- Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen face a similar kryptonite: Jackson seemingly can't get over the hump in the playoffs against Allen or Patrick Mahomes, while Allen is dealing with the same woes against Mahomes.
- Jayden Daniels was nearly perfect as a rookie: If we have to pinpoint a flaw, Daniels seemed to struggle when defenses forced him to move left or backward. On those plays, he earned just a 46.9 PFF overall grade and took a sack a league-high 37% of the time.
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Estimated Reading Time: 17 minutes
No quarterback is perfect. Each one has a weakness to their game — and often multiple.
Let's take a look at each NFL starter heading into 2025 and highlight their kryptonite.
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Arizona Cardinals: Kyler Murray
Biggest Weakness: Pressure
As we highlighted a year ago, Murray struggles mightily with pressure. Since 2020, he ranks 31st out of 33 eligible quarterbacks in PFF overall grade under pressure (37.9). That includes seasons in which he played through injury, but the mark doesn’t change much when looking at only his past two healthy years (42.0).
While Murray showed improvement as a passer in 2024, especially from a clean pocket, where he ranked ninth in the NFL in PFF overall grade (91.5), his struggles under pressure remained.
Atlanta Falcons: Michael Penix Jr.
Biggest Weakness: Accuracy
We don’t have enough information from Penix's 120 NFL dropbacks as a rookie in 2024 to make any definitive statements about his biggest weakness, but his 1,883 college dropbacks across six seasons — 1,229 of which came in two years at Washington — provide a good starting point for dissecting his issues with ball placement.
In 2023, Penix’s 22.3% uncatchable throw rate was the worst of the six quarterbacks drafted in the first round. We got a glimpse of that in Week 17 last season against the Commanders, when he threw an inaccurate pass on 34.4% of his attempts.
Baltimore Ravens: Lamar Jackson
Biggest Weakness: Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen in the playoffs
Lamar Jackson may not have a true weakness. He shreds defenses in the regular season with his arm and his legs. He is arguably the most terrifying NFL player to face. I could wax poetic about his gaudy stats and grades against multiple fronts and coverages.
The issue is that when the lights shine the brightest, on the biggest stages, he falters. In his past three postseason trips, Jackson has watched his season come to an end at the hands of either Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. In 2020, he logged a 48.6 PFF overall grade against Allen and the Bills in the divisional round. In 2023, he posted a 61.7 PFF overall grade (50.6 PFF passing grade) against the Chiefs.
In 2024, Jackson put together the best postseason performance of his career (83.9 PFF overall grade), but it ended in another loss to Allen and the Bills. He is remembered for two massive turnovers in that divisional-round defeat, despite an otherwise excellent game. If Jackson can eliminate critical mistakes when it matters most, he will seemingly have no weaknesses.
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen
Biggest Weakness: Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs
This might seem like a cop-out, to list a specific player in the playoffs again, but both Jackson and Allen have enjoyed Hall of Fame-caliber starts to their careers, only to be overshadowed by arguably the best start to a career in the Super Bowl era from Mahomes.
Allen has five straight seasons with a 90.4 PFF overall grade or better. He has also been phenomenal in the playoffs, logging a 91.3 PFF overall grade since 2020 — the top mark in the NFL. The issue is that in those five seasons, Allen has been knocked out of the playoffs four times by Mahomes and the Chiefs (the other was Joe Burrow). And it’s not as if Allen has been bad against the Chiefs (78.9 PFF overall grade); it’s just that he’s so much better against every other team in the postseason.
Like Jackson, Allen has very few weaknesses in his game. Getting over the hump that is Mahomes will leave us searching for his kryptonite.
Carolina Panthers: Bryce Young
Biggest Weakness: Disguised coverage
Forty-one NFL quarterbacks faced at least 100 dropbacks where the defense disguised their coverage in 2024, and Young ranked 41st in PFF overall grade on such plays (53.4). A disguised coverage is defined as the safeties showing a one-high coverage look pre-snap and rotating to a two-high coverage shell post-snap, or showing a two-high coverage pre-snap and rotating to a one-high coverage post-snap.
On the other hand, Young owned a seventh-ranked 83.7 PFF overall grade with no coverage disguises. It’s clear to see where the former No. 1 overall pick struggles in the NFL.
Chicago Bears: Caleb Williams
Biggest Weakness: Generating own pressure and sacks
Copy and paste from a year ago. The weakness in Williams’ game when he came out of college reared its ugly head in his rookie season, as no quarterback was responsible for more sacks than his 17.
Williams was downgraded on the most dropbacks with a sack in the NFL, as well. If he wants to live up to the pre-draft hype, he needs to play better in structure and cut down on the sacks.
Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Burrow
Biggest Weakness: Taking too many sacks
Burrow finally enjoyed a fully healthy season, and it resulted in a career-high 94.1 PFF overall grade. While his true kryptonite might be his own defense, he does need to address his propensity to take sacks, and bad ones at that.
Burrow produced -0.820 EPA per play on sacks in 2024, the worst mark in the NFL. It was especially bad on third downs, where he led the NFL with 26 sacks and generated a league-worst -1.036 EPA per play.
Cleveland Browns: Joe Flacco
Biggest Weakness: Lack of mobility
Flacco has scrambled on just 1.1% of his dropbacks over the past two seasons, the third-lowest rate in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 300 dropbacks. While that tendency in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad, the fact that the Cleveland Browns’ offensive line is poor makes it an issue.
The Browns’ offensive line earned a 60.8 PFF pass-blocking grade in 2024, ranking sixth worst, and allowed the second-most pressures in the league (240). Combine that with Flacco’s 48.0 passer rating under pressure across the past two years, and it spells a potential disaster in Cleveland.
Dallas Cowboys: Dak Prescott
Biggest Weakness: Top defenses
Prescott and the Cowboys suffered in 2024, resulting in a career-low 68.2 PFF overall grade before the veteran passer's season-ending injury. Let's toss that aside as an outlier year and look at 2023, when Prescott was playing the best football of his career (90.3 PFF overall grade). That season, he faced 152 dropbacks against top-10 defenses in EPA allowed per dropback and posted a 57.2 PFF passing grade.
Denver Broncos: Bo Nix
Biggest Weakness: Pressure
Nix orchestrated a great rookie season, leading the Denver Broncos back to the playoffs for the first time since their 2016 Super Bowl. He was given some layups — in terms of screens, RPOs and play-action passes — to help his play as a rookie, but he did struggle under pressure on his way to a 39.8 PFF passing grade in such situations.
Detroit Lions: Jared Goff
Biggest Weakness: Lack of big-time throws
Goff has revived his career in Detroit and led one of the most potent offenses in the NFL over the past two seasons. He does well to limit mistakes and execute the offense as expected. Where his game lacks is generating above and beyond what the offense asks, as he ranks 35th out of 41 eligible quarterbacks in big-time throw rate over the past two seasons.
Green Bay Packers: Jordan Love
Biggest Weakness: Accuracy 10-plus yards downfield
As expected, Love's elite-level PFF grade in the second half of 2023 was unsustainable due to his high number of negative plays. He reined it in a bit in 2024 but ran into some issues with throws targeted 10 yards or more in the air.
Love's 41.3% uncatchable throw rate ranked sixth worst in the NFL — better than only three rookies, Anthony Richardson and an aging Aaron Rodgers coming off an Achilles injury.
Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud
Biggest Weakness: Throwing into tight or closing windows
Stroud took the NFL by storm as a rookie, showing poise and flashes of elite potential. His sophomore season was a bit of a step back, lowlighted by a poor offensive line, though he was able to manage the pressure well enough.
Stroud struggled in 2024 with fitting the ball into tight or closing windows. His 27.9 PFF passing grade and 52.9% inaccurate rate on such plays both ranked 31st out of 34 quarterbacks. Windows in the NFL shrink much quicker than they do in college, and Stroud will need to dot his passes more frequently in those situations moving forward.
Indianapolis Colts: Daniel Jones
Biggest Weakness: Lack of big-time throws
While this is also Goff’s weakness, Jones' lack of playmaking is an even bigger extreme. He has a combined 26 big-time throws across the past four seasons. Jones won the Colts' starting job this offseason, and he should do a good job keeping the offense on schedule compared to Anthony Richardson Sr., but his lack of playmaking ability might be a problem for the team in 2025.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence
Biggest Weakness: Third-and-long
Several issues have led to average play out of Lawrence over the course of his career. In 2024, his biggest issue was his performance on third downs, particularly third-and-long. Lawrence's 45.6 PFF overall grade in those situations ranked second worst in the NFL. He struggled with accuracy, logging the third-worst uncatchable throw rate, and recorded the highest turnover-worthy-play rate (16.3%).
Kansas City Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes
Biggest Weakness: Clean pocket
I’m not going to be the one to predict Mahomes' downfall. He could retire today and be a first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback. But there is no question that his level of play the past two years hasn’t been at the level of his first five seasons as a starter, a span in which his 95.9 PFF overall grade was the best in the NFL. He was excellent in every facet of the game, from an NFL-best clean-pocket PFF grade (97.9) to a league-leading 78.1 PFF grade under pressure.
The past two seasons have revealed some cracks in Mahomes' armor. When throwing from a clean pocket, he ranks just 10th in the NFL in PFF grade (93.1). That's nitpicking, but for Mahomes to get back to his otherworldly level of play, he needs to do more from clean pockets.
Las Vegas Raiders: Geno Smith
Biggest Weakness: Scramble drills
Smith has put together three straight seasons with an 80.0 PFF overall grade or better and now takes his talents to Las Vegas. He showed few weaknesses in a career year this past season. But he notched just a 59.9 PFF overall grade on scramble drills, placing him seventh to last in the NFL. His 0.275 EPA per dropback on those plays was the fifth-lowest mark.
The sample size on these plays is low, but being able to improvise when the play breaks down can be the difference between a playoff berth and sitting at home in January.
Los Angeles Chargers: Justin Herbert
Biggest Weakness: Throwing short of the sticks
We're highlighting the same weakness from a year ago for a different reason. Previously, Herbert was playing far too conservatively, which led to more third downs for the Chargers. In 2024, he cut down on throws short of the sticks and was more aggressive, but his play when he did throw short of the sticks took a step back. Herbert earned a 55.6 PFF passing grade on such plays, ranking 23rd out of 33 quarterbacks. While that is far from an awful showing, it was sizably worse than his 74.9 mark in 2023.
Los Angeles Rams: Matthew Stafford
Biggest Weakness: Father Time
Stafford has dealt with a multitude of injuries over the past few years since the Rams' Super Bowl victory. His play under pressure has suffered as a result. In 2024, Stafford’s 33.3 PFF passing grade under pressure was the third-worst figure in the NFL. He has become more reliant on play action, as his 63.0 PFF overall grade with no play action ranked 32nd out of 41 quarterbacks.
While Stafford still has the smarts and the arm talent, mounting injuries might soon catch up with the 37-year-old.
Miami Dolphins: Tua Tagovailoa
Biggest Weakness: Disguised coverages
As we expounded on with Bryce Young, safety rotations can present issues for quarterbacks — and that was true for Tagovailoa in 2024. His 55.9 PFF passing grade on such plays ranked fourth worst in the NFL. It may have been a one-year bump in his career, as he excelled against those looks in 2022 and 2023 with 92.4 and 87.6 PFF passing grades, respectively. While his 77.0 PFF passing grade with no safety rotation wasn’t elite, it was still very solid.
Minnesota Vikings: J.J. McCarthy
Biggest Weakness: Experience
McCarthy has handled 27 NFL preseason dropbacks after logging just 831 dropbacks in his college career. No matter how much you may have liked him as a prospect in 2024, his lack of experience might be an issue early in his career. Contrasting that to Michael Penix Jr., who took 614 dropbacks in his senior season alone, highlights the potential learning curve McCarthy has in front of him.
New England Patriots: Drake Maye
Biggest Weakness: Single-high coverages
Rookies always struggle in some form, but arguably the lowest-hanging fruit in terms of a weakness for Maye in 2024 was his play against single-high coverages (Cover 1 and 3). Cover 1 is a man coverage with a single free safety, and Cover 3 is a zone coverage typically with one deep free safety and two cornerbacks deep, each covering a third of the field.
Maye’s 56.5 PFF passing grade against single-high coverages ranked fifth worst in the NFL. While his play against two-high wasn’t exactly stellar, his 69.0 PFF passing grade on such plays still ranked 19th out 40 qualifiers.
New Orleans Saints: Spencer Rattler
Biggest Weakness: Blitzes
There were many warts in Rattler’s rookie season, which concluded with a 49.4 PFF passing grade. Defensive coordinators love sending heat after quarterbacks to make them get rid of the ball quickly, and they especially love to do so against rookies. When Rattler saw a blitz coming, his 46.4 PFF passing grade was the worst in the NFL.
New York Giants: Russell Wilson
Biggest Weakness: Generating positive plays
Wilson produced a positive play last season at the lowest rate (19.6%) of the 32 projected starting quarterbacks in 2025. While he can still unleash a beauty of a big-time throw (6.1%, tied for fifth in the NFL), living off the big play isn’t a winning recipe in the NFL.
Wilson's big-time throw rate last season tied with Lamar Jackson, but Jackson earned a positive grade ar a rate nearly 12 percentage points higher. Wilson’s NFL days are likely numbered, especially when his team just threw a dart at a quarterback in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
New York Jets: Justin Fields
Biggest Weakness: First-and-10
Fields’ 59.9 PFF passing grade on first-and-10 last season was better than only Caleb Williams’ 53.3 mark among returning starting quarterbacks. Fields has dealt with a plethora of issues throwing the football throughout his career, notably in obvious passing situations, but his woes on series starters can be a death knell for his offense's chances of sustaining a drive.
Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts
Biggest Weakness: Third down
Hurts’ 54.0 third-down PFF passing grade in 2024 ranked second to last among returning starting quarterbacks. He had just three outings where his third-down PFF passing grade surpassed 80.0, though one was the NFC Championship game.
Hurts did finish with an 80.2 PFF passing grade on money downs in 2023, and since play on third downs isn’t stable, he might return to top-tier play in 2025.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Aaron Rodgers
Biggest Weakness: Age
This could be just a copy and paste from our 2024 iteration. Rodgers will turn 42 years old this season, and he is adapting to a new coaching staff and new weapons. He still has the arm talent, but everything just looked harder for him a year ago. His mobility isn’t where it used to be, when it was a weapon in the prime of his career. It is still possible for Rodgers have a Tom Brady-esque end of his career, but the odds are stacked against him.
San Francisco 49ers: Brock Purdy
Biggest Weakness: Boot plays
The juggernaut that was the 49ers' system and weapons cracked in 2024 due to multiple key injuries. San Francisco subsequently missed the playoffs, but Purdy still logged a strong 82.9 PFF overall grade. While he didn’t play up to the level he showed in 2023 when the 49ers lost in overtime of the Super Bowl, it was far from a bad season.
Boot dropbacks proved troublesome for Purdy, as his 55.5 PFF passing grade on such plays ranked fifth worst in the NFL. Without a healthy Christian McCaffrey to force linebackers to bite on the play action and his arsenal of elite playmakers to catch the ball, Purdy struggled with accuracy and failed to record a big-time throw on boots in 2024.
Seattle Seahawks: Sam Darnold
Biggest Weakness: Man coverages
It took a while, but the player drafted third overall in 2018 showed up in 2024. Whether that’s a one-year blip or a sign of things to come, Darnold showed he’s capable of high-level play in the NFL. However, his 65.5 PFF passing grade against man coverage left something to be desired. It ranked third worst in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks against Cover 0 or Cover 1 coverages.
With an entire offseason for defensive coordinators to study Darnold’s weaknesses, you can be sure that man coverages will be deployed early and often against the veteran.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Baker Mayfield
Biggest Weakness: Moving up in the pocket
We’re at a point in Mayfield’s career where it is difficult to pinpoint a specific weakness in his grading profile. While he doesn’t grade as an elite passer, he’s above average to good in several areas. Where he was forced to move up in the pocket in 2024, though, he earned a 44.8 PFF passing grade and failed to make a big-time throw on 61 dropbacks.
Tennessee Titans: Cam Ward
Biggest Weakness: Ball placement
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 class sold the Titans on his potential through arm talent and athleticism. The ball flies out of Ward's hand with impressive velocity, but that often comes at the expense of accuracy. While he isn’t outright inaccurate, his precision remains a concern, as he ranked 10th in on-frame accuracy and eighth in uncatchable inaccurate rate among 2025's drafted quarterbacks.
If Ward is to succeed in the NFL, improving his ball placement will be a crucial area of development.
Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels
Biggest Weakness: Moving left or backward
Daniels’ rookie season is arguably one of the best we’ve ever seen from a quarterback. His 91.3 PFF overall grade ranks second among all rookie passers in the PFF era (since 2006), and he led his team to the brink of a Super Bowl appearance.
While there were few areas in which he struggled, he did have some issues when teams forced him to move in the pocket to the left or backward. Daniels posted a 46.9 PFF overall grade in those situations, and he took a sack a league-high 37% of the time. If he moved up or right, Daniels earned an 87.7 PFF overall grade and generated positive EPA 58.2% of the time. It’s clear he has a movement preference, but can defensive coordinators force him back and left?
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