Throughout the 2016 NFL regular season, we’ll rank the league’s top 10 quarterbacks. Here’s how we view things after Week 1…
1. Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers: It’s about what he did with what he had. No Le’Veon Bell, no Martavis Bryant, no Markus Wheaton, no Heath Miller. And yet Big Ben led Pittsburgh to a blowout road victory over a talented Redskins team. In the process, he was 4-for-4 with two touchdowns on deep passes.
2. Drew Brees, Saints: The future Hall of Famer had four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a league-best passer rating of 131.3 in a losing effort against the Raiders.
3. Matthew Stafford, Lions: Clutch performance in a comeback victory over the Colts, with Stafford completing all but eight of his 39 passes in his first game without Calvin Johnson.
4. Andrew Luck, Colts: The young stud got back on track with four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a conference-best passer rating of 119.5 in a losing effort against the Lions.
5. Andy Dalton, Bengals: The man averaged 12.2 yards per attempt while completing all but seven of his 30 passes in an impressive road victory over the tough Jets.
6. Alex Smith, Chiefs: He looked like a real quarterback Sunday, and a good one too. Smith made big throw after big throw in a comeback victory over the Chargers, finishing with 34 completions for 363 yards. Has he turned a corner?
7. Jameis Winston, Buccaneers: The 2015 No. 1 overall pick posted a 122.6 passer rating while leading the Bucs to a huge Week 1 road victory over the division rival Falcons.
8. Derek Carr, Raiders: The third-year Fresno State product was a stellar 24 of 38 for 319 yards while leading Oakland to a comeback victory in New Orleans, but we’ll need to see that against better defenses before crowning him.
9. Eli Manning, Giants: The veteran was a perfect 4-for-4 on deep balls while completing all but nine of his 28 passes in a very efficient performance on the road against Dallas.
10. Aaron Rodgers, Packers: Only included because of his pedigree, Rodgers was good, not great against Jacksonville. Another performance with a sub-60 completion percentage and a sub-100 passer rating could remove him from this list.
Honorable mentions: Jimmy Garoppolo, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz, Joe Flacco
