As we all know, quarterback is the most important position in all of sports. They are a voice in the locker room, a leader on the sideline, and the signal-caller who pushes the ball down the field. This makes them not only some of the most fun players to watch but also the subject of many talking-head segments in the offseason. Not to be left out, in this article, I have ranked the 10 best quarterbacks in the league going into the 2025 season.
Honorable mentions
Of course, not every player can make the top 10, so there are a few who are close to making the cut but not quite at the same level as those on the list. These include Jordan Love, CJ Stroud, and Bo Nix. All three are promising young stars who are shaping up to be dominant forces in the league for years to come but may have had comparatively “Down” years in 2025, whether that be due to lingering injuries (Love), poor offensive line play (Stroud) or lack of consistent receiver and running back play (Nix). These guys played well, considering their situation, but not well enough to crack the top 10. They look to bounce back next season and join their peers at the top of the list.
10 – Jalen Hurts
2025 Stats: 2903 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns, 5 interceptions, 68.7% completion
If one were to look at Jalen Hurts’ play in 2024 from a purely stats-based standpoint, they might flame me for putting him anywhere near the top 10, as he only threw for 2903 yards and 15 touchdowns, but this was primarily due to the monster that was 2025 Saquon Barkley tearing up the field and dominating the stat charts. Keep in mind that Hurts also missed the last three games of the season due to an injury he suffered early on in week 16 against Washington. Hurts was the model of consistency in 2024, tossing only 5 interceptions all season and only having one game with more than 1 INT. He managed the offense well, getting the ball to Saquon frequently out of the backfield and firing lasers deep downfield to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith when needed. He also posted a completion percentage of over 68%, well above the league average. However, Hurts mostly makes this list due to his play in the playoffs, confidently commanding the Eagles to their Super Bowl title, with three games of a passer rating of over 110. Since Saquon’s statistical production may dip in 2025, look for Hurts to have an even better stat line next season.
9 – Baker Mayfield
2025 stats: 4500 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 71.4% completion
2025 Baker Mayfield may be one of the most underrated Quarterback seasons in recent memory. After a promising start to his career with the browns that ended in a disaster of a 2021 season due to injury, Baker was shipped around a few teams before finding his niche with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whom he has led to 2 straight division titles. In 2025, he posted what’s easily the best season of his career with any team, although he did tie for the league lead in interceptions with 16. Baker played tough as nails all season. He also played for a long stretch in the middle of the season with his two top receivers out due to injury, still finding a way to win games and lead the Buccaneers to a playoff berth. He would have been higher up on this list if not for his interceptions and the fact that the Bucs only won 10 games and almost lost the division to the Falcons.
8 – Jared Goff
2025 stats: 4629 passing yards, 37 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 72.4% completion
Despite struggling early on in his career, Jared Goff seems to have turned his play around for good, consistently playing well over the last three seasons for the Detroit Lions. He threw for over 4600 yards and 37 touchdowns, operating the machine that is the Lions’ offense with deadly efficiency. However, he did revert to his “Jared Goof” form at points this season, namely his 5-interception game against the Texans and his embarrassing 3-INT performance against the Commanders in the divisional round. Despite being mostly immobile with a relatively weak arm, Goff’s processing and ability to read the field have helped him carve out a niche with the Lions. Detroit’s offensive personnel should be nearly identical to last season, so expect Goff to have another big year in 2025.
7 – Jayden Daniels
2025 stats: 3568 passing yards, 25 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 69% completion
The young phenom exploded onto the scene last year with one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, taking what many thought was a well below average roster in Washington all the way to the NFC title game. Daniels had his coming-out party in week 3 against Cincinnati on Monday night, throwing for 254 yards and 2 touchdowns while completing over 90 percent of his passes. Colin Cowherd has dubbed him “The NFC Lamar Jackson,” and while I’m not ready to go there yet, I think the 2nd-year pro has a great career ahead of him if he can stay healthy. Washington fans should pray they don’t have to endure another Robert Griffin-type situation.
6 – Matthew Stafford
2025 stats: 3762 passing yards, 20 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 65.8% completion
Currently the oldest projected starting Quarterback in the NFL, Stafford might have enough left in the tank to propel the Rams to another deep playoff run this season. He’s lost a little bit of the zip in his throws over time, but his timing, accuracy, and vision remain as stout as ever. His passing numbers dipped a little last year compared to where he had been when healthy in other recent seasons. Still, when watching him play, it was evident that this guy sees the field as well as anybody in the league, and there are few better signal-callers in the NFC and the league as a whole. With a new receiving duo of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, Stafford should be able to lead the Rams to another division title if he stays healthy.
5 – Justin Herbert
2025 stats: 3870 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 65.9% completion
Justin Herbert has had an interesting career. There was a point earlier, after his first couple of seasons, where he was receiving too much praise and ended up being overrated, but I think his performance last season in the wild card against the Texans left a bad taste in the mouths of many, leading him to now be pretty underrated. He has one of the three biggest arms in the league, and only threw three interceptions during all of the regular season last year. This ended up leading to jokes about how he threw more interceptions in his playoff loss than he did in all of the regular season, which leads me to the only thing holding Herbert back from being elite: he’s simply not very clutch. He’s crumbled in big moments enough times that it’s held back his career, and if he could just capture that elusive first playoff win, maybe I could be convinced to hop on the Herbert-over-Burrow hype train.
4- Joe Burrow
2025 stats: 4918 passing yards, 43 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 70.6% completion
In my opinion, the top four of this list are pretty interchangeable from week to week, but I’m putting Joe Burrow at 4 despite the ridiculous season he just had, throwing for close to 5,000 yards. If the Bengals had made the playoffs, there’s no doubt he would have been the favorite for the MVP award, but instead, this will be remembered as one of the best non-playoff quarterback seasons of all time. Despite his relatively weak arm, Joe has found himself near the top of the league in almost every statistical category due to his elite ability as a processor, and he certainly brings the swagger and attitude to back up his performance on the field every week. The only reason he doesn’t rank higher on this list is that he’s not nearly as dynamic an athlete, running and throwing in tandem, as the three guys above him. Despite the Bengals’ lackluster defensive additions in the offseason, Joe will look to lead the Bengals back to the playoffs this fall.
3- Patrick Mahomes
2025 stats: 3928 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 67.5% completion
I can hear the dissent already, as Chiefs fans, Swifties, and casual fans alike click off this article, assuming I don’t know ball. However, while Mahomes certainly has the accolades to support being the best quarterback in the league today, and maybe even of all time, his play over the last two seasons has brought his ranking down a little in my book. He now has back-to-back seasons with more than 10 interceptions and less than 4,000 passing yards, a far cry from the elite player we saw from 2018-2022. This isn’t to say Mahomes has fallen off, but Matt Nagy’s offensive playbook has made the Chiefs play much more conservatively, leading to a drop-off in Mahomes’ numbers. Additionally, the Chiefs won 11 games by one score last season, and it’s easy as a fan to recall many lucky moments that allowed the Chiefs to make it to where they were last season. So, although Mahomes remains the king of the NFL, there are two guys I would take over him right now after watching the previous two NFL seasons.
2 – Lamar Jackson
2025 stats: 4172 passing yards, 41 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 66.7% completion
There’s a reasonable argument to be made that Lamar Jackson is the most dynamic NFL player of all time, as these past two seasons, he’s completely shaken off the “running back” allegations and proved that he is one of the most electric passers, as well as runners, in the NFL. If you had told me before last season that Lamar would have easily the best statistical season of his career, but not win the MVP award, I would have been stunned to say the least. A touchdown-to-interception ratio of more than 10:1 is not something you see very often. With his two MVPs, Lamar’s nearly a lock to make the Hall of Fame, but his lack of playoff success might hold him back from wearing the gold jacket someday. Still, despite his elite stats and electric on-field performances last year, there is still one man who ranks ahead of him.
1- Josh Allen
2025 stats: 3731 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 63.6% completion
Josh Allen’s 2024 MVP season is the perfect example of why stats aren’t everything, as despite putting up relatively pedestrian numbers compared to some of his peers on this list, he stands atop the mountain as the best quarterback in the NFL and the most valuable player in the league. If you put any of these quarterbacks, except maybe Patrick Mahomes, in the Buffalo Bills offense, none of them would be able to lead the team to 13 wins and the AFC 2 seed, but Josh Allen did. He had been labelled a turnover machine after repeatedly throwing 10+ interceptions for many seasons in a row, but this year he threw only 6 as the Bills moved to a more ground-focused, conservative offense. He produced countless memorable moments last season, from putting up almost 50 points against the Lions and Rams on the road, to bringing the Chiefs to their knees in the picture above in Buffalo. Yet again, Josh and the Bills came up short in the playoffs, one fourth-down conversion away from potentially winning the AFC championship against the Chiefs. Perhaps 2025 will finally be the year that he gets to host the Lombardi trophy.
