The NFL is in a new era of quarterbacks. I'd argue that over the past five years, we've seen a bigger turnover in who are the best quarterbacks in the league than any other similar time frame from the last 30 years.
That may seem a little extreme, but I dug up NFL.com's Week 1 QB Index from the 2019 season. It's a list of which quarterbacks the panel had the most faith in going into week one just five years ago. Here's their top ten:
- Patrick Mahomes
- Aaron Rodgers
- Russell Wilson
- Tom Brady
- Philip Rivers
- Matt Ryan
- Drew Brees
- Deshaun Watson
- Carson Wentz
- Ben Roethlisberger
We all know the NFL can stand for "Not For Long", but there has definitely been an extreme changing of the guard at quarterback over the past five years. Patrick Mahomes was new to the top spot on the list coming off his absurd first season as a starter the year before. Other than that, the quarterback top ten has completely turned over other than 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers trying to cling to a spot.
So with that in mind, let's count down the best quarterbacks in the NFL for the 2024 season. I based this ranking on a few main things:
- This is just for the 2024 season, so while I may love the long-term upside of some young quarterbacks much more than some veterans, this is about who I think will play better this coming season.
- This ranking is based on where I would rank a quarterback if they are healthy and play all season. Some of these QBs come with greater injury risks, but that becomes tricky to account for if you factor it in.
- For the handful of teams where there is some question as to who will be the starter, I ranked them as a combined duo instead of individuals so there are exactly 32 spots (one for each team) in these rankings.
- I've broken the rankings into six different tiers where I think the players are pretty close and wouldn't fight you if you wanted to change the order around a little.
Let's kick things off with the bottom tier.