Cam Newton Ahead of Andrew Luck and Tom Brady? Ranking the NFL QBs, 1-40
By The Big Lead
We are going to doing a semi-regular feature called GroupThink, where some or all of the Big Lead writers weigh in on a sports-related or culture-related topic. First up, ranking the NFL Quarterbacks, 1 to 40. And even though the project is called GroupThink, our individual selections showed quite a bit of variation, particularly outside the top 40.
Every writer submitted a list 1-40 of quarterbacks, both in the NFL and including this year’s crop of future rookies, with the following criteria: if you could have a QB over the next three years, with an emphasis on next year, who would it be? Salary cap is ignored for now (so expensive veterans are not hurt relative to cheap young players) and this is just picking and ranking the players.
Here are the consensus rankings, averaging all selections. Fifty-two different quarterbacks received at least one vote; any that were not listed in a particular ranking got a ranking of “50” for purposes of calculating the group average.
#1 AARON RODGERS
#2T CAM NEWTON
#2T RUSSELL WILSON
#4 ANDREW LUCK
#5 TOM BRADY
#6 BEN ROETHLISBERGER
#7 CARSON PALMER
#8 DREW BREES
#9 DEREK CARR
#10 ANDY DALTON
#11 PHILIP RIVERS
#12T JAMEIS WINSTON
#12T TONY ROMO
#14 MATTHEW STAFFORD
#15 MARCUS MARIOTA
#16 JOE FLACCO
#17 ELI MANNING
#18T MATT RYAN
#18T KIRK COUSINS
#20 BLAKE BORTLES
#31 A.J. McCARRON
#32 BRIAN HOYER
#33 NICK FOLES
#34 CARSON WENTZ
#35 PEYTON MANNING
#36 BROCK OSWEILER
#37 JIMMY GAROPPOLO
#38 PAXTON LYNCH
#39 ZACH METTENBERGER
#40 CHASE DANIEL
If you want to compare everyone’s votes and make fun of us later, or come up with your own, here is the full list submitted by everyone: