Five quarterbacks up and five down after the first day of the 2023 regular season
Week 1 of the regular season NFL There were some surprising results, but few truly standout performances from the quarterbacks. Especially one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league.
Names like Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Daniel Jones, Lamar Jackson and others performed mediocre to poor regardless of the results. As if that wasn’t enough, all three rookie quarterbacks who started on Opening Day lost, as did the only quarterback selected in the first round last year. And that’s without even mentioning the catastrophic injury Aaron Rodgers.
Without further ado, we’re picking five quarterbacks up and five down after the first 16 games of the regular season.
FIVE ON THE RISE
No one had a better overall QBR in Week 1 than Purdy at 91.3, the only passer to exceed the 90-point barrier on the 0-100 scale. The 49ers quarterback ranked eighth with 7.6 yards per pass attempt and completed two touchdowns through the air with no interceptions. Purdy’s decent afternoon looked even better in hindsight, considering the opposing quarterback was the first quarterback selected in the same draft, while the current Niners starter was the last player selected in the final round.
Tagovailoa led the league with 466 passing yards and an average of 10.4 yards per pass attempt, making him the only quarterback in the league to finish in double figures in that statistic. Tagovailoa was also the sixth-best passer in inaccurate passes, throwing just 9.1 percent of his passes, and his 87.5 was the third-best QBR total for Week 1. Overall, it was a brilliant afternoon for the Dolphins quarterback, throwing three touchdown passes versus one interception.
No other quarterback threw three touchdown passes without interceptions on the day, and Love posted the sixth-best overall QBR in the NFL, 73.3, in his first start as the Packers’ permanent starting quarterback, his second career start. Los finished Game 1 as the seventh passer with the most passing yards, 245, and his 9.1 yards per pass attempt was the third-best average of the day.
Although it wasn’t an offensive fireworks duel, the quarterbacks were efficient in the Raiders-Broncos matchup in Week 1. Garoppolo had a league-low 3.8 percent en route to a QBR of 83.4 overall, ranking fourth on the day. Garoppolo also ranked fourth in completion percentage at 76.9 percent and was sixth in yards per pass attempt at 7.7. Finally, he also led the league in a better-than-expected completion percentage of 12.4 percent, along with his two touchdown passes versus one interception.
Starting the season with two touchdown passes and no interceptions is a positive step for Wilson, who is looking to bounce back from what was by far his worst professional season. Wilson completed 79.4 percent of his passes, the second-best mark in the league, and also excelled in inaccurate pass measurement, being the third-best player with just 6.3 percent of his passes. He also posted a better-than-expected completion rate of 7.8 percent, seventh-best in the NFL.
FIVE DOWN
Pickett’s overall QBR of 23.8 placed him 22nd in the league on day one, and his 5.0 yards per pass attempt placed him 27th, the same spot he inaccurately occupied in the passing metric, with 22.2 percent of his deliveries. The Steelers quarterback threw a touchdown pass against two interceptions and was significantly outclassed on the field by the last player selected in the 2022 draft, when Pickett was the only quarterback selected in the first round.
It wasn’t a golden debut for the first player selected in last April’s draft, with one touchdown against two interceptions and just 146 passing yards, good for 25th in the NFL. The Alabama product recorded an overall QBR of 14.5, ranking 29th, and he ranked 30th with just 52.6 percent of his completions. As if that wasn’t enough, his 3.8 yards per pass attempt ranked also ranked 30th in the NFL and his 21.9 percent inaccurate pass rate ranked 26th. Young, along with CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson – the three quarterbacks selected in the last first round – fell in their NFL debut.
For less than a week, the highest-paid player in NFL history was the NFL’s 32nd quarterback in passing yards in Week 1 with just 82. Burrow also ranked 32nd in passing completion percentage with 45.2 and 32nd in average yards per pass, with a microscopic figure of 2.6. He ranked 31st in the league with a negative completion rate of -13.9 percent above expectations and 28th with an inaccuracy of 23.3 percent, resulting in an overall QBR of 20.3, making him Finished 28th in the NFL, throwing no touchdowns and no interceptions on the day.
No one performed worse than Tannehill in touchdowns/interceptions ratio at zero and three, respectively, leaving the Titans quarterback ranked 31st with an overall QBR of 10.3. Tannehill also ranked 29th in graduation rate at 24.2 percent and ranked 31st in graduation rate at 47.1 percent and 26th in higher-than-expected graduation rate, down 10.3 percent. Tannehill already shares the NFL lead in interceptions thrown with Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills.
The Giants quarterback was the only one in the entire NFL with an overall QBR in single digits on Opening Day, posting a paltry 8.4 despite his two interceptions and no touchdown passes. Jones finished 29th with 53.9 percent of his passes and 31st with just 3.7 yards per pass attempt. Additionally, he posted a -12.3 percent decline in completions above expectations, ranking him No. 30 in the NFL, and he was also the No. 31 quarterback in passing yards with 104. Finally, he was He ranked No. 20 in inaccurate pass percentage, at 18.5 percent, and no one among quarterbacks ran the ball more than him, with 13 carries for 43 yards, an average of just 3.3 per attempt.
