Top 8 NFL Quarterbacks

Burrow passes the eye test, he’s clutch as all hell, and the numbers back it up. In 2024 he nearly hit 5,000 yards passing, threw 43 touchdowns, and barely made mistakes. That’s the epitome of an elite quarterback.

He’s got Jamar Chase, an elite weapon along with Tee Higgins as a strong complement. Burrow’s only weakness is his situation. The defense is a liability, and the coaching hasn’t managed games in a way that limits their exposure. Burrow drags a flawed roster into contention, even if it doesn’t always translate to wins.

The Bengals are relevant because of Burrow. If you need one quarterback to start a team with, it’s him.

The résumé is absurd. Five Super Bowl appearances in six years, three wins, three Super Bowl MVPs. No one in the league comes close to that kind of track record.

The stats dipped in 2024, but winning doesn’t lie. Mahomes is still the standard - creativity, toughness, leadership, all of it.

But it’s not flawless. When he loses, he can look shockingly mortal. Twice he’s been blown out in the Super Bowl, and in those games the offense had no answers. Even still, nobody in the game tilts the field like Mahomes.

Allen has everything you’d want in a quarterback. Size, arm strength, mobility - the whole package. On paper he looks unstoppable, and the numbers back it up with over 40 touchdowns in 2024 while keeping the turnovers down.

He also elevates the roster around him. Buffalo hasn’t exactly surrounded him with elite weapons, but Allen’s play keeps them dangerous every year. He drags that offense further than it probably deserves to go.

The flaw? He’s not clutch. Regular season or playoffs, too often the big moments slip away from him. Until that changes, the gap between Allen’s talent and his résumé will always hang over him.

Here’s the thing with Lamar: he’s a solid player, no doubt, but he gets way more hype than he deserves.

He’s got one of the better rosters in football, and Baltimore’s defense and run game do a lot of the heavy lifting. Most quarterbacks would get blasted for riding that kind of support, but Lamar gets a free pass. His 2023 MVP season? Statistically abysmal - the kind of numbers that wouldn’t sniff an award if not for the win column. Last year the production finally spiked, but that was with Derrick Henry forcing defenses to respect the run.

Still, he wins. And that matters. Plenty of quarterbacks have all the tools on paper and can’t turn it into victories. Lamar does, and that’s why he cracks the top 8. He’s dangerous, he’s valuable to Baltimore, but in the pure quarterback conversation going into 2025, he’s overrated.

Stafford’s numbers have always looked the part - nearly 60,000 passing yards and a highlight reel of deep balls - but for most of his career they were empty calories. Yards and touchdowns that never turned into wins.

That changed with the Rams’ Super Bowl run, and it completely flipped the way people talk about him. Without that ring, he’s remembered as the guy who piled up stats on bad teams. With it, the media treats him like a lock for Canton.

The Detroit excuse is real - the Lions wasted his prime - but the truth is the Rams haven’t been anything special the last couple years either. Even so, Stafford keeps getting the benefit of the doubt. The media loves to prop him up as this underrated gunslinger. Swap his name out for almost anyone else with the same résumé, and the conversation isn’t nearly as kind.

“Mr. Irrelevant” my ass. Purdy just keeps getting it done. He doesn’t have the big arm or elite athleticism, but he’s a good quarterback who can get the job done week after week.

People love to slap the “system QB” label on him, but that argument is lazy. Every quarterback benefits from a system - even the elite ones. If Shanahan’s scheme alone was enough to make stars, we’d see a lot more quarterbacks playing at this level. The 49ers gave up on Trey Lance, who they invested far more into, to keep Purdy as their guy. That tells you everything you need to know.

He looked like an MVP candidate in 2023, and even after a rougher 2024, he’s proven he can process, deliver, and lead. Purdy might not look the part, but the production is real. At some point, the results outweigh the scouting report.

Herbert looks like the prototype. 6’6, rocket arm, smooth athlete - he checks every box scouts drool over. On pure talent, he belongs in any conversation with the league’s best.

But that’s where the gap shows up. For all the talk about him being elite, the production hasn’t matched the hype. Four years in, there’s no playoff run, no signature wins, nothing that puts him in the same breath as Burrow or Mahomes. The excuses are always there - bad coaching, shaky defense, injuries - and some of that’s fair. But if you’re truly “the guy,” at some point you rise above it. Herbert hasn’t yet.

The optimism is easy to sell: if he ever puts it all together, watch out. The tools are that good, and he could be the most dangerous quarterback in the league. But right now, Herbert is still more prototype than proven.

Daniels was the shock of 2024. He took a 3–14 Washington team and flipped them to 12–5, all the way to the NFC Championship game. Rookie records fell everywhere - completion percentage, rushing yards, fourth-quarter touchdowns. He played calm, confident, and lethal when it mattered most.

The question is what happens next. We’ve seen hot starts before - C.J. Stroud looked like the future after his rookie year, then stumbled in year two. Daniels has to prove he’s more than just the latest flash.

Right now, though, he’s earned his spot. Rookie or not, he looked like a franchise quarterback from day one. If he keeps climbing, Daniels might be the guy everyone else is chasing in a couple of years.