Everyone around the NFL has spoken to determine the best the league has to offer, with plenty of discourse centering on rankings, as always. Let's take a look at the next phase, specifically at the game's most important position. As they do every year, the players voted for the league's Top 100 for the 2024 season, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott were named the league's top-five quarterbacks.
NFL executives had a similar list with Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Allen, Jackson and Matthew Stafford among their top five, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler . All of those names will be taken out of the equation. Beyond that point exists an exciting group of signal-callers ready to establish themselves as elite performers.
Five stand out with the potential to cement their status among the league's superstars. Some are already on the verge. Strong back-to-back seasons will go a long way to establishing consistency.
A leveling up of another's game seems forthcoming. The final possibility is based purely on potential, with as much upside as anyone has seen at the position. A standout season this fall will almost certainly place them in rare company.
One season was all C.J. Stroud needed to place himself among the league's best quarterbacks.
His 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign for the Houston Texans already had him in some conversations as a top-five quarterback. But he can put any discussion to rest by building upon last year's outstanding rookie effort. The 2023 second overall draft pick threw for 4,108 yards, with a 23-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, while helping to lead a previously moribund franchise to an AFC South title, a playoff appearance and a postseason victory.
Opponents never saw a wet-behind-the ears overwhelmed rookie; Stroud was silky smooth from the onset. "He's as good as anybody, honestly," a veteran NFC scout told Fowler. "He's got to do it again, but the arm talent combined with taking care of the ball and the ability to process was impressive.
" A second season of similar production will help elevate the 22-year-old's standing, though the expectations should be much higher. Stroud just experienced his first full offseason with the team. Bobby Slowik is returning as offensive coordinator.
The Texans added Stefon Diggs via trade from the Buffalo Bills. Wide receiver Tank Dell and right tackle Tytus Howard will be back from injuries. New starting running back Joe Mixon posted four 1,000-yard campaigns in the last six seasons, while the Texans had zero in the last four.
An upward trajectory for Stroud isn't difficult to project based on how the organization continued to built around its franchise quarterback. If he was already on the verge of being a top-five quarterback, his natural progression should provide nothing less than elite status. Tua Tagovailoa is the maestro of the NFL's most explosive offense.
He needed time to hit all of the right notes, though. He now finds himself in the pocket..
.and possibly out of it. The 26-year-old is coming off a season in which he led the league in passing yardage (4,624).
He also set career highs in completions (388), attempts (560), completion percentage (69.3) and touchdown passes (29). Most importantly, the 2020 fifth overall pick stayed healthy.
During the prior season, he suffered from multiple blows to the head, but he played in all 18 games last year. Tagovailoa is already known as an accurate passer, with the penchant to connecting on deep passes to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. But he wanted to get in better shape this offseason and did .
In doing so, the Alabama product will add another dimension to the Miami offense. "Well, I think that'll do a lot," Tagovailoa told reporters in July. "Being more mobile, being able to run the ball a little more, being able to try to simulate that I am trying to run the ball a little more then pull up and able to catch someone off guard in a way.
I just think being more mobile, being lighter on your feet, all of that helps with this game and everything in this game helps. That's sort of the thought there." Improved mobility at quarterback will only make Mike McDaniel's scheme more threatening.
Another healthy season from Tagovailoa, a strong surrounding cast and an elite scheme should make the quarterback an MVP front-runner. The question about whether San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is an MVP candidate or simply a game-manager persists. Maybe he's both, which is OK.
"It's funny, people call me a system quarterback and a game manager and stuff," he told Sports Illustrated 's Albert Breer . "But, honestly, I feel like I can be better at that. That's, I think, what may be missing.
" In his own locker room, his team already views the 24-year-old as an elite quarterback. "People don't give him as much credit as other quarterbacks because of how many other highly-touted players we have on the team," All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa said. "We wouldn't be where we're at without him.
I think he's a top-five quarterback in the league." Confidence in the locker room is earned, because those around the quarterback know exactly what he adds to the squad. Purdy isn't perfect by any means.
He's a seventh-round pick who just went through his first full NFL offseason. The third-year quarterback understands he has plenty of room to grow. The 2022 Mr.
Irrelevant explained a specific area where he thinks he can be better to help the Niners' offense: "You take your drop and use your eyes and then your feet. And when you hitch to a concept and it's not there, you read with your feet. So then you go to your second option off your second hitch.
It's things like that. Anyways, we get to OTAs and the same sort of thing popped up. I'm getting off things too quick.
I'm reading with my feet really fast. I just wasn't in rhythm. And so we've seen on film.
And then in OTAs, it's like, 'Dude, you got to slow it down. And even if it's a four-yard check down, let's just work on it.'" The beauty of being established as a starter is the individual can then drill down on the minutiae of playing the position.
Yes, Purdy benefits from a tremendous supporting cast and one of the game's best offensive schemes. At the same time, he's making all of it go. Precision and reliability in the scheme should be expected from a quarterback.
If they do so at a high enough level, they will be counted among the league's best. When the Green Bay Packers met the Chicago Bears in Week 18 of last season, a realization occurred that the Bears just didn't have the right person at quarterback because Jordan Love looked so far advanced when compared to Justin Fields. Love is now in Year 2 as the Pack's starter, while the Bears are restarting with Caleb Williams behind center.
After sitting three seasons behind Aaron Rodgers, Love looked like a continuation of the greatest string of quarterback succession in any NFL franchise's history. "I think that's real," an AFC exec said when asked if Love will continue to play at a high level, per Fowler. "Arm talent and confidence and a good system around him.
He'll turn the ball over some because he's so confident. He'll miss here and there. But you can live with that.
Short sample size, so he's got to do it again. But he will." The most exciting part about Love and the Packers offense is how young the entire group is.
The quarterback's top four wide receivers and two tight ends are all 25 or younger. Four of the projected starting five offensive linemen are 26 or younger. The group should improve upon last year's 11th-ranked offense.
Individually, Love, 25, wants to be more of a playmaker. What separates the best of the best is how they create outside of structure. "That's definitely a goal of mine, to keep working the scramble drill when I get outside of the pocket," he told reporters .
"Just keep looking for those big plays down the field." Last season, the first-year starter finished second in the NFL with 32 touchdown tosses yet ranked outside of the top 10 in average yards per attempt. Green Bay's offense is capable of being far more explosive.
Anthony Richardson is the wild card, because no quarterback packs more potential than last year's fourth overall draft pick. A healthy Richardson is akin to a Hellcat tank , with similar firepower attached to his right shoulder. The second-year signal-caller is up to 255 pounds yet runs a legit 4.
4-something 40-yard dash. His arm strength is awesome. However, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback played in only four games last season.
During that time, he suffered a concussion and an AC joint sprain that required season-ending surgery. How the 22-year-old protects himself will go a long way toward how successful the Colts can be. Very few question his natural ability and how much of a threat he can be, and the team fully intends to weaponize its quarterback.
"People ask this, too ...
'Hey, are you gonna limit the run game?'" head coach Shane Steichen told reporters . "And I kind of think like, 'Shoot, are you gonna limit Steph Curry from shooting 3-pointers. Well, that's one of Anthony (Richardson's) strengths.
We're not gonna get away from that." The same applies to Lamar Jackson or prime Russell Wilson. Mobility is a large part of their games, which makes them nightmares to defend.
But it also falls on the individual to make sure they're not taking the types of hits that will knock them out of games, even if they're built like Richardson. On the field, Indianapolis has a good surrounding cast. Jonathan Taylor shares the backfield.
The Colts offensive line returned to form last season. Wide receivers Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs, AD Mitchell and a slew of big, athletic tight ends—coupled with Steichen's play-calling—make Indy's offense one of the league's more underappreciated units.
Richardson is the ultimate specimen behind center. He'll be unleashed if he can stay on the field..
