Ranking all 32 NFL quarterbacks after Week 8

Showing their age

This is a bit of a sad tier, because as of the end of this past season, all three of these men were universally accepted as tier one or two names. However, there’s a major flaw with each of them right now, that deservedly drops them down the list.

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For one of them, it’s a lack of urgency to put defenses on their heels with attacking down the field, while for another it’s the sudden inability to consistently drive his offense down the field. For the final one, turnovers remain a huge issue, but in a more hurtful fashion than last season, due to big plays not outweighing those.

#12 Aaron Rodgers

Green Bay Packers v Washington Commanders

First and foremost, I don’t believe there’s been a major decline physically with Rodgers that pushes him all the way down here, after winning back-to-back MVP awards.

His movement to avoid pressure isn’t quite the same anymore, but we just saw him uncork a laser to Samori Toure at the end of the Sunday Night game at Buffalo that went 50 yards through the air without any wobble to it.

However, the fact that he has to rely on this seventh-round pick to ad-lib for a secondary route is indicative of the trust issues he’s had with the rest of this young receiving corp. Plus, they’ve had had some issues in protection.

Still, Rodgers himself has shown an unwillingness to read the field and deliver to his targets bound to break open. It’s all quick game and RPOs, along with a couple of pre-determined vertical shots one-on-one.

He’s currently 23rd among starters and on pace for finishing with a negative mark in EPA per play for the first time in his career (-0.011).

Two bright spots, Rodgers is behind only Kirk Cousins in on-target percentage of throws (81.1%), and he has the best passer rating in the red-zone among NFL quarterbacks (127.1).

#13 Tom Brady

Raw quarterback numbers would put Brady above Rodgers, but it's clear from game footage that the Tampa Bay QB is nowhere near his usual standards.

Ranking dead-last in average yards per rush as a team (3.0) certainly plays a part in this, but the Bucs have averaged the eighth-fewest points per drive this season and Brady hasn’t been the killer we’ve seen for the majority of his career.

So far, he’s only converted 32% of third-down attempts as a passer and they’ve been dreadful on third-and-eight plus, going 5-of-39 through the air.

Brady himself has only one interception so far, but he’s also had a couple more go off the finger-tips of defenders and he’s taken a couple of sacks on got-to-have-it downs, instead of risking throws into traffic.

Other than the matchup with the Chiefs, where they were down by 18 points at the two-minute warning of the first half and got much of their production in quasi garbage time, Tampa hasn’t scored more than 21 points in any game.

#14 Matthew Stafford

Stafford isn’t as old as the other two guys, but his lengthy injury history is starting to show and the reigning Super Bowl champs have been tough to watch on offense for most of the season.

At the moment, Stafford is 29th overall among quarterbacks in EPA per play (-0.067), with three backups in front of him. What’s really sad is the fact that considering he finished third last season in explosive pass plays (20+ yard completions), he’s now at 35th with just 6.0 intended air yards per pass attempt. Only Matt Ryan, who has been benched by the Indianapolis Colts, has thrown more interceptions than Stafford's eight.

Once again, the run game has left a lot to be desired (ahead of only the Bucs with 3.3 yards per carry), and there’s no way we can overlook the fact that Stafford has already been sacked 24 times through seven games, when that number was at 30 for all of 2021 (in 17 contests).

He does have the second-highest completion percentage among starters (70.5%) and can still deliver some big-time throws though.