If you were expecting some sort of correction where all the good quarterbacks were finally good again in Week 12, you were mistaken. This season remains a mess and the MVP race remains confusing.
Let’s rank these bad boys.
32. Zach Wilson, New York Jets
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Last week’s ranking: 31
Week 12 stats: 14-of-24, 145 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush TD
Season stats: 1,313 yards, 4 TD, 10 INT, 1 rush TD
Wilson returned from his knee injury and basically picked up where he left off. That means he wasn’t good, unfortunately.
New England Patriots
31. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
Last week’s ranking: 25
Week 12 stats: 5-of-21, 92 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT, 1 rush TD
Season stats: 289 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT, 3 rush TD
The party ended real quick for Newton, who looked very promising in his first couple appearances back with the Panthers. Now he’s got to show whether he’s the guy who looked good against the Football team or was a catastrophe against the Dolphins.
30. Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
Last week’s ranking: 30
Week 12 stats: 23-of-42, 228 yards, 39 rush yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 2,369 yards, 9 TD, 10 INT, 231 rush yards, 2 rush TD
Lawrence’s forgettable rookie season continues. I blame the absence of both D.J. Chark and a semi-competent program.
29. Daniel Jones, New York Giants
Last week’s ranking: 27
Week 12 stats: 19-of-30, 202 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 30 rush yards
Season stats: 2,226 yards, 9 TD, 7 INT, 298 rush yards, 2 rush TD
Jones has played 11 games this season and thrown for just one or zero touchdowns in nine of them.
28. Tyrod Taylor, Houston Texans
Last week’s ranking: 28
Week 12 stats: 17-of-26, 158 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 30 rush yards
Season stats: 921 yards, 5 TD, 4 INT, 3 rush TD
The Jets are very bad. Posting a 22.1 QBR against the Jets is very, very bad.
27. Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins
Last week’s ranking: 29
Week 12 stats: 27-of-31, 230 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Season stats: 1,701 yards, 10 TD, 6 INT, 3 rush TD
The Dolphins are winners of three straight, but the quarterback hasn’t gotten any better.
26. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
Last week’s ranking: N/A
Week 12 stats: 21-of-25, 171 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Season stats: 2,280 yards, 10 TD, 6 INT
Goff returned from injury, turned in his best performance of the season and lost. Such is life as a Lions quarterback.
25. Whoever Starts for the Chicago Bears
Last week’s ranking: 24 (Andy Dalton)
Week 12 stats: 24-of-39, 317 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 11 rush yards (Andy Dalton)
Dalton is taking the first-team reps, but Justin Fields has returned to practice as he works his way back from a rib injury.
24. Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans
Last week’s ranking: 22
Week 12 stats: 11-of-21, 93 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 24 rush yards
Season stats: 2,774 yards, 14 TD, 13 INT, 196 rush yards, 5 rush TD
It’s been a terrible year for Tannehill. Not only is he not the same without his offensive weapons, he’s downright bad.
23. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers
Last week’s ranking: 20
Week 12 stats: 24-of-41, 263 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
Season stats: 2,522 yards, 14 TD, 6 INT
In addition to the two picks, Roethlisberger lost a fumble in Pittsburgh’s blowout loss to the Bengals.
22. Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
Last week’s ranking: 26
Week 12 stats: 18-of-37, 247 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Season stats: 2,413 yards, 11 TD, 6 INT, 1 rush TD
Mayfield got a vote of confidence from his GM this week, which should tell you the season has gone disappointing enough for his job to even be in question.
21. Whoever Starts for the New Orleans Saints
Last week’s ranking: 12 (Trevor Siemian)
Week 12 stats: 17-of-29, 163 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT (Trevor Siemian)
Thursday’s game against the Cowboys looks to be a Taysom Hill start as long as he’s healthy. Meh.
20. Taylor Heinicke, Washington Football Team
Last week’s ranking: 23
Week 12 stats: 27-of-35, 223 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 2,613 yards, 16 TD, 10 INT, 271 rush yards, 1 rush TD
Heinicke’s thrown five touchdowns and just one pick over Washington’s three-game win streak.
19. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons
Last week’s ranking: 21
Week 12 stats: 19-of-29, 190 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 2,617 yards, 16 TD, 11 INT, 1 rush TD
Ryan was good enough to eek by the Jaguars. Not super impressive.
18. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
Last week’s ranking: 17
Week 12 stats: 14-of-31,129 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT, 77 rush yards
Season stats: 351 yards, 2,435 yards, 13 TD, 8 INT, 695 rush yards, 8 rush TD
Hurts needs to get past both an ankle injury and a terrible performance against the Giants.
17. Derek Carr, Las Vegas Raiders
Last week’s ranking: 19
Week 12 stats: 24-of-39, 317 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 21 rush yards
Season stats: 3,414 yards, 17 TD, 9 INT
He wasn’t anything special, but Carr played his best game in nearly a month in Vegas’ Thanksgiving win over the Cowboys.
16. Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers
Last week’s ranking: 15
Week 12 stats: 17-of-26, 230 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 2,342 yards, 13 TD, 6 INT
The 49ers reportedly turned down a second-round pick from the Patriots for Garoppolo last year. He’s been pretty good this season and the team has to move on to Trey Lance at some point. What kind of return can San Francisco reasonably expect?
15. Teddy Bridgewater, Denver Broncos
Last week’s ranking: 18
Week 12 stats: 11-of-18, 129 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 1 rush TD
Season stats: 2,518 yards, 15 TD, 5 INT, 2 rush TD
The numbers don’t jump off the page, but Bridgewater put them up through a shin injury. He’s expected to be OK going forward.
14. Mac Jones, New England Patriots
Last week’s ranking: 16
Week 12 stats: 23-of-32, 310 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Season stats: 2,850 yards, 16 TD, 8 INT
Jones had good numbers, but looked bad at points in the Patriots’ win over the Titans. He got lucky on a dropped pick-six.
13. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
Last week’s ranking: 13
Week 12 stats: 20-of-24, 190 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush TD
Season stats: 2,835 yards, 22 TD, 12 INT, 1 rush TD
The interceptions have been a problem, so Burrow throwing only one over the last two games is borderline cause for celebration.
12. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
Last week’s ranking: 14
Week 12 stats: 20-of-31, 247 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 16 rush yards
Season stats: 1,811 yards, 12 TD, 3 INT, 1 rush TD
The Seahawks are in a bad way. Wilson played better last week, but that’s partially because he was dreadful (no passing touchdowns, two picks) the two weeks prior.
11. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
Last week’s ranking: 9
Week 12 stats: 20-of-32, 165 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT, 68 rush yards
Season stats: 2,612 yards, 15 TD, 12 INT, 707 rush yards, 2 rush TD
Jackson was mad about his performance despite getting the win over the Browns, and he should have been. The Browns stink.
10. Carson Wentz, Indianapolis Colts
Last week’s ranking: 11
Week 12 stats: 24-of-44, 306 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT, 21 rush yards
Season stats: 2,790 yards, 21 TD, 5 INT, 1 rush TD
Even if he wasn’t great, Wentz outperformed Tom Brady Sunday. He’s been a good pickup for Indianapolis.
9. Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals
Last week’s ranking: 10
Week 12 stats: BYE
Season stats: 2,276 yards, 17 TD, 7 INT, 147 rush yards, 3 rush TD
Murray hasn’t played in over a month at this point. He’s got a good chance to return to action with the Cardinals coming off the bye.
8. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
Last week’s ranking: 8
Week 12 stats: BYE
Season stats: 3,200 yards, 25 TD, 11 INT, 238 rush yards, 1 rush TD
The Chiefs have won four straight, but it’s been an underwhelming season for Mahomes. He comes off the bye hoping to look more like the Week 10 version (5 TD, 0 INT) than the Week 11 guy (0 TD, 1 INT).
7. Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers
Last week’s ranking: 5
Week 12 stats: 28-of-44, 303 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 36 rush yards
Season stats: 3,230 yards, 24 TD, 10 INT, 243 rush yards, 1 rush TD
Herbert has had his two highest rushing totals of the season the last two weeks. He’s as well-rounded a QB as you’ll find in the league.
6. Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams
Last week’s ranking: 7
Week 12 stats: 21-of-38, 302 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 3,316 yards, 27 TD, 9 INT
After two bad weeks, Stafford got back to being a volume stats guy. He’s thrown for at least three touchdowns six times this season.
5. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
Last week’s ranking: 6
Week 12 stats: 28-of-45, 307 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 1 rush TD
Season stats: 2,878 yards, 23 TD, 4 INT, 3 rush TD
Rodgers might have surgery on his toe. We’ve had to talk about his body way too much this season.
4. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings
Last week’s ranking: 2
Week 12 stats: 20-of-32, 238 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 3,013 yards, 23 TD, 3 INT, 1 rush TD
The Vikings are easily the worst team getting a great performance out of their QB.
3. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Last week’s ranking: 4
Week 12 stats: 32-of-47, 375 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Season stats: 2,932 yards, 22 TD, 7 INT, 1 rush TD
The Cowboys lost again, but Prescott bounced back from his dud against the Chiefs.
2. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
Last week’s ranking: 3
Week 12 stats: 23-of-28, 260 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT, 43 rush yards
Season stats: 3,071 yards, 25 TD, 10 INT, 383 rush yards, 3 rush TD
Whoever wins MVP this year is going to have a lot of interceptions. Allen has seven in his last four games.
1. Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Last week’s ranking: 1
Week 12 stats: 25-of-34, 226 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Season stats: 3,403 yards, 30 TD, 9 INT, 1 rush TD
Brady didn’t even play well last week and he still holds the top spot. What a weird year for quarterbacks.