NFL Power Rankings: Where does Jalen Hurts rank among the best NFC quarterbacks right now?

There’s a good chance that we’ve seen Jalen Hurts’ ceiling as a player; In the 2022 season, he was NFL MVP runner-up and capped it off with a Super Bowl MVP-level performance. We know he can be an elite talent, but since then he’s played relatively worse consistently.

It stinks because he can be better than every other quarterback in the NFL, but he’s not right now. Luckily, his postseason appearance doesn’t depend on half of the quarterbacks in the league. That’s why we’re just going to look at how QB1 stacks up against the other quarterbacks in the NFC.

A couple of years ago, ‘the AFC’ was synonymous with ‘good quarterbacks’ but that’s not the case anymore. Patrick Mahomes is playing like the cowardly dweeb that he is, Josh Allen’s arm isn’t the heartbeat of his offense, and Justin Herbert has no one to throw to. To be fair, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson are still absolutely phenomenal.

The NFC is a different story. Baker Mayfield is playing out of his mind, Jordan Love is slinging it, Jared Goff is playing like a first-overall draft pick (albeit nine years later), and Sam Darnold is leading a team with only one loss. The NFL quarterbacking tides have turned and it shows. 

Jalen Hurts is in the upper echelon of NFC quarterbacks, whether you like it or not

So where does Jalen Hurts fall into all of this? We know he’s not playing his best, but he’s far from playing his worst. If only there were a definitive way to decide who is the best and who is the worst…Fortunately, on the Eighth Day, God invented power rankings. 

Everyone has their own power rankings. CBS Sports has Jalen as the sixth-best quarterback in the NFC. Fox Sports has him as the ninth-best. Sportsnaut has him as the 11th best. Luckily, all of them are wrong. 

Some of them base it on ESPN’s Quarterback rating, some base it on how they’ve done recently mixed with how they are projected to do, and some don’t take into account the clear limitations of the players.

This power ranking is correct because it takes into the play-making ability that we’ve seen from the quarterbacks this season. Maybe it’s how they did in specific games, the system they’re in, or just the sheer number of points they’ve put on the board.

1. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions:

Goff’s been bonkers in 2024. Right now, he has the highest completion percentage of any healthy quarterback in the entire league at 73.6% (Sorry Jayden Daniels, but your ribs are all messed up so you don’t count). 

On top of that, he just ripped the Viking's defense to pieces in Week 7, completing 22 of his 25 passes for 280 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He’s the first quarterback to not get picked off by that defense and that carries a lot of weight. 

Also, his game against the Seahawks where he was a perfect 18 of 18 was only three weeks ago. When it comes to taking in recent performances for rankings, three weeks is the limit. Anyone who can be perfect, no matter who the opponent is, gets the benefit of the doubt for the top spot.

2. Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Baker has been disgustingly good this season. He’s currently leading the NFL in touchdown passes with 18. He’s second in passing yards with 1,859 yards. He’s third in completion percentage at 70.6%. 

The guy is a legitimate playmaker for his team. He’ll turn negative plays into necessary gains and he’ll make it look cool.

He’s able to change his game to whatever it takes to win. He chunks balls deep, but as we saw firsthand, he’s also fine with playing hot potato and getting the ball out quickly to piece apart defenses. 

He’s going to be playing without any good wide receivers for a minute, so he has an opportunity to drop down in the power rankings. That being said, if he keeps this kind of game up, he can shoot up higher.

3. Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks

Geno is ranked third for two reasons: He has the most passing yards in the league and of the 19 NFC quarterbacks who have thrown interceptions, he has the fifth-lowest percentage of attempts that are intercepted (2.15%).

That’s important because he also has the most pass attempts in the league (279). So Yes, Matt Stafford has only thrown four interceptions, but that’s on 178 passes (2.05%). 

Geno is just about as pure of a quarterback as there is right now. He’s not doing anything spectacular, but his sheer number of passing yards has to be respected.

4. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

Jalen has been playing some boneheaded football lately. He’s taking some sacks that he doesn’t need to take and he’s not throwing to open receivers. That being said, he’s playing with moxie. He’s making plays that only a couple of quarterbacks in the league can make. 

Also, his bombs to A.J. Brown are not easy throws. Those are low-percentage throws that are being completed with seemingly relative ease. 

This isn’t to say that his pocket presence is elite, but that can be cleaned up. He’s going into his eighth game calling the protections. He’s getting more comfortable doing so, and once it becomes second nature to him, he’ll be able to move up the power rankings.

Also, he’s gone two straight games without any turnovers and he’s severely decreased the number of plays and throws that could be turnovers. 

5. Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers:

Love’s had one hell of a season. He got hurt in Week 1, came back in Week 4 to throw four touchdowns in a loss, then won three straight games. 

He’s second in the NFL with 15 touchdown passes, and that’s while missing two games. That means he’s averaging three per game, which is bonkers. 

His big knock is that he’s thrown eight interceptions this year and they’ve all been pretty bad. Like, on his own side of the field, errant throws, and trying to play hero-ball types of interceptions. 

It’s been a consistent thing throughout the season for him. If he can string together a couple of games where he doesn’t make boneheaded throws he can probably go up the rankings, but until then he’ll be lower than a three-touchdown-per-game QB should be.

6. Sam Darnold, Minnesota Vikings

It feels like it’d be malpractice to put Sam Darnold in the top five of any power ranking. Yeah, he’s playing like he should be up there… but it’s Sam Darnold… there has to be something going on that we don’t know about, right? 

If you want to read the number ‘6’ as a ‘5’ that’s totally cool and definitely fair because he deserves it, but it just feels wrong to actually write that. 

He’s been playing much better than 99.99% of the world thought he would. The .01% is the guy who put in a preseason bet on Sam Darnold to win the NFL MVP. He’s the real genius and he rightfully called me out for putting him on blast.

To round out the rest of the NFC, it goes Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy, Caleb Williams, Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, Marcus Mariota, Dak Prescott, Daniel Jones, Bryce Young, and then last place is whatever the hell the Saints are doing.