NFL Week 5 had some great quarterback performances, like Joe Burrow’s five touchdown game, or Kirk Cousins’ 509-yard overtime win. Yet, for every good game, there’s a bad one that sticks out like a sore thumb. We’ve picked out the five worst quarterback performances from NFL Week 5, which of course includes Deshaun Watson and Gardner Minshew.
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Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns
Every week that goes by, the Cleveland Browns’ decision to trade for Deshaun Watson continues to look like the worst trade in NFL history. On Sunday Watson averaged just 4.5 yards per attempt, which is only slightly worse than his season average of 4.9 YPA. He also took seven more sacks, helping him strengthen his lead for the most sacks in the NFL through five weeks with 26. Let’s start the Jameis Winston experiment.
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Andy Dalton, Carolina Panthers
Andy Dalton was so bad in Week 5 that he had Carolina Panthers fans hoping to see if Bryce Young could create a spark. The crazy thing is, the former No. 1 overall pick who got benched two weeks ago actually did lead the Panthers on their longest drive of the game in his lone chance to operate the offense. Dalton was finally pulled after averaging just 4.9 yards per pass after the Panthers fell behind 36-10. We’d suggest going back to the former first-round pick.
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Jacoby Brissett, New England Patriots
There’s no way Drake Maye can’t perform better than Jacoby Brissett. He doesn’t have a 200-yard passing game yet this season. On Sunday, he completed just 52.9% of his passes for 160 yards while the Patriots finished with just 10 points. At what point does Jerod Mayo say enough is enough?
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Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
Somehow the Bills nearly won, but it would have come in spite of the lowest completion rate of Josh Allen’s career at an ugly 30%. His pass-catchers dropped several opportunities, but that doesn’t entirely excuse finishing with just 131 passing yards.
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Gardner Minshew, Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders didn’t even wait until the end of their loss to the Broncos to make a QB change. Gardner Minshew was so bad that they pulled him after 17 attempts. The decision was justified after Minshew completed 12 of those attempts for just 137 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. We’ll see if Aidan O’Connell can manage to avoid this list next week.
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