NFL.com Ranked All 62 QBs Who Started a Game During the 2021 Season

The list has some real surprises, including the choice at No. 1.

Aaron Rodgers capped his 2021 season with a second-straight MVP award, but not everyone believes the Packers signal caller was the best quarterback in the league this season.

For NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal, that honor goes to the recently-retired Tom Brady, whom Rodgers beat out in MVP voting. In a new ranking of all 62 quarterbacks who started a game during the ‘21 season, Brady comes in at No. 1, ahead of Rodgers at No. 2. Rosenthal says that “Rodgers would be crazy to leave Matt LaFleur” after perhaps the best two-year stretch of his career under the Packers coach.

Fresh off winning the Super Bowl, Matthew Stafford slots in at No. 5, one spot ahead of his Bengals counterpart Joe Burrow, whose Bengals lost to the Rams 23–20. 

ESPN’s Sam Acho caught some heat over leaving Mahomes out of his top five quarterbacks this season, but Rosenthal is there with him, putting the Chiefs’ QB at No. 7:

“Mahomes entered the Matrix for 10 nearly flawless playoff quarters, and then he became the primary reason the Chiefs self-immolated in the AFC Championship Game,” he wrote. “He was set to reach another level, and I could not be more surprised by how suddenly and swiftly he fell.”

Down the ranking, Jets rookie Zach Wilson is the lowest ranked player to appear in at least 10 games, at No. 43. 

Giants backup Jake Fromm, of infamous third-and-9 quarterback sneak fame, finished at the bottom of the list at No. 62.

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