Top 5 QBs This Season

 Football is back this week! I couldn't be more excited. I have been bothering my girlfriend talking her ear off about the upcoming season, as one does, and I thought why not use this blog as an appropriate outlet. Today I am doing another classic listicle format article, the top 5 QBs entering this year. As always, this is pretty much just my uninformed opinion and I would welcome some pushback in the comments. 

5. CJ Stroud

Woah! A second year player on the top 5? Honestly making these lists has got me feeling old, and I'm still in my 20s. The QB era of my childhood will be officially over when Aaron Rodgers hangs them up, and there's a good argument to have him in this spot. Rodgers however, is coming off a serious injury and we'll have to see him play before ranking him. Now to the guy in the headline, CJ Stroud. Stroud was nothing short of awesome in his rookie season. He's back this year with no shortage of receiving targets with newcomer Stephon Diggs, as well as Nico Collins and Tank Dell. Last season's rookie of the year is going to look great in this offense and I think the Texans really have a shot to make some noise in the loaded AFC. 

4. Joe Burrow

Speaking of loaded AFC, have you noticed that all the QBs on this list play in that conference? Isn't that a crazy balance? I am not allowed to like Joe Burrow. He's the QB for probably my most hated team, The Cincinnati Bengals. But holy is he ever cool. The only knock you can have on Burrow is that he is injury prone. He played just 10 games last season, and started off the year with a nagging injury that dampened his production. If Burrow is back to full health, he might be the most clutch player in the league and will be a serious threat come January. No stats here, you kinda just have to watch him to see. The best quality a QB can have is his clutch gene and the eye test tells me that Burrow has this in spades. 

3. Lamar Jackson

This is totally unfair of me to include running backs on this list. I kid, Lamar Jackson might be the most exciting player to watch in football. He won MVP last year basically being a 1 man offense on a team that has perpetual receiver issues. Lamar ran for 821 yards last year and threw for 3,678. The latter being a career high. Where you can knock Lamar is his ability to get it done in the playoffs. My limited football knowledge tells me that a running QB is very difficult to win with when the games being to matter. That being said, Lamar is pretty much a guaranteed 10 wins and will be once again one of, if not the most exciting player to watch this regular season. Leaving him out of the top 3 because of his playoff shortcomings wouldn't be fair to the 2 time MVP, and so even though I want to, I will not for now. 

Side note just because I feel like I want to tell this story. Probably my favorite non-Steelers football memory was a regular season game, I can't even remember who the Ravens were playing but they were down 1 score and Lamar went off the field with an apparent injury. Lamar's backup came in and on the first or second snap he tears his ACL, the fans are thinking who the hell is gonna play QB now? Lamar comes rushing out of the locker room like a superhero, gets on the field and immediately throws a touchdown. It turned out he just really had to poop. Hilarious and thrilling all in one.  

2. Josh Allen

Maybe my favorite player in the league. Josh Allen's size and athleticism remind me of a speedier young Ben Roethlisberger. Allen has maybe the strongest arm in the league and has worked tirelessly to improve the intermediate parts of his game and his accuracy. Allen threw 18 interceptions last season, good for the second most in the league. Where some people see this as a negative, which it definitely can be, I see this as a willingness to take risks. Allen has incredible arm talent, why shouldn't he be slinging it all over the field? The Bills this season are going to need Allen to be incredible. They have lost Sephon Diggs and now sit with an extremely thin looking receiver core. Still, if I were starting a franchise today there's only 1 other QB I would take over Allen and he's up next.

1. Patrick Mahomes

People are getting sick of Pat Mahomes. That's probably a sign that he's really, really good. I've got a friend who is a 49ers fan and we were texting during the Superbowl. I was telling him that the 9ers are playing well but they're letting Pat hang around. Of course Mahomes then marches down the field for the game winning drive winning his third Superbowl. That's the thing with the best QB in the league, you can't just have numbers, there needs to be a certain inevitability to your game. You know if you give that guy a chance, he's going to capitalize on it. It's the same way I felt watching Brady, give him a shot at the end of the game and he's gonna win it more often than not. Pat will be the best QB in the world until someone snatches the title from him, and I don't see that being next year.