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Top-10 NFL quarterbacks of 2020
Date: October 30, 2020By: Jimmy Bliss
In an ever-changing league, one thing remains constant in the NFL. The quarterback is the most valuable position in the game. If you have the best quarterback on the field, chances are you have a good shot at winning the game. This is the exact reason why the Patriots, Packers, and Saints have been so dominant over the past decade. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees have been playing at an elite level for as long as I can remember.
However, there has been a changing of the guard recently, as a number of young quarterbacks have made their mark on the NFL and have dethroned Brady, Rodgers, and Brees as the best QB in the land. A few honorable mentions that just missed the cut of being considered a top-10 QB are Kyler Murray, Matt Stafford, Carson Wentz, Josh Allen, and Ryan Tannehill. But without further ado, here are the 10 best signal callers in 2020.
10. Cam Newton
After a lost 2019 season in Carolina, Newton took his talents to America’s Northeast and teamed up with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Standing at 6-foot 5-inches tall and weighing 245 pounds, Newton is built like an NFL linebacker. He packs quite the punch when you try to tackle him, and never seems to go down on the initial hit.
Newton also has a cannon of an arm, throwing the ball 40-50 yards downfield with relative ease. Just when Brady leaves the AFC East and the rest of the division thinks they have a chance to top the division, in comes Cam Newton to solidify New England as the best team in the AFC East, and the best QB in the division.
9. Dak Prescott
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Being the quarterback of America’s team comes with its fair share of scrutiny. All eyes are on you, and the American public gets ready to criticize you on the littlest of mistakes. However, Prescott has done more than his fair share in Dallas. After replacing Tony Romo in his rookie season, Prescott has a career record of 42-27, trailing only Tom Brady and Drew Brees in wins since making his NFL debut. He has elite athleticism and leadership skills, two characteristics that coaches simply can’t teach.
Prescott’s mindset of doing whatever he can do to win is contagious, which only makes him more beloved by his teammates. He finished second in the NFL in passing yards last season with 4,902 and recorded an impressive 72.8 QBR, which was the fifth best in the NFL. But just as it all started going right for Prescott in 2020, as he was at a historic pace through the first 4 games of the season, it all went wrong. He suffered a gruesome ankle injury in week five and will be sidelined for the remainder of the 2020 season. But this injury shouldn’t overshadow what Prescott has done to this point. It’s now time for Jerry Jones to open his checkbook and reward Prescott with a lucrative contract.
8. Ben Roethlisberger
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The last time Roethlisberger played a full 16-game season, all he did was led the NFL in passing yards with 5,129. He’s turned heads in the NFL ever since his rookie season in 2004, and even in his 17th season, he looks as comfortable as ever. At the age of 38, Big Ben is still the second best QB in the AFC North, and fourth best in the AFC overall. His ability to escape the pocket and find teammates is second to none. He’s the type of quarterback that you love having on your team but hate playing against. Roethlisberger has also mastered the art of the pump fake, which causes defenders to leave their feet, allowing Big Ben more time to find an open receiver.
Even without star playmakers Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes and Antonio Brown on the field, he finds ways to win football games. Expect to see Ben Roethlisberger at the top of his game for another season or two, and he could very well bring the Steelers to the AFC Championship game, and if all goes well, even a potential Super Bowl.
7. Matt Ryan
Atlanta Falcons
The 35-year-old signal caller that resides in Atlanta checks in at number seven on this list. At this age, most quarterbacks begin to regress, but not Ryan. He has continued to play at an elite level since 2010, averaging 4483 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions over that span. However, his numbers don’t serve him justice. You’ll struggle to find many quarterbacks that are better pre-snap than Ryan, as he seems to audible out of plays that may put the Falcons in trouble. Just last season, Matty Ice made a brilliant read against the Eagles on a fourth down, with the game on the line. The initial play call was for the wide receivers to run crossing routes, but Ryan recognized that play would take too long to develop with the Eagles showing blitz. So, he audibled to a screen to Julio Jones. Ryan was under pressure by a few Eagles, and managed to throw the perfect pass to Jones, who took it to the house.
With a career filled with fantastic adjustments pre-snap and post-snap, Matt Ryan will end his career with a gold jacket, and a shrine in Canton, Ohio.
6. Tom Brady
You can’t make a top-10 QB list and omit the greatest player in the history of the NFL – Brady. There has never been a quarterback who is better pre-snap than Brady and will never be one better than Brady. Watching him play is just like watching someone take a test but knows the answer to every question. When the defense gives him one look, he can quickly recognize what’s coming his way, and will audible to a play that favors the offense. Brady has regressed physically over the past few seasons, but his physical play has been masked by his mental abilities.
You don’t need to be the most athletic man on the field of play if you can outthink the room. Work smarter, not harder, and you’ll get the same results. Now that Brady is 42-years-old, he took his talents to Tampa Bay, and has continued to play at the same high level that he did in New England. With two fantastic wide receivers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Brady is set up perfectly to succeed in Tampa Bay, and prove that he is still an elite quarterback in 2020.
5. Deshaun Watson
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Watson kicks off the top-five on this countdown. He has been surrounded by disfunction and incompetence since his rookie season in 2017 but has overcome it week in and week out. Watson has never had an average offensive line and apart from Deandre Hopkins, never has had a good wide receiver to rely on. Factor in that the Texans run game is consistently one of the worst in the league, and you have a recipe for disaster. But in steps Watson, and everything seems to work. He makes Brandin Cooks, Will Fuller, and Randall Cobb look like one of the best wide receiver groups in the NFL, when on the surface, they appear to be an average trio.
When Watson took the field in Seattle during his rookie season, the NFL world knew a star was born. He threw for over 400 yards and four touchdowns, as well as rushed for 67 yards on the Legion of Boom, which is something the NFL world has never seen before. Unfortunately, he wound up missing the rest of his rookie season with a torn ACL following the narrow loss against the Seahawks, but he has built upon the success he laid out for himself every year since 2017 and has solidified himself as a superstar in the NFL.
4. Lamar Jackson
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The greatest rushing quarterback the NFL has ever seen checks in at number four. The Ravens game plan is relatively simple: put the ball in Jackson’s hands and let him run all over the defense. Once the defense stacks the box in effort to contain No. 8, he throws a deep ball to Marquise Brown, taking the top off the defense completely. At his best moments, Jackson can be the best player in the league, as seen by being named the NFL’s MVP in 2020. He can shake defenders out of their shoes and delivers one of the nastiest spin-moves in the NFL.
However, he doesn’t consistently play at the level that we all know he is capable of, which leads to him being ranked as the fourth best signal caller in the game. Once he sures up his accuracy throwing the football, Jackson will become truly unstoppable, and a cheat code for Baltimore. But for now, he’s on the outside looking in at the top three quarterbacks in the NFL.
3. Aaron Rodgers
Prior to the 2020 NFL season, there were an endless amount of questions surrounding the future of Rodgers. The Packers drafted QB Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, and many believed that Love would take over for Rodgers sooner rather than later. But those critics of Rodgers have been left dumbfounded by his start to the season. He has listened to all of headlines about him and used that as motivation to perform at an MVP level through the first six weeks of the season. Rodgers, now 36-years-old, still possesses that trademark arm strength that has gotten him to this point.
At any given moment, Rodgers can drop back in the pocket and launch the ball 65 yards downfield. This is a quality not many NFL players have, but for Rodgers, he lives for it. He also has a similar ability to read the defense as Brady, as you can see Rodgers switch the play up various times throughout a game.
Each audible seems to work out better than the last, eventually leading to points on each drive. The Packers may have found their QB of the future in this past NFL Draft, but their QB of the present remains one of the best in the game.
2. Russell Wilson
NFL Spinzone
Wilson just narrowly misses out as being called the best QB in the NFL. After the fall of the Legion of Boom, the Seahawks were destined to become just another mediocre NFL team, but Wilson has kept them afloat. He was always labeled as an average quarterback, and only won games because of his defense. Those who said that have been left red faced and have to admit to being wrong. No one throws a more accurate pass than Wilson in today’s game. If you need the ball to be thrown in a tight window of space, Wilson is the man for the job. He resembles a younger Brees, as he is a similar size physically, but equally as similar mentally. He emphasizes the importance of accuracy in his throws, as well as being the team’s
leader. When he steps on the field, Wilson is always the center of attention. Younger players look up to him as a mentor, and older players wish they were as talented as Wilson is.
What sets Wilson aside from many other quarterbacks is his escape ability. Just when you think you have him wrapped up in the backfield for a sack, he finds a crease and avoids taking the negative play. When he does escape a sack, he keeps his eyes downfield, and throws a strike to DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett. But if none of his targets are open, he doesn’t force the throw, and takes what the defense. Wilson is the definition of a global sports superstar and continues to show why he’s one of the best players in the NFL on a weekly basis.
1. Patrick Mahomes
What more is there to say about Patrick Mahomes? We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg from the former NFL and Super Bowl MVP. Many elite quarterbacks can’t achieve these accolades in their entire career, yet Mahomes has been awarded with the two biggest honors in the league before his 25th birthday. In his fourth season now, Mahomes gets better every single game. He burst onto the scene throwing for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in his first season as a starting quarterback. Not bad for a 23-year-old, huh. But he was criticized for being a stereotypical gunslinger, who only compiled those statistics because of the amount of times he threw the football. He was also loose with the football, turning the ball over 14 times across 16 regular season games.
So, he took the offseason to refine himself as a passer and cleaned up on his turnovers. He finished the 2019 season with 4,031 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and just six turnovers in 13 games. His accuracy improved slightly each and every week, which was the deciding factor in the playoffs, allowing him to capture the first Lombardi Trophy of his career.
Through six weeks of the 2020 season, Mahomes looks even better than he did the previous two years. He is a much more polished and refined passer of the football than he looked earlier in his career. He doesn’t look to force the football like he would’ve done as a 23 or 24-year-old. He takes what the defense gives him, not putting the football in jeopardy. Mahomes has 15 touchdowns and just one interception through week six, and if he were to maintain this pace, he would finish with 40 touchdowns and two interceptions, which would be the greatest touchdown to interception ratio in NFL history.
While I do not expect Mahomes to keep up this historic pace, it goes to show you how much effort Mahomes has put in to better himself as a football player. It’s easy to lose motivation when you are the best player in your position in the NFL, especially after winning the Super Bowl just a few months ago, but he has done everything to resist that temptation.
Being surrounded by Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce will only make Mahomes a better player, as Hill and Kelce are two of the best offensive players in the NFL. He always has that security blanket over the middle of the field in Kelce, so if protection breaks down, he always has an open outlet. As for Hill, he is the fastest player in the league, and with Mahomes’ elite arm strength, it’s almost unfair to defend. Mahomes can throw the ball 40, 50, and even 60 yards with just the flick of his wrist. Considering he’s only 6-foot-3-inches and 230-pounds, the power that he possesses throwing the football is incredibly impressive. It should be scientifically impossible for him to throw the ball with that amount of power without exerting that little amount of energy, but much like the rest of his game, Mahomes cannot be explained.
We are watching history unfold before our very eyes, and if Patrick Mahomes continues to play at this high of a level, he will go down as the greatest player in NFL history. He for sure has the talent, he just needs to continue building upon his historic first three years. The ball is in your court, Mahomes.
Jimmy Bliss can be reached at james.bliss@student.shu.edu.
