NFL QB rankings for Week 16: Bo Nix is hitting his stride

With three weeks left on the 2025 NFL schedule, the postseason race is heating up — as is the MVP race, which typically boils down to the best quarterbacks in a given season. Injuries and unexpected struggles have cleared out most of the usual MVP candidates, with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow all more or less disqualified. Even Josh Allen feels like a distant, fringe candidate.

Drake Maye, Matthew Stafford and Jordan Love figure to dominate the QB discourse down the stretch, but there have been plenty of noteworthy developments at football's premier position. Let's update our QB rankings and dive deep into growth from Bo Nix, J.J. McCarthy and others.

Ranking all 32 NFL starting quarterbacks for Week 16

Bo Nix takes it up a notch in signature Broncos win

The Denver Broncos advanced to 12-2 on the season with Sunday's 34-26 win over the Green Bay Packers. It was a game with significant postseason implications, pitting a potential MVP candidate in Jordan Love against the best defense in the NFL. Micah Parsons' unfortunate ACL tear overshadowed the actual game, but this was a milestone victory for the Broncos, now the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

Bo Nix was sensational, putting together his best individual performance of the season. He completed 23-of-34 passes for 302 yards and four TDs. He didn't commit a turnover or take a sack. He was in complete control all afternoon against an elite Packers pass rush.

This was the vision for Sean Payton and the Broncos when Nix was selected 12th overall in last summer's NFL Draft. Nix wins with mobility, accuracy and touch. He's not launching out of a canon or riffing on broken plays like Patrick Mahomes. But he's elusive in the pocket, more athletic than he gets credit for, and he's much smarter than your average second-year quarterback. That's probably a function of his decade-long college career (fact check: half-decade).

Nix has experienced his ups and downs this season, but Denver keeps on stacking wins behind their stalwart defense. If Nix can begin to regularly tap into the immense upside he flashed as a rookie, the Broncos might have what it takes to survive the AFC gauntlet this postseason.

Philip Rivers is back, if not quite better than ever

Philip Rivers took the field on Sunday afternoon after a five-year layoff and kept the Indianapolis Colts in the lead for most of the game against the 10-win Seattle Seahawks. He didn't do much — Indy very deliberately leaned on the run and short-to-intermediate pass game — but Rivers somehow looked competent. He really might be Indy's last, best hope at salvaging a postseason run.

Rivers can't move in the pocket. He's not going to drop 40-yard nukes like he used to. But his brain still functions at a higher level than most QBs in today's game, even if his body does not. That is partially an indictment on modern QBs and partially a credit to Rivers, who has maintained close contact with Shane Steichen over the years. He even ran Indy's playbook as his son's high school coach.

The Colts are a game behind Houston for the final Wild Card spot and two games behind Jacksonville for the AFC South lead. Their remaining schedule — San Francisco, Jacksonville, Houston — features zero softballs. But it also features two opportunities for Indianapolis to directly beat the teams it needs to beat. Asking Rivers to win out is a tall task, bordering on impossible. Especially against a defense as aggressive as Houston in Week 18.

No matter how Indy's season ends, however, Rivers deserves credit for even taking on this challenge. If he finds even an iota of success, the 44-year-old will forever live on in Colts lore.

JJ McCarthy is starting to put the pieces together...?

The Minnesota Vikings' season is effectively over, but these next few weeks present a golden opportunity for J.J. McCarthy to establish his footing and build positive momentum going into 2026. So far, he's on the right path. Sunday's win over Dallas saw McCarthy complete 15-of-24 passes for 250 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for a third TD. McCarthy has now led the Vikings to two straight victories and a 4-4 record in his eight starts.

Things are still very much a work in progress for the 22-year-old, but those of us writing off McCarthy as the "worst quarterback in the NFL" may have jumped the gun a little bit. Yes, it was rough, but McCarthy is uniquely inexperienced for a "second-year" QB. He missed his rookie season and didn't have nearly the same amateur résumé as others in his draft class. That was understandably weaponized as a criticism, but the Vikings bet on tools and upside — not immediate contributions.

It's fair to question Minnesota's decision to draft a project QB when the roster is built to contend, but put all front office strategy to the side for a moment. It feels like McCarthy has figured something out these past couple weeks: 66 percent completion rate, 5 TD:1 INT, 206.5 passing yards per game. His bad throw percentage (14.9) is way down compared to his previous six starts (24.4). The gears are still turning, but not so loudly, and McCarthy is beginning to play with the spunk that made his such a fan favorite at Michigan.

Vikings fans can look ahead with cautious optimism. McCarthy still has a long way to go, to be clear, but Minnesota might not need to abandon this experiment. Let's see if McCarthy can keep it up against better defenses.

Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars want your attention

The Jacksonville Jaguars have won five straight to claim first place in the AFC South. There's still a lot of football left, but something feels different about Jacksonville compared to the team we saw eking out tight victories early in the season. Sunday's 48-20 smackdown of the New York Jets wasn't anything special on the surface — New York might be the worst team in football and an undrafted rookie was starting at QB — but it was nonetheless an impressive statement from the Jags.

Trevor Lawrence completed 20-of-32 passes for 330 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for a team-high 51 yards and another touchdown; his six scores is a new career best. Lawrence is one of the most enigmatic, at times frustrating quarterbacks in the NFL. The former No. 1 pick is a major talent, but he has struggled to consistently put all the pieces together. He's one of those QBs who feels simultaneously like he could be a backup in three years or win MVP in three years.

Sunday was a big afternoon for the Lawrence truthers and blind optimists. He's still completing fewer than 60 percent of his passes on the season, with 11 interceptions and five fumbles to counterbalance 29 total touchdowns (23 passing, six rushing). Lawrence is an absurd athlete, capable of high-level improvisation and delivering difficult passes through airtight windows. But he can also fall into periods of boneheaded decision-making and gun-shyness that feel completely antithetical to the player Jacksonville drafted out of Clemson and paid $275 million.

Perhaps Liam Coen and this new Jags coaching staff has finally figured something out. Jacksonville is playing extremely sound football. Their résumé of clutch wins — Houston, San Francisco, Kansas City, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis — ranks among the best in the NFL this season. If Lawrence can keep this up, the Jags won't just win the division. They might get feisty in the playoffs, too.

Other quarterback notes from Week 15

• The Patriots blew a 21-point lead in Sunday's loss to Buffalo, which snapped a 10-game New England win streak and kept Buffalo alive in the AFC East race. Josh Allen remains the clear-cut best QB in the NFL for my money, but Drake Maye has put together a compelling case in his own right and should probably win MVP, barring a late-season collapse.
• If Maye doesn't win MVP, his primary competition is old-man gunslinger Matthew Stafford, whose Los Angeles Rams became the first NFC team to clinch a postseason berth on Sunday with a 41-34 win over the Lions. Detroit needed a win badly, making the Rams' effort all the more impressive. This Rams offense might be the best — or at least, the most dependable — in the NFL. Stafford can still grip it and rip it, with a level of processing speed and touch that his younger peers simply can't replicate.
• Shedeur Sanders was impossibly bad in Cleveland's 31-3 loss to the Bears, to the point that it reopened Dillon Gabriel discourse we all thought was dead. He's still QB1 to finish out the season, and there's reason for Browns fans to hold the line. But five sacks and three INTs won't cut it.
• Kirk Cousins turned back the clock and delivered several clutch throws in Atlanta's 29-28 TNF win over Tampa Bay. The Falcons are eliminated and Tampa is playing for its postseason life, so double credit to Atlanta's offense. Cousins still can't move around the pocket much, but performances like this — 373 yards, three TDs, connecting with Kyle Pitts for 11 receptions, 166 yards and all three scores — will keep Cousins front of mind for teams in need of a bridge QB this offseason.

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