Admin November 26, 2024
NFL Week 12 Overreactions
Mackenzie Salmon breaks down NFL week 12 wildest games.
Sports Seriously
By several metrics, Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson is playing better during the 2024 season than he did when he won his two NFL MVP awards. He leads the league’s quarterbacks in passing yards (3,053), rushing yards (599) and QB rating (117.9). He’s tied for first in touchdowns (27) with Joe Burrow and thrown just three interceptions.
Jackson also took over the top spot in ESPN’s QBR rankings several weeks ago and remains slightly ahead of Burrow heading into Week 13. He again finished with the best QBR among starting quarterbacks during Week 12 action (99.8), completing 16 of 22 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns when the Ravens beat the Los Angeles Chargers on “Monday Night Football.” Jackson is still not, however, anywhere close to beating his career high in QBR for a season (83.0), set in 2019 during his first MVP campaign.
For comparison, Jackson has already thrown for almost as many yards in 2024 as he did back then and he’s on track to finish with more touchdowns and fewer interceptions this season. He’s also averaging a career-best 8.9 yards per attempt. A third MVP in five years is very much there for the taking, and this week’s QBR rankings suggests familiar names like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are among his competition for the award.
Here’s how every NFL quarterback ranks based on ESPN’s QBR for the 2024 season:
ESPN’s QBR, explained
Every week, ESPN gives each quarterback a QBR for their latest performance. According to ESPN, the rating is intended to “incorporate all of a quarterback’s contributions to winning, including how he impacts the game on passes, rushes, turnovers and penalties.”
QBR measures each play’s degree of success and how much credit the quarterback deserves for the play. The statistic also takes into account the strength of opposing defenses faced. The final result is an efficiency rating as a number on a 0-to-100-point scale. The cumulative rating is averaged out on a per-play basis across the course of the season.
Ranking NFL quarterbacks by total QBR ahead of Week 13
Here’s how every starting quarterback with at least 100 pass attempts this season stacks up before Week 13 of the NFL season, based on their 2024 QBR (listed from worst to first):
- Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns (QBR: 22.2)
- Cooper Rush, Dallas Cowboys (33.2)
- Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers (35.8)
- Will Levis, Tennessee Titans (36.4)
- Gardner Minshew, Las Vegas Raiders (38.4)
- Jacoby Brissett, New England Patriots (43.7)
- Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts (45.9)
- Daniel Jones, New York Giants (46.3)
- Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys (46.4)
- Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears (48.9)
- Russell Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers (50.1)
- C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans (51.3)
- Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets (51.4)
- Justin Fields, Pittsburgh Steelers (51.5)
- Andy Dalton, Carolina Panthers (53.0)
- Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks (54.6)
- Joe Flacco, Indianapolis Colts (55.1)
- Bo Nix, Denver Broncos (55.9)
- Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons (56.8)
- Mason Rudolph, Tennessee Titans (57.1)
- Drake Maye, New England Patriots (57.7)
- Jared Goff, Detroit Lions (57.7)
- Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers (58.1)
- Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers (58.4)
- Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (59.3)
- Sam Darnold, Minnesota Vikings (59.4)
- Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins (60.0)
- Derek Carr, New Orleans Saints (61.7)
- Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars (61.8)
- Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams (62.4)
- Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles (63.7)
- Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders (66.5)
- Jameis Winston, Cleveland Browns (66.7)
- Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs (66.8)
- Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers (67.6)
- Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals (72.5)
- Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills (73.2)
- Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals (75.6)
- Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens (75.9)