I hope you got to watch some football on Thanksgiving, because those games were too much fun. Here’s hoping Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and others gave you small-talk fodder for those that needed it. Speaking of which, let’s get to those quarterbacks.
In these rankings, I’m focused on monitoring the fluctuations of a QB’s performance throughout the season. No one — not even Drake Maye — is safe at the top. No one — not even Max Brosmer — is stuck at the bottom. There is room for quick ascent — and rapid decline. One question holds most important: What have you done for your team lately?
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All I can say is that Smith can thank his lucky stars for Brock Bowers.
The star tight end is about the only thing that seems to be working for the Las Vegas Raiders offense. The removal of offensive coordinator Chip Kelly did not make things better. Here’s how Smith’s first five dropbacks went over the first three drives this past Sunday versus the Chargers:
- Incomplete
- Sack fumble (recovered by Smith)
- 27-yard pass (to Bowers)
- Sack
- Interception
Presumably, those were scripted plays, by the way. So with a week of planning, this was what the passing offense looked like. Yikes.
On the season, Smith is not playing well, particularly in the situations when his team is actually competitive. As the games drag on, he looks better in some of the same ways that Blake Bortles looked half-decent in 2015 when he racked up stats (4,428 passing yards, 35 TDs, 18 INTs) as teams blew out the Jaguars.
It’s hard to make sense of whether Smith is toast or coach Pete Carroll is toast — or both. But you can bet Smith won’t be the Raiders’ starter next year. And I don’t suspect he’ll win a starting job anywhere else, either.
Sanders is making a great case for Kevin Stefanski to land a better job next year. But Sanders has not yet made a great case for himself to land a better job next year.
Sanders should get until the end of the season to prove himself and develop as a passer. And — contrary to deep-reddit, tinfoil-hat theories — Stefanski seems to be doing everything he can to help his QB with playcalling and design. It’s just that, at times, Sanders isn’t helping himself yet. It’s clear that a big part of Sanders’ success is coming through the screen game. Look at his first touchdown pass last week, a 66-yarder to Dylan Sampson. Look at the five different screen passes the Browns ran against the 49ers.
Stefanski has turned the screen game into an offensive focal point to manufacture efficiency in a passing offense that’s otherwise experiencing issues — largely at the hands of Sanders, who hasn’t been an efficient passer on throws at or beyond the line of scrimmage.
It’s not just that he’s not completing throws. It’s also that he’s not attempting them, which could have been receiver Jerry Jeudy’s beef when the two got into what appeared to be an argument during Sunday’s game.
Teams are going to jump those screens. They’re going to give Sanders opportunities to go downfield. He needs to take them.
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Running it back rarely works in the NFL.
It seems the Ravens are suffering from a lack of evolution. Perhaps because almost nothing changed from a personnel standpoint, things are falling apart around Lamar.
The offensive line that seemed questionable going into 2024 looked solid that year. But that same line that looked solid going into 2025 has turned questionable. Derrick Henry’s production looks good on paper, but the film shows the slightest evidence (but just enough to be significant) of Father Time. And while last year’s film looked like it had some hidden production that the Ravens could eke out this year, we’ve actually seen the opposite happen — a regression from supporting cast members like Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman and Isaiah Likely.
So it all comes back to Lamar, who is trying to do more for his offense while fighting through injuries. The list is long and significant for a mobile QB: hamstring, toe, ankle, knee.
The expectation was that he’d return and do MVP things, because that’s what he’s always done. But he’s clearly never been this banged up. The Ravens could have withstood those injuries if their supporting cast rose to the occasion. Or they could have withstood the lackluster supporting cast without Lamar’s injuries.
The only good news is that, as much as things are going wrong in Baltimore, they have gone much, much worse elsewhere in their division. So the Ravens might limp into the playoffs anyway.
Mahomes went into Josh Allen mode.
I know that’s a weird sentence. Because we’re accustomed to Allen going into Mahomes mode. But I think we all know what “Allen mode” looks like at this point, right? There’s a level of desperation blended with do-everything willingness blended with alien-level arm talent. And most important, there’s the element of having to carry the supporting cast — and to attempt throws that only two quarterbacks (Allen and Mahomes) would dare attempt.
Despite an incredible game from Mahomes, he lost. The irony is that Mahomes is playing at such a high level that he should be enjoying himself. His film is chock-full of incredible throws. And Mahomes has recently complained about how the recent regular seasons have been such a grind that they’re not as fun. But he was winning then. And now, with all this electric play, he’s losing.
And … I wonder: Is this even less fun?
The Panthers might not be a consistent team from week to week, but when they are playing well, they can beat anybody. So a win over the Panthers is a quality win. But of course, the Rams lost.
Does that make it a quality loss? In some ways, yes.
When it comes to bookmakers’ odds, Stafford’s MVP campaign slipped, because he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble — contributing to the Rams’ defeat. I’d actually argue this performance should help his MVP candidacy, in part because it showed that maybe the Rams aren’t quite as complete as we thought they were. And Stafford is playing a much bigger role in holding the team together than we originally believed. MVP voters probably won’t view it that way. But I view it that way.
Ultimately, this was an outlier game for Stafford, who has been the king of risk management. He’s been in the league a long time and might not have to do much to address the mistakes he made. The Rams are still the NFL’s best team. Now more than ever, he’s at the center of that.
You could see the respect that Prescott and coach Brian Schottenheimer had for the Chiefs defense. They dialed up a plan that had Prescott checking the ball down to his receivers on bubble screens, often to the left side, where they used their athleticism to generate YAC. If it wasn’t that, then the Cowboys had Prescott rolling to throw to horizontal route-runners.
And even after doing that for basically the entire first half, the Chiefs made Dak work hard for his throws over the middle. He put the ball in harm’s way at least four times and was lucky to only see one interception. He only attempted one pass beyond the 20-yard line — a deep ball to CeeDee Lamb for 51 yards.
Hey, you do what you can to beat the Chiefs. Because they’re going to do everything they can to stump you. Against KC, it’s a real credit to a QB who can be steady, particularly on third downs and particularly in the third quarter. That’s when DC Steve Spagnuolo turns into the Grim Reaper and Patrick Mahomes’ greatest lieutenant in comebacks. It’s Spags who generates the extra possessions for Mahomes to stay in the game.
But that’s where — credit to Prescott — he showed up. There was one third-down conversion in the low red zone that was particularly impressive, with the Cowboys QB rolling right and zipping the ball into a tight window.
The Chiefs are hard to beat. They’re hardest to beat when their backs are against the wall. That’s what Dak and Co. did.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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