2024 QB poll | 2023 QB poll | 2022 QB poll | 2021 QB poll | 2020 QB poll
Over the years, I’ve conducted my annual just-before-the-season quarterback poll, trying to keep an eye on trends that emerge in how people vote, or even think about voting. Sometimes, you have to really dig around to find anything.
Then, there are years, such as this one, where something smacks you right in the face.
This year, it was actually two things. First, Patrick Mahomes has owned this list since I brought it back ahead of the 2020 season, and now other guys are creeping up on him. Second, the separation now isn’t between first place and second place. Instead, it’s between fourth place and the other 28 quarterbacks.
The conclusion: The NFL has its current-era Mount Rushmore, with four guys who came into the league over a four-draft span and were all born within 16 months of one another. It’s also become obvious enough over the past year or two that you can probably rattle off the four names without any help from me.
Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen. Joe Burrow. Lamar Jackson.
All still short of 30 years old, they’ve combined for 12 AFC title game appearances, six Super Bowl appearances, three championships and five league MVP awards over the past seven seasons. Mahomes, of course, accounts for all three titles and has faced one of the other three in each of the past five years in the AFC title game.
And beyond the increasingly bulging trophy cases, there are very real, discernible differences in the league’s fantastic four, as their rivals see it.
“There’s definitely a gap,” said one AFC executive with a pro-scouting background. “Those four are very consistent. Most years, I’d put Mahomes or Lamar one or two. But Burrow’s right there, and Allen’s the MVP of the league. Jayden [Daniels] is the one I see as having a chance to get there. Where he’s going, you assume the arrow’s going to keep pointing up. And the reason I’d put Jayden up there is because of how I think about it—those five, if you include Jayden, are really tough to play against.
“You go into that week thinking, We have to play really well to beat this guy.”
“Those are the guys,” added an AFC pro scouting director. “It’s the consistency, and that they can elevate their teams week-in and week-out. It’s not the scheme. It’s not the other players. Every other guy from five on down, you can make those cases, where you put them further down for those reasons. [Matthew] Stafford is close. You look at him and question his age. Jayden, is he there yet? But every other guy there’s a real knock.
“Those four attack the defense at a different level than everyone else.”
The cool thing is, in this era of football, they each do it differently.
Mahomes is the ultimate stake-in-your-heart competitor, who can win from the pocket, or extend any play, with athleticism, lower-body strength, and rare arm talent, velocity and field vision. Jackson forces a defense to account for so much in the run game, and has evolved into a more consistent passer, where he’s an explosive play waiting to happen. Allen’s a cyborg, combining Cam Newton-like athletic tools with ever-improving accuracy and pocket presence. And Burrow’s the natural Brady/Manning descendent, a surgeon from the pocket, with the athletic ability to escape, extend plays and even run.
So maybe Stafford stays healthy and is on this tier this year. Maybe Daniels gets there.
But Mahomes, Jackson, Allen and Burrow are the guys for 2025 and beyond.
And with that, we can dive into the results of the eighth edition.
The concept is, and has always been, to ask the NFL’s quarterback-adjacent folks—GMs, head coaches, execs, pro-scouting directors, offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches and pass-game coordinators—to rank who they think will be the league’s five best quarterbacks at the end of the season.
I’ve always loved this exercise because it forces everyone to project forward. Also, I don’t send out the texts until after the final roster cutdown. It makes putting the list together a little bit of a scramble, but also allows voters to have the most information at their fingertips when casting their ballots.
I received 88 ballots over the past week, with 18 GMs and 16 head coaches among the voters, and all 32 teams represented. Mahomes, Jackson, Allen and Burrow were together on 84 of the ballots. At least three were on 87 of them. On 64 of the 88 ballots, they were the top four in some order, which is a remarkably consistent consensus among coaches, scouts and personnel executives who usually disagree on the color of the sky.
Here’s how the voting totals stacked up. Enjoy.
1. Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs
• 335 points
• 38 first-place votes
• Appeared on 87 ballots
• Last year: First place
Mahomes is the poll’s champion for a sixth consecutive year. However, the margins are shorter this year. In 2020, he received 49 of 53 first-place votes. In 2021, it was 41 of 63. In 2022, it was 72 of 76. In 2023, it was 71 of 80. Last year, it was 78 of 85. The lowest of those percentages is 65, which is remarkable. This year, he received 43% of the vote, easily the highest number of any of these guys, but a lot smaller share than he has gotten in this poll in the past, which should tell you that the top four guys are all really good.
2. Josh Allen, Bills
• 312 points
• 22 first-place votes
• Appeared on 87 ballots
• Last year: third
NFL folks were ahead of the curve on Allen. Some were still skeptical of him going into 2021—our poll ranked him third, behind only Mahomes and Rodgers. He was third again in 2022, second in 2023, and then third last year. And a big part of that is how having to play against Allen makes those who have to face him feel. Every throw has three phases to defend: The throw in-structure, the extended-play throw and his ability to break off a 60-yard run. It’s a nightmare, and a nightmare regardless of whether he’s on his own 20 or in the red zone.
3. Joe Burrow, Bengals
• 285 points
• 17 first-place votes
• Appeared on 85 ballots
• Last year: second
Burrow was fifth in 2022, third in 2023 and second last year, with those three making up the top three for a third year in a row. The remarkable thing is that in each case, Burrow battled through something to attain that ranking. In 2021, he was coming off an ACL. In 2022, an appendicitis cost him the balance of training camp. In 2023, he had a calf injury. Last year, it was a pretty scary wrist injury. So it’ll be interesting to see what he does this year after a clean training camp.
4. Lamar Jackson, Ravens
• 252 points
• 9 first-place votes
• Appeared on 87 ballots
• Last year: fourth
Evaluators have had difficulty categorizing Jackson accurately over the past few years. He’s ranked third, seventh, eighth, seventh and fourth over the past five polls, and has received a total of three first-place votes in that time. Which means this year, he tripled the first-place votes he got the previous five years combined, and from a points perspective, was much closer to the top than he ever has been. The reason? His progress as a passer has made him perhaps the sport’s most dangerous quarterback. “[OC Todd] Monken has formulated the optimal balance for Lamar,” said one exec, who pointed to the fact that last year Jackson posted the fourth-highest single-season passer rating ever (119.6).
5. Jayden Daniels, Commanders
• 67 points
• Appeared on 47 ballots
• Last year: n/a
Daniels was an obvious No. 5, and it’s because of what he did last year, being able to threaten defenses in many different ways, and the excitement over what might come next. “It’s a combination of everything,” said an AFC exec. “He throws a good deep ball; he extends plays efficiently. He’s not Lamar fast, but might be the next guy when it comes to breaking off a 50-yard run. Elusive, good arm, accurate, he’s going to continue to improve as a passer, he scrambles to find open guys, and takes care of the ball. Every play can go for 40 yards.” The cautionary tale is this is where C.J. Stroud ranked last year, who finished first behind the top four, and clearly ahead of sixth place (that was Matthew Stafford), and Stroud didn’t quite have the year every figured he would. So we’ll see.
6. Justin Herbert, Chargers
• 27 points
• 2 first-place votes
• Appeared on 15 ballots
• Last year: eighth
Herbert’s been on the list for years. He was eighth in 2021, fourth in 2022 and ’23, then eighth again last year. His talent is undeniable. The belief the Chargers have in him, if you talk to folks there, is unshakeable. Now, we’ll see whether he can put it all together, with a Super Bowl-proven coach in charge, and a roster that doesn’t need him to be Superman to win.
7. Matthew Stafford, Rams
• 13 points
• Appeared on 12 ballots
• Last year: sixth
The interesting thing is that people who have been around him will tell you that he’s still getting better as a player, with his rocket arm maintaining its juice despite elbow and wrist issues, and his top-shelf processing ability ever ascending. The problem is he is pretty beat up, which puts a little caveat on all the anticipation surrounding what should be a very good Rams team.
8. Jalen Hurts, Eagles
• 12 points
• Appeared on 9 ballots
• Last year: 13th place
This one will upset people. Maybe he’s a victim of perception here, that a loaded roster is carrying him. Maybe people are having the same sort of trouble placing him as they did with Jackson, with the running ability such a big part of his game. Either way, eighth ain’t bad—that means he’s a top quarter-of-the-league starter with two Super Bowl appearances and a championship over his first five years in the league. Which is a lot more than anyone thought Philly would get when it took him in the second round in 2020.
9. Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers
• 5 points
• Appeared on four ballots
• Last year: n/a
The reclamation project section of the list starts with Mayfield, the former No. 1 pick in the 2018 NFL draft, who’s come back to life as Tom Brady’s successor in Tampa. The 30-year-old has won back-to-back division titles in his two years as a Buccaneer, and has earned the respect of those around the league with his ability to see the field and throw with the sort of accuracy that many saw as rare when he was coming out of Oklahoma.
10. Jared Goff, Lions
• 3 points
• Appeared on three ballots
• Last year: 16th place
Here’s the top pick in the 2016 draft. The best way to look at what Goff’s done is to look at where the Rams and Lions were before he got to town. He’s led both to conference title games and multiple playoff appearances. He’s the only guy on this list who can make that claim.
t-11. Bo Nix, Broncos
• 2 points
• Appeared on two ballots
• Last year: n/a
The Broncos have a strong belief that Nix is overflowing with qualities the NFL has long undervalued in quarterbacks—we did a story on it with Sean Payton in August—and his rookie year was proof positive. Just ask yourself how many difference-makers Nix played with on offense, in leading the Broncos back to the playoffs last year for the first time in nearly a decade. And maybe, then, you’ll start to look at the 25-year-old as one.
t-11. Geno Smith, Raiders
• 2 points
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: n/a
I’ve long thought Smith was underappreciated for what he did in Seattle, helping the Seahawks franchise transition from the Russell Wilson era, and then from the Pete Carroll era to the Mike Macdonald era. Now, I think he’s with a coordinator, Chip Kelly, who should be a good fit for what he brings to the table.
t-13. Aaron Rodgers, Steelers
• 1 point
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: seventh
Fun fact: Rodgers got the fifth-place vote on the last ballot I collected. He won the poll the first two years I conducted it, in 2015 and 2018, and in the past five years, he has finished fifth, second, third, fifth and seventh. The buzz on him has been low this summer. However, I’m excited to see what he has left, and think he’ll be motivated to make things like this look silly. We’ll see if he has a Brett Favre-like 2009 left in him.
t-13. Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins
• 1 point
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: 12th place
The Dolphins have been steadfast in their belief in Tagovailoa. This year, though, will be a real test, with Terron Armstead gone, Tyreek Hill perhaps diminished, and a roster retool underway with the quarterback on a big second contract.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The NFL’s Mount Rushmore: League Evaluators Vote on the Best QB at the End of 2025.