We recently published a video of what the “perfect” NFL quarterback would look like today. That project included traits from the league’s best quarterbacks, including Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Lamar Jackson.
Now, let’s try the even tougher task of building the “worst” NFL QB. For this list, we’re focusing on starting quarterbacks who have ample playing time and experience under their belts. We’re not featuring backups on this list because, well, they’re backups for a reason.
So, let’s dive into our projection of what the worst NFL quarterback would look like, using the traits of current starters.
What traits would be worst for NFL quarterbacks today?
Head & Vision: Daniel Jones
Among all active starting quarterbacks, nobody is more painful to watch than Daniel Jones. Pure and simple.
His decision-making has been atrocious, save for one solid year in 2022 when he excelled in a game manager role for the New York Giants. And by “excelled,” we mean NOT screwing up because he only had 3,205 passing yards and 15 TDs that year.
Through his first five seasons, Jones has 40 interceptions in 60 games. His completion percentage has fallen below 63 percent in two of Jones’ five NFL seasons, too.
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Only Josh Allen has fumbled more times than Jones since the latter entered the NFL in 2019. But here’s the catch: Allen has 51 fumbles in 82 games. Danny Dimes has 46 fumbles in 60 games.
Also, Allen makes up for it by being really good. Since Jones’ rookie year, his 24 fumbles lost are the most in football. So think about it. Allen has two fewer fumbles lost than DJ…in 22 more game appearances.
You can only attribute so many of his fumbles to the woeful offensive line. Jones doesn’t have the pocket awareness to evade pressure, and too often, he just tries to get too cute by running around and around until the opposing defense forces the fumble.
And these are just some of the many examples of Jones lacking the proper football IQ to succeed in this league. Jones doesn’t throw the ball away, slide nor just get down to take the sack. He always has to play like it’s Madden, and the gimmicky stuff doesn’t work in the pros.
Jones’ mediocre accuracy, mind-numbing interceptions, and back-breaking habit of committing such careless fumbles time and time again make him the WORST NFL quarterback in this category. In fact, it’s not really up for debate.
Accuracy: Baker Mayfield
Those on the “Time to Bake” bandwagon won’t be happy with this entry. But truth be told, folks, any quarterback on an NFL roster with WORSE accuracy than Baker Mayfield is either inexperienced or a backup. Or a third-stringer.
According to Pro Football Reference, the average completion percentage every season from 2018 to 2023, in order, was: 64.9, 63.5, 65.2, 64.8, 64.2 and 64.5.
Through Mayfield’s first six seasons, his completion percentage was 63.8, 59.4, 62.8, 60.5, 60.0 and 64.3.
In other words, Mayfield’s completion percentage has been below the league average every year. Notice that he was a few points off the average completion percentage in 2019, 2021, and 2023.
And among all active starting quarterbacks, Mayfield’s career completion percentage of 61.9 ranks 28th. I mean, highly-scrutinized guys like Daniel Jones, Carson Wentz and Mitch Trubisky have higher completion percentages than Mayfield.
That’s also alarming for the first overall pick of 2018 because he wasn’t asked to be “the guy” in Cleveland. He rarely had to throw 30 times a game in the Nick Chubb-led offense, yet Mayfield couldn’t consistently complete his short passes.
If he wasn’t a check-down specialist, who knows how much worse Mayfield’s career completion numbers would be? This is not the guy you want on your team in a game of darts.
Arm: Mac Jones
Okay, we know, we know. Mac Jones is no longer the New England Patriots’ starting quarterback. He’s now the Jacksonville Jaguars’ backup quarterback behind Trevor Lawrence following an offseason trade.
But Jones has enough playing experience, and his arm is just that much worse compared to other quarterbacks, so we decided to use him here. To be quite frank, you have to have a good arm to be a starting QB in this league.
Ahead of the 2023 season, The Ringer ranked Jones’ arm talent as the worst among starting NFL quarterbacks with a score of 70. And, well, let’s just say the Alabama product didn’t do anything to silence the critics in his final year with the Pats.
Through his first three seasons, Jones has averaged just 10.3 yards per completion. From 2021 to 2023, the league average in yards per completion was 11.0, 10.9, and 10.9. So Jones is well off the average in that category.
In 2023 alone, Jones only completed 17 passes of 20-plus yards. Teammate and backup Bailey Zappe had the same amount as Jones…despite133 fewer pass attempts. Oof. Jones also had just two completions of 40-plus yards, another reminder that he’s just too reliant on the dink-and-dunk game.
And since he entered the league, Jones has completed only two passes of 50-plus yards. In 2023 alone, league leader Tua Tagovailoa had seven completed passes of 50-plus yards,
Even Taylor Heinicke, Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields, Desmond Ridder, and Jake Browning each had three completed passes of 50 or more yards in 2023. So yeah, it’s not a great look on Mr. Jones here.
The Pats tried running a simple quick-throw, play-action offense with Jones. They knew he had limited arm talent, which is why he wasn’t asked to sling it and beat opposing defenses with deep passes.
Legs, Speed & Mobility: Matthew Stafford
Sorry, Matthew Stafford, but you’re basically on this list by default.
The era of “slow” and pure pocket passing quarterbacks is quickly diminishing. With Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, and Ben Roethlisberger long retired, Stafford was the only logical option here.
It’s not a knock against Stafford. He’s such a prolific passer that the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams never bothered to draw up running plays with him. That said, it’s not ideal if Stafford is out of options to the point where the only choice is to tuck it and run.
Stafford has 1,315 career rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground. Those numbers may not sound bad at first, but they merely sound decent because of his longevity.
The first overall pick of 2009 has only surpassed 200 yards rushing in one season — when he had 207 in the 2016 campaign. In fact, Stafford has only recorded triple-digit rushing totals in five seasons.
We all love Matt Stafford. He’s as dangerous a pocket passer as it gets. But let’s be real here: there is no other NFL quarterback you’d feel worse about having to run the ball in a pivotal situation than Stafford himself.
Also Read: 10 Ugly And Scary Injuries Suffered By NFL Quarterbacks
Scrambling & Elusiveness: Derek Carr
Like Matthew Stafford, Carr is never going to scare opposing defenses on running plays…unless it’s a QB sneak.
Carr has proven to be less difficult to defend compared to younger quarterbacks because he lacks the mobility, quickness, and mind to evade sacks.
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were always slow, but they often avoided sacks because they knew how to read and anticipate the opposing defenses. That quick “duck” move or ability to get the ball out quickly set non-mobile NFL quarterbacks like them apart from the others.
Well, Carr has shown time and time again that he has minimal ability to dance out of sacks and QB pressure when the pocket collapses.
Consider that Tom Brady is the most sacked QB ever, having taken 565 of them in 335 games. That averages out to roughly 1.68 sacks per game.
Through his first ten seasons, Carr has taken an average of roughly 1.855 points per game. And believe us, he had the luxury of a good offensive line during his run with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders.
Carr may be slightly quicker and more mobile than Stafford, but the latter has better pocket awareness and can dance his way out of sacks. Close in on Carr, and he’s essentially done like dinner.
Size, Toughness & Physicality: Bryce Young
Make no mistake. There is no such thing as a “soft” quarterback in the NFL. Some folks love to throw the label out at Derek Carr and Mac Jones. Tom Brady was hilariously called soft for much of his playing career.
So yeah, quarterbacks aren’t soft. If they were, they wouldn’t be quarterbacks. Now that we have that out of the way…
That said, size still matters. Dual-threat QBs like Josh Allen and Cam Newton have proven this. It’s one thing to be fast like Kyler Murray, Michael Vick, and Russell Wilson. It’s another to be built like a tank where you can run through would-be tacklers.
The vast majority of starting NFL quarterbacks these days are at least 6-foot-2. Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young is basically on here by default. He’s only 5-foot-10 and 204 pounds, so you’re not going to see many designed runs for the first overall pick of 2023.
Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray are also under 6 feet, but we’ve seen them flash with their athleticism, electric speed, and mobility. Young doesn’t have that same level of explosiveness in the ground game, which is why his build and physique are a concern.
Because he’s undersized, there will always be a concern about how many hits Young can take without getting injured. Even quarterback sneaks have to be nerve-wracking for Panthers fans because it’s not ideal to see Young diving under guys twice his size.
Poise: Dak Prescott
Prescott puts up elite numbers every year, but that’s basically all you get from him.
Die-hard Dallas Cowboys fans don’t want to hear that, but it’s true. As evidenced by his 2-and-5 playoff record, coupled with his failure to get Dallas past the Divisional Round, Prescott is not the type of you’d want to lead in a clutch situation.
When we built the perfect quarterback, we had Cincinnati Bengals signal-caller Joe Burrow here. “Joe Cool” just shows up to games and displays no nerves whatsoever — even if he’s getting rag-dolled in a playoff game. See Aaron Donald.
The problem with Prescott is you can tell that he isn’t able to lead his teammates by example. It’s because he gets too nervous and in his own head when it matters most. You just don’t see him naturally taking control in the huddle the way guys like Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, and Aaron Rodgers do.
Prescott, too often, plays scared to lose. And he loses aplenty that way. Among all Super Bowl ringless starting QBs, none of them have had as much superstar talent around them as Prescott..so what does that tell you?
Clutchness & Leadership: Kirk Cousins
We were considering using Dak Prescott here. But Cousins got the “dishonor” here for a couple of reasons.
Dak has one more playoff win than Cousins despite coming into the NFL four years later. And he doesn’t have an embarrassing record against teams with a winning record. Also, being the 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award winner greatly exemplifies Prescott’s leadership off the field.
Cousins got to play on a star-studded Minnesota Vikings offense for six years. They only went to the playoffs twice in that period, with Cousins going 1-2. That included a brutal home loss to the Daniel Jones-led New York Giants in the 2022 Wild Card Round…after Minnesota won 13 games.
Cousins has a miserable 16-and-47 career record against winning teams. They say “wins” aren’t a quarterback stat, but that’s a giant enough sample size. The bottom line is that he doesn’t elevate his play and carry his teammates when they need it most.
And Cousins wasn’t just like this in Minnesota. He was never good against top competition during his tenure with Washington, keeping in mind he only had 12 game-winning drives in 62 games in DC.
You can also just tell by Cousins’ body language that he’s never comfortable and calm under pressure in big-game situations. He always looks rattled and rattled, whereas elite QBs like Mahomes know that they’re going to win it more often than not when the game is in their hands.
Like Prescott, Cousins always puts up good regular season numbers. But Cousins is not the locker room leader you need compared to most of today’s top quarterbacks. And he’s going to fail with the game on the line far more than he’ll succeed.
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