AFC West quarterback rankings: Patrick Mahomes or Philip Rivers up top?
By Grant Tuttle
As we prepare for the regular season, we start a series on positional rankings from the AFC West. How are the quarterbacks ranked? We discuss.
The NFL regular season is coming, which means it’s time to make our predictions for the upcoming season. For our purposes, we wanted to gauge how the Kansas City Chiefs measure up against their AFC West competition after a year of considerable turnover within the division, including on the Chiefs own roster.
Today we begin with a divisional analysis of quarterbacks—namely, who has the best. With mostly familiar names, the pecking order may be similar to last season, or perhaps things have changed.
Here are our rankings and projections for the AFC West quarterbacks of the upcoming 2019-2020 NFL season.
1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs find themselves in a great situation in year three of the Patrick Mahomes era. Mahomes is the reigning MVP and has a chance to make a statement again this season. Although Mahomes is likely not going to put up the same statistics as he did last season, he plays at a different level than the rest of the AFC West quarterbacks. No-look passes, side-arm throws, and throwing across his body on the run is not necessarily typical of a good quarterback, but Mahomes has that ‘it’ factor.
To add to the lethality of Mahomes’s ability, the Chiefs have provided plenty of talented targets for the offense. With Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins on the outside, Travis Kelce has plenty of space in the middle of the field. That’s not to mention rookie speedster Mecole Hardman who is a playmaker and can line up anywhere. If defenses cannot slow down these targets, the Chiefs will shred teams through the air.
Last season: 383/580, 66% completion, 5,097 yards, 50 touchdowns, 12 interceptions
2019-2020 projection: 380/575, 66% completion, 4,698 yards, 41 touchdowns, 13 interceptions