Brandon Jackson

Hello everyone, welcome to bjacks70.com, and welcome to my ranking of all 32 projected starters at quarterback in 2025. The rules are simple:

Rank the quarterbacks based on if they had to make the playoffs with a team that was comprised of them, and league average players at every other position.

So basically, I am ranking them based on their individual ability. I have also chosen to include in the ranking a superpower assigned to all but one of these QBs. Some of these powers are positive and complimentary, but some of them are negative. But what I have listed is essentially either their best attribute, or most famous attribute. It will make more sense as we go along.

The rankings so far:

32. Tyler Shough

31. Sam Darnold

30. J.J. McCarthy

29. Cam Ward

28. Joe Flacco

27. Russell Wilson

26. Anthony Richardson

25. Justin Fields

24. Aaron Rodgers

23. Drake Maye

22. Michael Penix Jr.

21. Bryce Young

20. Bo Nix

19. Brock Purdy

18. Tua Tagovailoa

17. Caleb Williams

16. Trevor Lawrence

15. Jared Goff

14. Dak Prescott

13. Baker Mayfield

12. Geno Smith

11. Jordan Love

10. Justin Herbert

9. Kyler Murray

8. C.J. Stroud

Now what we’ve all been waiting for, numbers 7 through 1.

7. Matthew Stafford – Los Angeles Rams

Superpower: Platinum level gamer

If you have Matthew Stafford as your quarterback, you can win any game that you play. You definitely won’t win all of them, but you will have a chance to. Yes, he is getting up there in age, but he still has that rocket arm. He’s still on of the toughest dudes under center in the NFL. And I’m willing to bet every other guy on the roster from 2-53 will run through a wall for 9.

He’s one of the very few starters in this league who have won a super bowl, and that alone gives him a leg up on the competition. But I would want Stafford as my quarterback because I watched him give the super bowl champions everything they could ask for and more about 6 months ago. In the snow. The Rams didn’t get the job done, but it was the closest game that Eagles played all postseason.

The Rams won ugly games all year because of Stafford. I can admit, some of the ugliness was Stafford’s doing in the first place, but if you can dig yourself out of the hole, then no harm done in my eyes.

6. Jalen Hurts – Philadelphia Eagles

Superpower: Tush Push (Positive)

Jalen Hurts is not someone I would have had in the top ten if I did this list a year ago. But 2024 showed me that he can handle the outside noise, the expectations, and the physical toll the game can take on you. When I say his superpower is the tush push, I mean that as a compliment with all sincerity. I have written before that the NFL should remove the play from the game, but the fact is that the Eagles have perfected it, and Jalen Hurts is the common denominator in that play. It clearly takes a special talent to do it, because Josh Allen is bigger and maybe stronger, but he can’t do it like Jalen Hurts does.

Apart from the tush push, Hurts can make plays throwing the football. It is easier to look good doing that throwing to A.J. Brown and Devonte Smith, but it is still impressive, nonetheless.

Hurts earned my respect throughout the season, and winning the super bowl cemented it.

5. Joe Burrow – Cincinnati Bengals

Superpower: Supreme accuracy 2.0

I know what you’re thinking but hear me out. The criterion for this list is ranking the quarterbacks based on if the rest of their team was league average. We know Joe Burrow can put up number with the best of them, he would’ve been the MVP if his team could’ve won a couple more games, I get it. But you have to consider that maybe this would look a little different if he was throwing to people other than Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. That’s all I’m saying.

And when you look back at the year the Bengals went to the super bowl, (which will be 4 seasons ago now,) the defense did a lot of heavy lifting.

Now breathe. I love Joe Burrow as a player. Top 5 quarterback in the NFL is a great honor. This is not me disrespecting Joe Burrow. This is me calling it like I see it. He is a great football player, but the facts are that he went through the whole 2024 season healthy, and the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs. I know the Bengals’ defense was atrocious. If Burrow would’ve played better game 1 of the season, they would have had enough wins to get in at the end.

4. Jayden Daniels – Washington Commanders

Superpower: Poise

For my money, the best rookie season from a quarterback we’ve ever seen.

Absolutely nothing fazed Daniels in 2024. The pressure of being the #2 overall pick didn’t affect him. The actual pressure from pass rushes didn’t affect him. He stood toe-to-toe with Joe Burrow in prime time and won. He led his team to two huge upsets in the playoffs and was competitive in the NFC Championship game.

He has the strong arm, he has the accuracy, he has the poise to sit in the pocket and make the necessary plays. He diagnoses and processes faster than quarterbacks who have been in the league years longer than him. He is another one of these guys who played five years of college thanks to the Covid rules, and he clearly took advantage of every rep he got. Not to mention he is one of the fastest quarterbacks that we’ve seen and if it wasn’t for two of the guys ahead of him on this list, he would be considered the best rushing QB in the league. At this point, he has no real weaknesses. What put him over the edge for me is what he was able to do with one great receiver in Terry Mclaurin. They had a great connection, but the rest of his skill-player corps were just some dudes.

3. Josh Allen – Buffalo Bills

Superpower: Super Soldier Serum

We’ve reached the actual superhero tier. This top 3 is made up of guys who were created in a lab to play this sport specifically.

If you play the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs, the main thing you have to worry about is stopping Josh Allen from going crazy in the box score. Everyone will talk about it leading up to the game, everyone in the stadium knows what you have to do, and you still can’t do it.

He’s done it at some point every year, you think you’ve gotten him down for a sack, but he stays on his feet and throws it 52 yards for a touchdown. Or you get everyone covered on a third-and 16 and he runs the ball for 29 yards, running your safety over in the process. When he gets on a roll, it’s hard to believe he’s a human from California and not a creation from Sakovia.

Having him at #3 is splitting hairs. Last year he produced with a less than stellar receiving corps, so much so that he won the MVP. He’s an elite football player, and he may even be a hall of famer in the future. But the two guys ahead of him are already hall of famers if they retired today.

2. Lamar Jackson – Baltimore Ravens

Superpower: Electricity

There has never been a football player like Lamar Jackson. The plays that he creates out of thin air are unheard of. The passes that he has completed after scrambling around in the backfield are stuff of legend. He’s the best quarterback at running the football ever. Full stop. Non-negotiable.

He has moments where his accuracy throwing the ball gets away from him, but those are few and far between now. He is a good passer, but his value is what he creates in the running game, what he creates in explosive plays down the field, and his leadership. He creates avenues in the run game not only for himself, but all the running backs on the roster. He has made Rashod Bateman look like a real professional wide receiver in-between his stints on the injured reserve. He put the ball in Mark Andrews’ hands in their heartbreaking playoff loss, but he couldn’t capitalize.

Lamar Jackson has two MVP awards. That fact alone makes him a hall of famer, and I’m not exaggerating. Go to the Wikipedia and see the list of multiple time MVPs, it’s all hall of famers. He should’ve had a third MVP in 2024 if I would have had a vote, but that’s just my opinion. And he’s done all this without ever really having a top 20 receiver to throw the ball to.

1. Patrick Mahomes – Kansas City Chiefs

Superpower: Witchcraft

You knew as soon as I started the list that Mahomes would be #1. He has to be. He has all the tools that I have described from various other players. He has the creativity to come up with ways to throw the football. And he also has the green light from his coaching staff to pull out some of these moves in a game. He’s won an MVP in a year where it seemed like his receivers were actively sabotaging him.

And you can call it the league and referees being rigged in his favor (don’t, that’s really dumb) but things just always seem to go right for Patrick Mahomes. He’s made plays he had no business making, players have dropped sure interceptions that he should have thrown. Defenders have grabbed jerseys against his receivers when they were actually in good position to make plays. Teams are so afraid of Mahomes, that they go for fourth downs and touchdowns that they wouldn’t usually go for because they think they need to score more points.

Mahomes is so good that Joe Burrow is still getting credit for beating him 4 years ago.

Mahomes is so good that people aren’t really upset with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson for not being able to beat him in the playoffs.