Another week down, another week to evaluate the performances of the three starting rookie quarterbacks in the league. This week was a bit of a change up with two of our usual starters out with injuries, but we will evaluate them all the same.
Let’s take a look at each rookie and rank their Week 3 performances from best to worst:
1. CJ Stroud, QB, Houston Texans
While CJ Stroud was ultimately going to end up at the top of this list regardless of what happened, but we truly don’t want to understate the excellent performance that Stroud provided in a huge week three win over the division rival Jacksonville Jaguars. Putting up a career high passer rating of 118.8 as well as a slid 280 yards through the air with two touchdowns, Stroud performed above anyone’s expectation of him this point in the season. Stroud once again looked calm, collected, and accurate, legitimately outdueling his franchise quarterback counterpart in Trevor Lawrence.
If Stroud remains on this excellent pace he is set up to shatter multiple rookie records and glide to the offensive rookie of the year trophy. Stroud has set the Houston Texans up as a sleeper team to compete with anyone in the league, and gives them a shot to win each and every week.
N/A: Bryce Young, QB, Carolina Panthers and Anthony Richardson, QB, Indianapolis Colts
It was a bit of an oddity to see these two franchises without their first round faces of the franchise out on the field, but did either team suffer much without their stars? In both cases it is very hard to say as both the Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts made it a top priority to saddle their young signal callers with the two best backups in the league.
Both Andy Dalton for the Panthers and Gardner Minshew for the Colts looked perfectly capable in their roles as both lead their team to tight games. Minshew of course proved successful in a gutty win over the Baltimore Ravens. Dalton was unable to seal a win but did provide the best offensive performance of the season for Carolina.
Both these rookie quarterbacks have shown enough to be comfortably placed back into the starting position for week four, and both teams have to feel pretty great about the safety blanket the have behind each of their young franchise quarterbacks.
