Patrick Mahomes continues to awe onlookers. Tom Brady put up one of the worst performance of his career last week.
Over in the NFC, Russell Wilson is now off to an historical start to his season while Dak Prescott has taken a step back in recent weeks.
As we will do on a weekly basis this season, here’s a look at your top-10 NFL quarterbacks heading into Week 5 of the season.
1- Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
On pace for over 6,000 passing yards with 40 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Coming off a hard-fought road win against a game Detroit Lions team. Any which way we look at it, Mahomes is the best quarterback in today’s NFL. It’s not even necessarily that close. Since taking over as the Chiefs’ starter, all Mahomes has done is put up north of 6,600 passing yards with 60 touchdowns and 12 interceptions en route to leading them to a 16-4 record in 20 starts. Is that good?
2- Tom Brady, New England Patriots
Yuck. That’s the best way to describe what we saw from Brady and the Pats’ offense against an elite-level Buffalo Bills defense last week. This six-time Super Bowl champ completed 18-of-39 passes for all of 150 yards with zero touchdowns and a pick. His rating of 45.9 was the worst ever for Brady in a win. While this didn’t move Brady down a notch from last week, he’s now closer to Russell Wilson and others than Mahomes. Even then, 1,061 yards with seven scores and a pick for an undefeated 4-0 team is not bad.
3- Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
Wilson is now one of less than a handful of quarterbacks to surpass 1,100 passing yards without an interception in the first four games of a season. He has been downright flawless this season, completing a league high 72.9% of his passes with eight touchdowns. It really is something to behold given that the rest of his Seahawks team has been less-than-impressive heading into Thursday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. It also has Wilson as a legit MVP candidate through the first quarter of the season.
4- Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
Jackson’s performance against the Browns last week left a lot to be desired. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in a blowout 40-25 home loss. Baltimore’s offense as whole took a major step back after dominating through the first three weeks of the season. It has to be cause for alarm given Jackson’s status as a second-year player. We’re still not overly concerned. The dude has balled out to the tune of 1,348 total yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions through four games. That’s just tremendous stuff.
5- Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Like Jackson, Dallas’ quarterback has taken somewhat of a big step back in recent weeks. Prescott opened the season completing north of 80% of his passes with nearly 700 yards with seven touchdowns and a pick in his first two games. In his two outings since, the Pro Bowler has accounted for 469 yards with three scores and two interceptions. More than anything, it’s probably just some growing pains under first-year offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. We’ll get a better understanding with a game coming up this week against an elite Packers defense.
6- Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
Prior to throwing a game-clinching interception last week, Rodgers looked like himself in a narrow loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The former MVP completed 34-of-53 passes for 422 yards with two touchdowns and that pick. Head coach Matt LaFleur certainly wants more balance on offense. That’s fine. But he finally let Rodgers air it out to an extent. That’s what this veteran quarterback does the best. After averaging just 216 passing yards in his first three starts, that’s exactly what Rodgers did last week. We’re intrigued to see if this changes Week 5 against the Cowboys.
7- Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles
We’re super impressed with how Wentz has been able to navigate through the early stages of this season with a banged up receiver group. The recently-extended signal caller has put up nine touchdowns compared to two interceptions thus far. He might only be completing 60% of his passes and averaging a career-low 240 yards per game, but we have to factor in the lack of weapons outside of tight end. Wentz is limited in that regard. Once Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson get back to 100%, look for Wentz to take off big time.
8- Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans
Watson will be as hard as anyone when it comes to his performance last week. The youngster held on to the ball way too long against a swarming Panthers defense and decided against throwing it down the field with Carolina playing the pass. It resulted in Watson putting up 128 net passing yards on 32 attempts. He was also sacked six times in the 16-10 loss. Consistency has been an issue for Watson. He played well in Week 1 and 3, but struggled in the other two games. That must change if the Texans want to come out of the AFC South.
9- Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers
Garoppolo and his 49ers have to feel good coming out of the bye. After all, they join the Chiefs and Patriots as one of three undefeated teams remaining in the NFL. The bye hopefully gave Garoppolo more time to fix some of the issues we’ve seen thus far this season. San Francisco turned it over a whopping five times in its last outing. Garoppolo has thrown just five touchdowns compared to four interceptions. Not great numbers. Even then, he’s now 9-2 as the 49ers’ starter and boasts a solid 95.0 quarterback rating during that span.
10- Gardner Minshew, Jacksonville Jaguars
Minshew Mania hit full craze mode in a comeback road win over the Denver Broncos last week. Down double digits at the half, he led Jacksonville back from the dead to take its second consecutive game and move into a first-place tie in the AFC South. The rookie sixth-round pick has had an historical start to his career, accounting for 905 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception in his first four games. The hype is real. Will it continue this week against an elite Panthers defense? We’ll see.