NFL Quarterback Tiers 2024 - The Athletic

[kcgreene]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/571...q&redirected=1

Article (With major editing to make it presentable by text only) in Spoiler below

Spoiler!

NFL Quarterback Tiers 2024: Only 2 join Mahomes in Tier 1; Rodgers, Herbert drop out
Mike Sando
Aug 26, 2024

The top tier is always exclusive territory when 50 NFL coaches and executives have their say in Quarterback Tiers each summer.

That exclusivity has reached another level this year.

Led by the incomparable Patrick Mahomes, only three players achieved Tier 1 status when balloting for the 11th annual survey was finished. That’s the lowest number since 2016, but with a crop of younger players rising, there’s a potentially bright future for the elite ranks.

The Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson reached new heights. The Green Bay Packers’ Jordan Love and the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy made massive jumps. The Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud set a new standard for a second-year QB. You can see the largest risers and fallers in the graphic below.

(Jordan Love: +13, Matt Stafford: +6, Lamar Jackson: +4, Dak Prescott: +1, Justin Fields: -2, Kyler Murray: -3, Jalen Hurts: -4, Russell Wilson: -5, Trevor Lawrence: -7)

The 2024 QB Tiers results are here, complete with commentary from the 50 NFL coaches and executives who were granted anonymity to share candid evaluations. The panel consisted of seven general managers, eight head coaches, 12 coordinators, 12 executives, eight assistant coaches and three involved in coaching/analytics.

Each voter placed 30 veteran quarterbacks into five tiers, from best (Tier 1) to worst (Tier 5). Quarterbacks were then ranked by average vote and placed into tiers based on vote distribution, beginning with Mahomes, whose 1.00 average vote reflected his status as the only unanimous Tier 1 selection. No QBs landed in Tier 5, although some received Tier 5 votes. The survey excludes rookies because voters have not seen them play in the NFL.



QB Tiers ranges (Tier 1: 1.0-1.5 Avg, Tier 2: 1.5-2.5 Avg, Tier 3: 2.5-3.5 Avg, Tier 4: 3.5-4.5 Avg, Tier 5: 4.5+ Avg)

QB tier ranks, tier 1 to tier 5 with their avg ranges for each tier.



Tier 1

A Tier 1 quarterback can carry his team each week. The team wins because of him. He expertly handles pure-passing situations. He has no real holes in his game.

1 Patrick Mahomes, Voting Avg 1, Retained tier
2 Joe Burrow, Voting Avg 1.1 (+0.1), Retained tier
3 Josh Allen, Voting Avg 1.2 (+0.1), Retained tier

Tier 2

A Tier 2 quarterback can carry his team sometimes but not as consistently. He can handle pure-passing situations in doses and/or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game.

4 Lamar Jackson, Voting Avg 1.6 (-0.4), Retained tier
T5 Matt Stafford, Voting Avg 1.6 (-0.7), Retained tier
T5 Justin Herbert, Voting Avg 1.6 (+0.2), Dropped 1 Tier
7 Aaron Rodgers, Voting Avg 1.8 (+0.4), Dropped 1 Tier
8 C.J. Stroud, Voting Avg 1.8, New to Tiers
9 Dak Prescott, Voting Avg 2.1 (-0.1), Retained tier
10 Jared Goff, Voting Avg 2.2 (-0.5), Jumped 1 Tier
11 Jalen Hurts, Voting Avg 2.3 (+0.5), Retained tier
12 Brock Purdy, Voting Avg 2.3 (-1.2), Jumped 2 Tiers
13 Kirk Cousins, Voting Avg 2.4 (-0.1), Retained tier
14 Jordan Love, Voting Avg 2.5 (-1.5), Jumped 2 Tiers


Tier 3
A Tier 3 quarterback is a legitimate starter but needs a heavier running game and/or defensive component to win. A lower-volume dropback passing offense suits him best.

15 Tua Tagovailoa, Voting Avg 2.5 (-0.4), Retained tier
16 Trevor Lawrence, Voting Avg 2.6 (+0.4), Dropped 1 Tier
17 Kyler Murray, Voting Avg 2.7 (+0.1), Retained tier
18 Deshaun Watson, Voting Avg 2.8 (+0.4), Dropped 1 Tier
19 Baker Mayfield, Voting Avg 2.8 (-1.2), Jumped 1 Tier
T20 Derek Carr, Voting Avg 3 (+0.4), Retained tier
T20 Geno Smith, Voting Avg 3, Retained tier
22 Russell Wilson, Voting Avg 3.2 (+0.4), Retained tier

Tier 4

A Tier 4 quarterback could be an unproven player (not enough information for voters to classify) or a veteran who ideally would not start all 17 games.

23 Daniel Jones, Voting Avg 3.6 (+0.6), Dropped 1 Tier
24 Justin Fields, Voting Avg 3.6 (+0.5), Dropped 1 Tier
25 Gardner Minshew, Voting Avg 3.8 (-0.7), Retained tier
T26 Anthony Richardson, Voting Avg 3.8, New to Tiers
T26 Will Levis, Voting Avg 3.8, New to Tiers
28 Bryce Young, Voting Avg 3.8, New to Tiers
29 Sam Darnold, Voting Avg 4, Not in 2023 tiers
30 Jacoby Brissett, Voting Avg 4), Not in 2023 tiers

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DRM08

I mean…Allen was better in that 13 seconds game than Burrow was a week later. The only reason Cincy won and Buffalo lost is because Cincy has the far better defense to slow down Mahomes.

Burrow dodged the 2023 Chiefs defense. I think Allen did pretty well in that recent playoff game. The Bills were doing everything possible to keep Mahomes on the sideline because they knew Buffalo’s defense would give up 40+ points if the Chiefs offense had the ball for 50% of the game instead of 35%.

Allen's lone great playoff game against us was when we had no safeties on the field and the backup corners we had kept falling down.

[ThrobProng]

God tier - Mahomes

They suck and can blow me tier - everyone else

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Allen's lone great playoff game against us was when we had no safeties on the field and the backup corners we had kept falling down.

Burrow hasn't had any great Playoff games against the Chiefs defense, not one. He has been carried by HIS defense to victories. The dude still hasn't thrown a TD in the 4th quarter of a Playoff game. Check this out...

In 4 of 5 Playoff wins with Burrow, the Cincy defense allowed fewer than 20 points. They even shutdown Josh Allen to just 10 points. In their 2 losses, the Cincy defense allowed only 23 points to explosive offenses: Rams/Stafford & Chiefs/Mahomes.

That Cincy defense has been massively important to their success in the Playoffs. They even had a game against Baltimore’s backup QB where the Ravens were about to take the lead in a 17-17 game, but the Cincy defense forced a fumble and ran it back 99 yards for a TD. Burrow really is the new Tom Brady when it comes to having miracle bullshit happen to help him win games.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by DRM08

I would take Allen over Burrow. Josh carries a bigger burden for his team and he has stayed healthy, while Burrow has spent 50% of his career with season-ending injuries. Allen’s playoff stats are much stronger than Burrow as well. Joe has had a pretty awesome defense helping win games.

And you don't know if Burrow's going to come back sound with that wrist/arm injury. Those can be fairly ornery.

Though honestly, I do think this is a clear "Mahomes and then everyone else" situation.

On any given game, some of those guys in T1 and T2 can hang with Pat. None of them even touch him over large numbers though.

The gap between QB1 and the rest of the field is pretty much unprecedented at this point. It's certainly never been like this in my lifetime. Can anyone recall the last time folks just stopped comparing a guy to his contemporaries and said "yeah, this is boring - we're just gonna start comparing this guy to historical greats from now on..."

There's just no question who the best guy is. Rodgers may have approached this at his peak, but that's all that I can recall. And even Rodgers wasn't the big bad at the end of the level like Mahomes is. Everyone knows they have to go through Mahomes in the post-season and he's going to give them an absolute dogfight. That was simply never the case with Rodgers.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Burrow hasn't had any great Playoff games against the Chiefs defense, not one. He has been carried by HIS defense to victories. The dude still hasn't thrown a TD in the 4th quarter of a Playoff game. Check this out...

In 4 of 5 Playoff wins with Burrow, the Cincy defense allowed fewer than 20 points. They even shutdown Josh Allen to just 10 points. In their 2 losses, the Cincy defense allowed only 23 points to explosive offenses: Rams/Stafford & Chiefs/Mahomes.

That Cincy defense has been massively important to their success in the Playoffs. They even had a game against Baltimore’s backup QB where the Ravens were about to take the lead in a 17-17 game, but the Cincy defense forced a fumble and ran it back 99 yards for a TD. Burrow really is the new Tom Brady when it comes to having miracle bullshit happen to help him win games.

Just saying Allen's great game was based on us having no secondary.

Right now Burrow has to stay healthy which he has not done.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Burrow hasn't had any great Playoff games against the Chiefs defense, not one. He has been carried by HIS defense to victories. The dude still hasn't thrown a TD in the 4th quarter of a Playoff game. Check this out...

In 4 of 5 Playoff wins with Burrow, the Cincy defense allowed fewer than 20 points. They even shutdown Josh Allen to just 10 points. In their 2 losses, the Cincy defense allowed only 23 points to explosive offenses: Rams/Stafford & Chiefs/Mahomes.

That Cincy defense has been massively important to their success in the Playoffs. They even had a game against Baltimore’s backup QB where the Ravens were about to take the lead in a 17-17 game, but the Cincy defense forced a fumble and ran it back 99 yards for a TD. Burrow really is the new Tom Brady when it comes to having miracle bullshit happen to help him win games.

And I think Cincy's defense is going to back up a bit this season. They've taken some hits on that side of the football the last couple years.

Burrow is all of a year younger than Mahomes - if he's going to demonstrate greatness, this is when it's going to have to start happening. The defense won't bail him out this year and the offense is going to start to atrophy going forward.

Time is now, Joey. Prove me wrong.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Just saying Allen's great game was based on us having no secondary.

Right now Burrow has to stay healthy which he has not done.

Burrow went against that same defense a week later and scored 24 in regulation. Nothing to write home about against a bad defense.

Also I think Allen did pretty well to score 24 on a GREAT Chiefs defense this year. For perspective, that Chiefs defense held Lamar Jackson to 10 points a week later.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Burrow went against that same defense a week later and scored 24 in regulation. Nothing to write home about against a bad defense.

Also I think Allen did pretty well to score 24 on the Chiefs defense this year. For perspective, that Chiefs defense held Lamar Jackson to 10 points a week later.

Allen was secondary to it.They ran the ball right at us (what we are not as great at) and Spags didn't adjust or call run blitzes into it until the later 2nd half.

Lamar should have scored more but Flowers lost the ball on the goal line with the lack of ball security and the Ravens offensive game plan was too much passing. They should have done exactly what Buffalo did and ran the ball against us. Spags must have been so happy to see Lamar dropping back when Buffalo did not trust Allen to do that much.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Allen was secondary to it.They ran the ball right at us (what we are not as great at) and Spags didn't adjust or call run blitzes into it until the later 2nd half.

Lamar should have scored more but Flowers lost the ball on the goal line with the lack of ball security and the Ravens offensive game plan was too much passing. They should have done exactly what Buffalo did and ran the ball against us. Spags must have been so happy to see Lamar dropping back when Buffalo did not trust Allen to do that much.

Allen threw the ball 39 times in that game. It was a bunch of dink and dunk stuff, but still the guy did his job. Also threw a perfect 70 yard bomb late in the game and his "superstar" receiver dropped it like a bum.

[gordonelloyd]

By the stipulated tier 1 criteria I think it’s clear that both Allen and Burrow belong there along with Mahomes. And Mahomes clearly comes out at the top of the list as he should.

It was also good to see a substantial gap in the voting values between these three and Jackson.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Allen threw the ball 39 times in that game. It was a bunch of dink and dunk stuff, but still the guy did his job. Also threw a perfect 70 yard bomb late in the game and his "superstar" receiver dropped it like a bum.

Allen was fine. He didn't take over the game and the Bills were moving the ball on the ground by pounding the ball straight at us.

Allen also failed to score when the chips were down at the end but give our defense credit too, they made the plays when they had to.


My point was that Allen benefitted from a strong running game and the Ravens abandoned the run too early and put it all on Lamar (bad idea against our D).

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Allen was fine. He didn't take over the game and the Bills were moving the ball on the ground by pounding the ball straight at us.

Allen also failed to score when the chips were down at the end but give our defense credit too, they made the plays when they had to.


My point was that Allen benefitted from a strong running game and the Ravens abandoned the run too early and put it all on Lamar (bad idea against our D).

Harbaugh panicked when the Chiefs scored 14 points very quickly in the first half. Seems like a pattern with the Ravens against the Chiefs.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Harbaugh panicked when the Chiefs scored 14 points very quickly in the first half. Seems like a pattern with the Ravens against the Chiefs.

They did.



But a lot of teams choke when they see us.

We have the aura now that makes teams lose their minds.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Mahomes is in his own tier.


Allen just does not have the mental traits or accuracy to be comparable, he is a great 1st down maker and physical talent.

yup any tier list that doesn't have Mahomes in an island way up there in his own tier is irrelevant and the creator of that tier list loses all credibility.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by Bump

yup any tier list that doesn't have Mahomes in an island way up there in his own tier is irrelevant and the creator of that tier list loses all credibility.

I was talking about QB tiers two years ago and my Green Bay friend said Mahomes was Tier 1 with a STAR.

You need to place the star after him because he is on a different level.