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USA Today Sports Media Group

Sport

Tim Weaver

Ranking the top 32 quarterbacks in the NFL going into 2024 offseason

NFL United States Brock Purdy Florida 49ers Aaron Rodgers Patrick Mahomes Nevada Paradise NFC

Truth is a rare commodity these days, both in the larger world and in football analysis. While it’s a complicated game and there’s room for differing opinions, one need only examine the takes on the two quarterbacks who just played in the Super Bowl to see the crisis.

On the one hand, there’s Patrick Mahomes, who helped his team overcome a double-digit deficit to win the Super Bowl for the third time in his career. That alone is enough to thrust him into the greatest player ever conversation, and regardless of what you may have heard he is in fact the best who’s ever done it – no matter how many rings Tom Brady’s teams won or how many MVP awards Aaron Rodgers has. In fact, all due respect to Mahomes – but his take that Brady is actually the GOAT is a bad take. While he still needs time to catch up with Brady’s remarkable team accomplishments and Rodgers’ individual accolades, Mahomes is doing things that no QB in history has done and performing at a level we simply have not seen before.

Then on the other side there’s the real problem. The fact that for much of the regular season Brock Purdy of the 49ers was considered a legitimate MVP candidate speaks to the level of dysfunction in so much commentary about the game. Some folks get it, such as former Panthers quarterback and league MVP Cam Newton, who says we need to normalize the truth about the level of Purdy’s play.

Others do not, like Richard Sherman – who carries water for Purdy no matter how poorly he plays on any given Sunday. He may yet develop into a fine starter in this league, but ignore the numbers and actually watch Purdy perform and you’ll see that his throws are often wildly inaccurate, far too many of them are batted down at the line of scrimmage and he frequently makes bad decisions, resulting in turnover-worthy plays. Only through a combination of blind luck, brilliant playcalling and an obscene amount of All-Pro talent around him has Purdy produced the stats he has.

Sherman is hardly alone in his bizarre defense of Purdy’s game, though. Even Pro Football Focus has him vastly overrated, grading him out as the sixth-best quarterback in the league this season.

We don’t understand it, because based purely on what we have seen on the field, there are at least 20 other quarterbacks who would qualify as an upgrade for the 49ers. That’s exactly where we have Purdy placed – No. 21 at his position – heading into the 2024 offseason. Here’s how we rank the top 32.