Final Rookie Quarterback End of Season Rankings

With the NFL season now all wrapped up, we can now reflect and look back at some of the newest quarterback talents and assess how they did in their rookie campaigns. With three quarterbacks being selected with the top three picks of the NFL draft this past year, we certainly were in for a lot of new and exciting quarterback talent to enter the NFL. Some of them shattered the wildest expectations and separated themselves as a franchise quarterback while others shattered the hopes of their fanbases’ lofty hopes. So, without further ado, let’s dive into our end of season rookie quarterback grades.

Jayden Daniels: A+

I absolutely loved Jayden Daniels coming out of LSU because of his ability to throw from the pocket but also scramble effectively when called upon, but I didn’t see this type of success from him coming so early in his career. In his rookie year, Jayden Daniels rarely looked like a typical rookie quarterback. He had a tremendous amount of poise and he was able to remain calm in clutch scenarios where he had to perform exceptionally in order to win games. He played well from the pocket and his ability to scramble for massive gains on broken plays massively benefitted his offensive line in both pass and run blocking. This enabled the Commanders to have a very efficient balanced offense with both the rushing and passing attacks working in concert with one another throughout the season. This franchise, as a whole, experienced one of the biggest turnarounds in all of NFL history going from 3-14 last season to the NFC Championship game this year. Jayden Daniels should be rightfully attributed a good chunk of the success this team experienced and if they can continue to draft well and put good pieces around Jayden Daniels, they should be considered contenders heading into next season.

Bo Nix: B+

Many scouts were critical of Bo Nix coming out of Oregon because he checked the ball down too much and his collegiate offensive system at Oregon was too simplistic which wouldn’t translate well into the NFL. However, he had a solid rookie showing with the Broncos that would have earned him the award of Offensive Rookie of the Year if it wasn’t for the terrific season put up by Jayden Daniels. Bo Nix started the season out slowly, but he closed out the season 5-2 in the final seven games of the year with multiple 300+ yard games through the air. Nix’s ability to throw on the run and occasionally scramble for key first downs really helped this Broncos offense in the second half of the season. Although he might check the ball down a bit too much, doing this does help to keep his confidence up. It also prevents the offense from committing costly turnovers that can really put your defense, and your team, in a bad spot as they are trying to win games. If Bo Nix can start to get more of a command over this offense, and some additional weapons to work with, there is no reason he can’t continue to progress in Sean Payton’s system.

Drake Maye: C

Many Patriot fans have been begging for a savior to come in and resurrect the old Patriots dynasty. Those fans have latched on to Drake Maye to fulfill their desperate plea to get back to greatness, hoping he can become the next Josh Allen. I was, and still am, a doubter of Drake Maye’s ability to become the next great franchise quarterback in New England. This season Drake Maye did just about what was expected of him. This Patriots roster as currently constructed is downright awful. There isn’t really a position on this roster that can be pointed to as better than the NFL average. Therefore, I can’t put much of the blame on the Patriots unsuccessful season on Drake Maye’s shoulders. I expected Maye to throw the ball accurately, but struggle to read the field, which is pretty much what he did this season. Now Maye didn’t have much time to go through progressions because his offensive line couldn’t protect him. We all knew that Maye was a project quarterback, and that this Patriots roster was poor to begin the season, so it is too early to make any reasonable prediction about his career outlook at this point in time.

Michael Penix: C-

Many people were surprised that the Falcons would draft a quarterback in the first round after just signing Kirk Cousins to a massive deal in free agency, but it now seems this will be fully Michael Penix’s team moving forward after the Kirk Cousins experiment has seemingly failed in Atlanta. Atlanta’s roster is certainly full of young and dynamic players at key positions on both sides of the ball, so there should be no reason a quarterback couldn’t succeed with this team. However, even after the benching of Kirk Cousins, Michael Penix still couldn’t put up a strong showing. In college, he was praised for his incredible accuracy and arm strength, but in three starts for the Falcons, he could only deliver 737 passing yards, 4 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions on a 58% completion percentage. Now perhaps this is a harsh assessment given that he rode the bench for nearly the entire season before being put in at the end of the season, but he will certainly get his chance next year to prove himself as an NFL quarterback.

Caleb Williams: D-

I had a lot of concerns about Caleb Williams as an NFL prospect, but I didn’t expect essentially all of them to come to fruition. No one can deny that he has all the tangibles to be an excellent NFL quarterback, but what is concerning are the intangibles that were demonstrated this season in Chicago. At USC, Williams showed a willingness to pass up easy rhythm throws to try and make the big highlight plays that required him to play like superman, but in his rookie season it looked like he couldn’t just make the easy plays look simple. He would hold onto the ball too long and it resulted in him being the most sacked quarterback in the NFL last season. This would constantly set the offense behind the chains and severely hurt the offense's ability to score points consistently. People can blame the Bears offensive line, but there were simply too many offensive weapons at Caleb Williams’ disposal to deliver so little offensive production. Hopefully, Williams can have a bounce back season next year with Ben Johnson at the helm to prevent him from becoming yet another Bears quarterback bust.