2020 Starting NFL Quarterbacks — Ranked
We wouldn’t typically rank a rookie this highly, but Joe Burrow was so good in college that he seems like a guarantee at the next level. His senior season at LSU, which included a Heisman Trophy and national title win, has been called by some the best season by any player in 150 years of college football history. In case you missed it, he threw for a mind-blowing 5,671 yards in 15 games, completed 76.3% of his passes and threw for 60 touchdowns to just six picks. Throw in the fact that he hasn’t missed a start since before high school and you’ve got a prospect that only the Bengals could screw up.
Given the fact that he’ll be 43 years old when the season is scheduled to start and he’ll be playing in a new offense for the first time since 2000, it’s probably insane to have Tom Brady ranked this high on the list. However, we’ve seen him consistently defy all logic when it comes to reasonable expectations at every turn in his legendary career.
Brady hasn’t missed a start since 2016 and has been playing some of the best football of his life since then, averaging better than 4,300 passing yards a season in the past three years. Brady has never been careless with the football, and he’s going to have plenty to prove being away from Bill Belichick for the first time ever, which is why we think he’ll have another memorable year. Plus, having Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and his old buddy Rob Gronkowski to throw to gives him one of the best receiving groups he’s ever had.
This season is going to be a big one for Kyler Murray to prove he belongs among the league’s best quarterbacks. The reigning rookie of the year gave the Cardinals a combined 4,266 yards of offense per game in 2019 with his arm and legs, immediately putting defenses on notice. His ratio of 20 passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions left something to be desired, but Murray avoided making the kind of boneheaded mistakes that cause fans to give up on rookie stars early. In 2020, he’ll have the considerable talents of receiver DeAndre Hopkins added to his arsenal, setting him up for an even better year.
Another guy who has defied the law of aging is Drew Brees, but we’ve softened our expectations for him a bit in 2020. His numbers have been mind-blowing over the past few seasons, including leading the league in completion percentage for three straight years, but 2019 saw him uncharacteristically banged up. The icon missed five games, which is the most he’d missed since 2003. That’s not something we’d worry about with a 25-year-old QB, but with Brees now north of 41, we’re not sure what to expect.
You might think Matt Ryan hasn’t been the same since that soul-shattering loss in the 2017 Super Bowl, but really, it’s the Falcons who’ve fallen apart around him. Ryan is still giving his teammates gaudy numbers every season, averaging about 4,500 passing yards, 27 touchdown passes and 11 picks per season in the past three years. While Ryan led the league in completions in 2019, he threw the most interceptions he’d thrown since 2015, which isn’t a great sign. Will the addition of Todd Gurley help bring Ryan back to the MVP conversation? We’ll soon find out.
Now is the time the Patriots are probably wishing they’d held onto Jimmy Garoppolo. He’s finally blossomed into the legitimate starting quarterback that Bill Belichick apparently saw him becoming. During a breakout 2019 season, Garoppolo started all 16 games for the first time in his career and led the 49ers to a 13-3 record and a Super Bowl appearance. He threw for nearly 4,000 yards, completed nearly 70% of his passes and had a passer rating of 102.0. There’s no reason to think he’ll go backward at this point.
Deshaun Watson has been simply incredible over the past two seasons, continuing to make his case for being counted among the game’s elite quarterbacks. He’s missed only one start since 2018 and has given the Texans an average of nearly 4,500 total offensive yards per season through the air and on the ground. The fact that he’s personally accounted for 32 touchdowns per season in that span also accounts for his high ranking. He lost DeAndre Hopkins in the offseason, which could seriously damage his passing figures, but we think Watson has more than enough talent to deserve this placement.
There’s still a hot debate over whether or not Kirk Cousins deserves the ridiculous money the Vikings are paying him, but he’s certainly been proving his value over the past few years. The team itself hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations, but Cousins has missed only one start in the past two seasons and has averaged 28 passing touchdowns to just eight interceptions in that time. He’s proven to be one of the game’s most accurate passers and doesn’t make the kind of mistakes that quarterbacks who are lower on this list frequently do, completing 69.7% of his passes since 2018.
Aaron Rodgers took the Packers back to the NFC Championship Game in 2019 and what did he get for his trouble? The franchise trading up in the 2020 NFL Draft and taking a quarterback in the first round. That could either light a fire under the future Hall of Famer heading into this season or make him miserable, but we are expecting his competitive spirit to send him soaring. In the past couple of years, he’s protected the football like a mother bear watches her cub, throwing an incredible six total interceptions in the past two seasons, all while never missing a start.
Rodgers has been the picture of consistent excellence for a decade and we don’t expect that to change a bit in 2020.
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