Allen

With maybe the strongest arm in the NFL, Josh Allen has the up­side to be the next Cam New­ton. Allen has shown the abil­ity to run the ball at an ef­fi­cient rate, as well as de­liver one of the best deep balls in the en­tire league. Allen is one of the few quar­ter­backs that have un­tapped po­ten­tial, due to his strong arm and run­ning abil­ity. He has all the in­tan­gi­bles that you look for in a quar­ter­back, and if he can fig­ure out the lit­tle things, he will be a fix­ture in the NFL for years to come.

18. Baker May­field

Com­ing off of a near-elite rookie sea­son, Baker May­field has come back down to earth. May­field’s “sopho­more slump” has hit harder than any­one’s. May­field went from the dar­ling of the NFL to peo­ple ques­tion­ing him as a fran­chise quar­ter­back. I am a be­liever in May­field; all he needs is a solid play-caller and im­prove­ments on the of­fen­sive line. As of right now, May­field is ranked as the 18th best quar­ter­back in the NFL in my eyes, but has a lot of growth ahead of him once Freddy Kitchens is fired as the Cleve­land Head Coach.

17. Ben Roeth­lis­berger

Ben Roeth­lis­berger is a three-time Su­per Bowl Cham­pion and has had the same longevity as Phillip Rivers. Al­though Roeth­lis­berger is out this sea­son with an el­bow in­jury, if he does­n’t hang up the cleats, I be­lieve in his abil­ity to bounce back bet­ter than some­one like Rivers. I think that due to the post­sea­son suc­cess that Roth­les­berger has shown, he still de­serves to be a top 20 quar­ter­back. It will be a strange sight to see when Roth­les­berger calls it quits on his ca­reer. 

16. Kirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins has taken the reigns as the pre­mier game man­ager. He makes a liv­ing off of hav­ing a good de­fense and run­ning game, al­low­ing him to con­trol the clock. I think that in the­ory, this makes Cousins what I look for in a quar­ter­back, but he lacks the star power that can win your team a foot­ball game.

15. Ja­coby Bris­sett

In a sim­i­lar man­ner to Kirk Cousins, Bris­sett is a bonafide game man­ager that gets the edge over Cousins due to the cir­cum­stances that he is thriv­ing in. Bris­sett be­came the start­ing quar­ter­back of the Colts days be­fore the sea­son be­gan due to their elite quar­ter­back re­tir­ing out of nowhere. An­drew Luck left the Colts in a sit­u­a­tion that re­sulted in ask­ing backup Quar­ter­back Bris­sett to takeover this dark horse Su­per Bowl Con­tend­ing Ros­ter, and the Colts have hardly missed a beat. I would trust Bris­sett in a two-minute sit­u­a­tion over Cousins, giv­ing him the edge to crack into my Top 15.

14. Derek Carr

Derek Carr has had an up and down ca­reer. In 2016, Carr was my fa­vorite to win the MVP award be­fore suf­fer­ing a bro­ken leg that cut his sea­son short. Since then, Carr ap­peared to strug­gle with in­juries un­til Coach John Gru­den re­vi­tal­ized Car­r’s ca­reer. Gru­den has sparked Carr, mak­ing him look like he is worth his mas­sive con­tract. This spark has jumped Carr to my 14th best quar­ter­back.

13. Matt Ryan

Matt Ryan is a for­mer MVP and was a play away from clinch­ing a Su­per Bowl Vic­tory in the same sea­son. Since then, Ryan and the Fal­cons have been in a “Su­per Bowl hang­over” and Ryan has fallen out of the Top 10. Matt Ryan had a very shaky start to the 2019 Sea­son, but since their bye week, Ryan has bounced back and the Fal­cons are be­gin­ning to look like the Fal­cons of old.

12. Matt Stafford

Through­out Matt Stafford’s ca­reer, he has taken on the per­son­al­ity of a Gun Slinger. Stafford has led the league in pass­ing over the past cou­ple of sea­sons and even was the fastest quar­ter­back to 40,000 pass­ing yards in NFL His­tory. Early this sea­son, Stafford cut out the Gun Slinger Ap­proach, round­ing out his foot­ball game and was even in the talks of MVP. This spi­raled when the in­jury bug de­pleted the sec­ondary and the back­field of the Li­ons, caus­ing Stafford to once again carry the team on his back. This leads to an in­jury that has put a halt in Stafford’s sea­son, but his early play was enough to make it to my 12th best quar­ter­back.

11. Dak Prescott

In 2019, Dak Prescott is hav­ing a ca­reer year. With the best sup­port­ing cast in the NFL, Prescott was un­der a mi­cro­scope to see if he is worth top 10 money, and in my opin­ion, he is. He has played like the best quar­ter­back in foot­ball at times this sea­son, but he also has one of the best de­fenses, run­ning backs, wide re­ceivers, and of­fen­sive lines in foot­ball. I think that if you were to take any of the next 10 quar­ter­backs and place them in Dal­las, they would shine just as bright as Dak Prescott.

10. Kyler Mur­ray

Kyler Mur­ray is the high­est rated Rookie on my list, and it is much de­served. Whether it be Kyler him­self or his young of­fen­sive-minded coach, Kyler has taken the Car­di­nals from the worst team in foot­ball to an av­er­age one within a year. Af­ter a tough sea­son with Josh Rosen, the Ari­zona Car­di­nals drafted Kyler Mur­ray with the first over­all se­lec­tion in the 2019 Draft. Mur­ray is one of the best ath­letes in the world, be­ing a suc­cess­ful NFL quar­ter­back, ran a 4.3 40-yard dash, as well as be­ing a top 10 se­lec­tion in the MLB Draft. Mur­ray has un­tapped po­ten­tial with elite arm strength and abil­ity to ex­tend the play, and the for­mer Heis­man is on track to be a fix­ture in the NFL for years to come.

9. Jimmy Garop­polo

In an NFL where the most im­por­tant stat is a win, Garop­polo is the golden child when it comes to tal­ly­ing wins for his team. Drafted by the New Eng­land Pa­tri­ots to be the suc­ces­sor of Tom Brady, Garop­polo shined in his time as a mem­ber of the Pa­tri­ots and con­tin­ued his suc­cess fol­low­ing a trade that sent him to the Bay Area. With a quar­ter­back record of 16-3, Garop­polo con­tin­ues to check all of the boxes for what I look for in a start­ing quar­ter­back. Garop­polo’s only down­side is the in­juries that have held him back in the past. If Garop­polo can re­main healthy, he is my fa­vorite to lead his team to Post­sea­son Suc­cess this Sea­son.

8. Car­son Wentz

Car­son Wentz is an­other quar­ter­back that is only held back due to his his­tory of in­juries. Wentz was a win­ner back in his col­le­giate ca­reer and even trans­lated his suc­cess to the NFL be­fore hav­ing his MVP Sea­son cut short with a Torn ACL. Since the in­jury, Wentz and the Ea­gles have not been able to shake the in­jury bug, mak­ing for some fans, ques­tion if Wentz re­ally is a top 10 quar­ter­back. In my eyes, Wentz is still a top 10 Quar­ter­back and even cracks my top 8. I think that Wentz will bounce back to his for­mer MVP self, and show why he was so suc­cess­ful at North Dakota State. Wentz and the Ea­gles are set to bounce back in the lat­ter part of this sea­son, and all will be on the Shoul­ders of Car­son Wentz.

7. Drew Brees

Drew Brees is the most ac­cu­rate quar­ter­back of all-time. He has had in­di­vid­ual suc­cess along with a Su­per Bowl Vic­tory over his long ca­reer. Brees has proven sea­son af­ter sea­son that he is a top tier quar­ter­back in the NFL. That be­ing said, Brees is 40 years old, and with a thumb in­jury ear­lier this sea­son, it is safe to as­sume that he is near­ing the end of his ca­reer. All in all, the ca­reer of Drew Brees has been amaz­ing, and Brees still comes in as a top 7 quar­ter­back in the NFL.

6. Tom Brady

In a sim­i­lar man­ner to Brees, Tom Brady has had a long and suc­cess­ful ca­reer in the NFL. The dif­fer­ence be­tween Brady and Brees is the dif­fer­ence in post­sea­son suc­cess be­tween the two. Where Brees has won one Su­per Bowl, Brady has won six of them. It is hard to ar­gue that Brady is the great­est quar­ter­back of all-time, but in terms of the Cur­rent NFL, I con­sider Brady just out­side of the top five. Brady has proven that he is a Post­sea­son clutch per­former, but in the reg­u­lar sea­son, Brady has been out-du­eled by Lamar Jack­son and has shown that his lack of mo­bil­ity can hurt the Pa­tri­ots against the best of pass rushes. 

5. Lamar Jack­son

Lamar Jack­son is the hard­est quar­ter­back to place out of the 32, but it is hard to ar­gue that Jack­son is not in the top five. Jack­son is rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing the quar­ter­back po­si­tion and is the best run­ner in the NFL at any po­si­tion. I think that Jack­son is the front-run­ner for the MVP this sea­son, but in terms of where he ranks in the list of quar­ter­backs, I think he lacks enough to have the next four guys ahead of him. Jack­son has won in both col­lege and the pros, but in tight pass­ing win­dows, Jack­son has not proved to be elite. I think that if I were to pick a quar­ter­back to be the best in the NFL in two sea­sons, it would be hard to deny Jack­son con­sid­er­ing the im­prove­ment from last sea­son to this sea­son, I just don’t think that Lamar is there quite yet.

4. De­shaun Wat­son

An­other quar­ter­back who has the abil­ity to run, but Wat­son is not on the same level as Jack­son in the run­ning de­part­ment. How­ever, Wat­son is a lot bet­ter of a passer than Jack­son. Wat­son was a win­ner and col­lege, and I think that Wat­son has all of the in­tan­gi­bles to be a top three quar­ter­backs in the NFL. Where Wat­son is lack­ing is his abil­ity to stay healthy. In what is be­com­ing a com­mon trend in this list, I think that due to Wat­son’s track record of knee in­juries it would be hard to put him ahead of any­one else on this list.

3. Patrick Ma­homes

Last Year’s MVP would have topped my list com­ing into this sea­son, but due to in­juries and in­con­sis­ten­cies, Ma­homes has slipped to num­ber three. I be­lieve that Ma­homes is still an elite tal­ent, and was one play away from a Su­per Bowl a sea­son ago, but com­ing into this sea­son, Ma­homes has been mak­ing mis­takes left and right. Ma­homes has the most dropped in­ter­cep­tions in the NFL, and the Chiefs are too good to be a .500 foot­ball team. Ma­homes has the most tal­ent at the Quar­ter­back po­si­tion since Aaron Rodgers, but un­til he can prove that last sea­son was­n’t a fluke, I can’t place him above ei­ther Rodgers or Wil­son.

2. Aaron Rodgers

The dif­fer­ence be­tween Patrick Ma­homes and Aaron Rodgers is slim to none. Rodgers gets the edge in my eyes due to his long term suc­cess and his abil­ity to play through in in­jury. Rodgers played last sea­son with a bro­ken leg and a torn knee and was as ef­fi­cient as ever. Ma­homes has only been a starter for two sea­sons and has al­ready missed out half of the 2019 sea­son. Rodgers is viewed as the most tal­ented quar­ter­back of all time, and with a Su­per Bowl win un­der his belt, he will never be ques­tioned the way that Ma­homes is right now. Rodgers could be con­sid­ered the MVP every sea­son due to his suc­cess, and I think that in a sim­i­lar man­ner to Le­Bron James, Rodgers is cursed with tal­ent and con­sis­tency that al­low for him to lose on MVP’s that he could still be win­ning.

1. Rus­sell Wil­son

Wrap­ping up my list is Rus­sell Wil­son. Wil­son checks all of the boxes in what I look for in a fran­chise quar­ter­back, and he does it with­out that much tal­ent around him. Wil­son is win­ner in the pros, does it be­hind a turn­stile of an of­fen­sive line, and makes su­per­star wide re­ceivers out of mid-round picks. Wil­son ex­tends plays with the very best, has a Su­per Bowl to his name, and hardly ever turns the ball over. Wil­son is the best quar­ter­back in the NFL and is the man I would want quar­ter­back­ing my team when it is all said and done.