Who is the best QB in the NFC South
Like the AFC South, the NFC South features some of the top college prospects taken in this year’s NFL Draft. After all, the first four quarterbacks taken were by teams in either South division.
Not only do the Atlanta Falcons have arguably the best offensive player in the 2023 NFL Draft in Bijan Robinson, but the division also features the number one overall selection in Bryce Young.
He will now be playing in a division featuring quarterbacks such as Baker Mayfield, Desmond Ridder, and Derek Carr. Who is the best in the division. Here is a ranking of NFC South division quarterbacks from 1 to 4.
1. Derek Carr (New Orleans Saints)
Carr has gone from being the worst QB in a division to the best after his offseason trade from the Las Vegas Raiders to the Saints.
Carr has not done anything on the field to warrant this. After a brilliant 2021 campaign, he was rewarded with a new contract and a reunion with friend Davante Adams, one of the best wide receivers in the league. Despite this, he struggled in 2022.
He finished the campaign with the third worst passing yard total of his nine-season career to date (3,522) and despite having a touchdown more than 2021 and the same number of interceptions, only two quarterbacks in the league had more picks than Carr in 2022.
Carr will be an upgrade on what the Saints had in their 2022 QB room with Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton. With an exciting young receiver in Chris Olave, who excelled in his rookie year, Carr will be licking his lips at this prospect. Along with Michael Thomas who the team will hope will get back to his 2019 best, as well as a running back room featuring Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams, Carr is not short of options and should have some sort of comeback year in New Orleans.
It will also be a fresh breath of air for Carr now he is removed from Josh McDaniels, someone who clearly did not rate him the same way others do. Due to the other activity in the division, Carr is an easy choice due to his experience, stats, and the inexperience of others in this list.
2. Baker Mayfield (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Nobody knows if Baker will be a starter come weeks 17 and 18, and any other division he would be a lot lower than second place. He is fortunate to have two inexperienced starting quarterbacks at the NFL level in his division.
Let’s be real. This is Mayfield’s fourth team in just over two years. He was a victim of the Deshaun Watson trade and failed miserably with the Carolina Panthers. He had somewhat of a resurgence in Los Angeles with the Rams and Sean McVay, but this was a small sample size.
Whilst he has not helped himself at times, Mayfield has been subject to bad coaching for the majority of his NFL career. Whether this is Hue Jackson, Freddie Kitchens, or Matt Rhule, the 2018 first overall pick has not been given the best hand.
When he has had good coaches, he has had moderate success, to a degree where it is hard to call him a bust. In his first season under head coach Kevin Stefanski in 2020, Mayfield led the Browns to their first playoff appearance since the 2002 campaign and their first postseason victory since January 1st 1953. He managed to lead the Rams to a brilliant comeback victory just a matter of days after joining the team, finishing with 850 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions in four starts4. You have to worry about him with Todd Bowles, who is surely on the hot seat in Tampa Bay.
With wideouts such as Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, Mayfield won’t be short of options to throw to. It is just a case of whether his carelessness with the football will cost him.
3. Desmond Ridder (Atlanta Falcons)
Ridder has barely played a down in the NFL, with just 73 completions, 708 yards and two touchdowns to his name.
He has yet to have a career interception in those four games he played, and he has been given the green light to be the Falcons QB1 this season.
With Taylor Heinicke behind him in the depth chart, Ridder knows he cannot make too many errors. His 2023 season may be one that defines the rest of his career.
4. Bryce Young (Carolina Panthers)
The only thing keeping the 2023 first overall pick at the bottom of the list is purely the fact that he is yet to play a single down in an NFL regular season game.
From the tape he put up in Alabama, Young could easily move from bottom to first in this list a year from now. With 8,356 yards, 80 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, the talent is there to see.
However, there is always doubt about Alabama quarterbacks. In fact, Jalen Hurts became the first former Alabama QB since Ken Stabler in 1976 to reach a Super Bowl.
This is due to many reasons. Whether it be the talent around them making Alabama quarterbacks look better than they are or their impressive college tape putting them on bad tapes, it is rare you see an Alabama QB succeed in the league.
Looking at every starting Alabama quarterback in the 2010’s and onwards, it is mixed. Hurts had a great 2022 but even he had issues in his first two seasons. Before Hurts there was Mac Jones and Tua Tagovailoa. Jones has had two very different NFL seasons and Tua’s long term health is a concern.
Blake Barnett never made it to the NFL; Cooper Bateman doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page and two-time National Championship winner Jake Coker only ever made the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.
Blake Sims, who won the 2014 SEC Championships, was never offered an NFL contract. A.J. McCarron only ever threw for six career touchdowns in the NFL and was a journeyman. This is despite him still holding the Alabama record for most passing yards and being third on the list of total passing touchdowns. Greg McElroy won a National Championship with Alabama, only had a 1-1 record touchdown to interception ratio.
Whilst Young possesses all the attributes of a franchise quarterback, we just don’t know.