Latest news with #quarterbacks
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Where Does 41-Year-Old Aaron Rodgers Rank Among Quarterbacks in NFL?
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports recently ranked the 2025 NFL starting quarterbacks by tiers, and Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers was tabbed in the tier 4 category 'Volatile Veterans' with Geno Smith, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovalioa and Kyler Murray.' 'Rodgers' luster may have dampened in is dismal two-year dabble with the New York Jets, but pairing his two decades of experience with the prestige of Mike Tomlin's Pittsburgh Steelers promises good TV. The ex-Packers great can still sling it. But can his aging legs keep him upright in a town starved for a deep run?' Benjamin wrote. Advertisement Rodgers is coming off a season in which he threw for 3,987 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions, with a 63% completion rate and 90.5 passer rating. He was at his best late in the year, too, which is an encouraging sign for the Steelers. Of Rodgers' 30 fastest top-speed plays last season, 17 came in Week 13 or later, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Derrick Bell of Steelers Now posted a two-minute highlight reel of Rodgers throwing dots up the seam last season with the Jets. The arm strength is clearly still there. Steelers All-Pro cornerback Darius Slay is very bullish on the team's signing of four-time NFL MVP. Slay won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles last season, so he knows what it takes to get to the top. He thinks Rodgers will put the Steelers in contention to compete with the league's best teams. Advertisement 'His arm strength's still there,' Slay said on the Mina Kimes Show. 'Of course, it's not like he's 20 [years old], but it's still the fact that he can still get the ball to a position where the receiver can make a play on it. I think he's a great addition because the fact that we got a younger guy that just got drafted from Ohio State, young guy, and he can really train him, help him get to where he's at. And bringing [DK Metcalf] along so [Rodgers] don't have to actually [go find a No. 1 receiver]. He got one that's right there and that's ready to go. It's gonna be fun.' Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at minicamp on June 10, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now At the age of 41, Rodgers is the oldest player in the NFL, but that doesn't mean he can no longer sling it. Many have praised his arm strength, in addition to Slay. 'He's still throwing the s*** out of the ball, honestly,' a veteran NFL offensive coach said, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. 'He's the best quarterback they've had since (Ben Roethlisberger). We will see how the body holds up, but I think he's going to help them immensely.' Advertisement An unnamed AFC executive also praised Rodgers' arm strength 'Look, the mobility is an issue, there's no doubt,' the exec said. 'But where he helps them is with the plus arm strength and the field vision from the pocket. They haven't had that. I'm not sure that will be enough, but the offense will be at least respectable.' Pro Football Network believes 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the best chance to win team MVP. 'Only one player in NFL history — Peyton Manning — has more MVPs than Rodgers. The four-time MVP joined the Steelers after a rough stint with the Jets. But even at 41, there's some intrigue with Rodgers now in Pittsburgh,' Brandon Austin of Pro Football Network wrote 'Expectations should be tempered, but Rodgers has a chance to show what's left in the tank.' Advertisement This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Where Does 41-Year-Old Aaron Rodgers Rank Among Quarterbacks in NFL? Related Headlines
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
'A little underwhelmed when I saw him live' - Coaches give honest opinions on UCLA's Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee's Joey Aguilar
'A little underwhelmed when I saw him live' - Coaches give honest opinions on UCLA's Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee's Joey Aguilar originally appeared on A to Z Sports. There will be plenty of eyes on UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar this fall. Advertisement Iamaleava spent the first two seasons of his career at Tennessee before surprisingly transferring to UCLA in April. Aguilar, meanwhile, was set to be the starting quarterback at UCLA in 2025 (after spending the last two seasons at Appalachian State) before Iamaleava's arrival essentially pushed him out of that role. Instead of sticking around at UCLA to serve as a backup, Aguilar transferred to Tennessee where he'll compete with redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre for the starting quarterback job. The Athletic recently spoke to various coaches and personnel staffers about each quarterback in college football. Advertisement Those anonymous coaches and personnel staffers shared some honest opinions on Iamaleava and Aguilar. "Extremely athletic, a better runner than people give him credit for," said an SEC assistant coach about Iamaleava. "Cannon for an arm, accurate, capable of making every throw." 'If he can put it all together, he ain't far away from being elite,' added a coach who faced Iamaleava last season. 'He's got all the tools and talent, but I was a little underwhelmed when I saw him live.' Advertisement "He's got a cannon, so that will fit that offense perfectly with how many deep shots they take," said a former G5 recruiting director about Aguilar. "And he's a better runner than you think." We'll see how things pan out for both players this fall. There will certainly be plenty of intrigue surrounding each quarterback throughout the 2025 season. Related: Arch Manning responds to question about 'the real UT' and arguing with Peyton Manning about Texas vs Tennessee View the original article to see embedded media. This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Reviewing the best quarterback options to stack for fantasy football success in 2025
We spend a lot of time ranking quarterbacks, but has stacking made QB rankings largely irrelevant? For those who don't know, stacking is a strategy where you draft multiple players from the same NFL team. The deeper your starting lineups and leagues, the more you must focus on scoring upside. Scoring ceilings become paramount, and floors are a secondary consideration. So if you're in Flex 10 (three wide receivers and a flex) and Flex 11 (three WRs and two flexes, including possibly a superflex) formats, you are building teams around wide receivers. Basically, WRs have the best chance for explosive scoring, so you want as many of them who are reasonably capable of a big day as possible. Advertisement Generally, the top two wide receivers on your roster will be drafted ahead of your quarterback. I can't recommend taking a QB before the third round — even that's often too early for me. The top two QBs in the consensus ranks, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, aren't especially stackable as they lack top fantasy receivers. So let's stipulate that you're in the fourth round, Jackson and Allen are off the board, and you have at least two top-15 WRs. Who will you draft as your quarterback? I advise ditching the rankings and pairing a passer with one of your top two receivers so that a big day by one is likely a big day by both. And if the pairing doesn't pop, it's unlikely to cost you much. In fantasy sports, uniform QB touches make scoring ranges narrower at the position than others. So, there's a greater chance the combo doubles your pleasure than does any significant harm. You're essentially creating another path to winning your week at zero cost. No one will fight you for the quarterback at the bottom of the top-12 bucket, especially if they don't roster a WR on that QB's team. And there's little difference between the mid-range QBs until QB20. So, you're not trying to decide who the best quarterback is, but rather who the best quarterback is for your team. Let's ignore the other QBs who cost premium picks — Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts and even Baker Mayfield. If you draft one of them, you can still stack them with WRs from their team, but I prefer a cheaper QB. According to NFFC, the positional ADP of the QBs in my stacking range — those who can be had at a much lower cost — are: Based on my rankings, I would also consider: I do not especially care who you pick as long as you have the QB-WR battery. Murray is tough because someone may like him (for his rushing upside) more than the market. Jordan Love is not omitted by oversight — I have no idea who his alpha WR will be. If you draft Garrett Wilson in the third round and pair him with Fields (my QB8), who you can get late, that's a win in my book. (I am about four WR slots below market on Wilson, however.) Advertisement Williams was so bad in 2024 that it's hard to believe in him, but a pairing of Williams and Rome Odunze (market's WR33/my WR33) is cheap. (I think Odunze has about a 35% chance of being Chicago's alpha this year.) The manager who selects CeeDee Lamb can take Prescott just ahead of his ADP slot to lock up the stack. Do you want Stafford instead of Goff because you have Davante Adams (who will likely lead the Rams in TDs)? Fine. Go for it. That's smart. I'm highest in the market on Lawrence (who is QB19 generally), so you can wait forever for him if you have either Brian Thomas or Travis Hunter (my WR20, market's WR32) — or even both of them. Stroud has passing-TD rate woes, but Nico Collins is my No. 2 fantasy WR, so why wouldn't I want Collins' QB? I hated Stroud's price last year (QB5), but he's now well into the back half of drafts. Can't Herbert be at least an average fantasy starting QB who you can pair with my WR14 and the market's WR11, Ladd McConkey? Absolutely. I love Drake London (WR6), so why not pair him with Penix, even if Penix is my backup? That could be game-winning, given London's 17-game pace with Penix last year in their three starts together was … wait for it … 124-1,995-11 on 221 targets. Purdy is probably the most stackable QB in the league. I'm definitely targeting him if I draft my No. 1 TE George Kittle or my No. 23 WR Jauan Jennings. I could easily get one of Kittle or Jennings and add my WR30 (the market's WR42) Ricky Pearsall, capping it with Purdy as my QB. As I always say, quoting my friend and baseball scribe Gene McCaffrey, 'to be very right, you have to be willing to be very wrong.' That Niners stack could be fantasy Yahtzee. Ranking players and building a pathway to game-changing scoring upside are mostly one and the same — different ways to describe the same thing. But the road splits when drafting a fantasy quarterback. Explosive scoring upside is achieved not by drafting the highest-ranked quarterback but by drafting the QB throwing to one or more of your top receivers. (Photo of Nico Collins and C.J. Stroud: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
Wall Street Journal
13 hours ago
- Sport
- Wall Street Journal
The Billion-Dollar Question Looming Over College Sports
College football is still weeks away, but the sport is already gripped by a bruising confrontation that could have huge repercussions for the season ahead. This one doesn't involve quarterbacks or head coaches, but another character who has been central to college sports for more than a century.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 Fantasy Football Rankings Tiers: Quarterbacks
With the teeth of draft season just around the corner, it's a good time to get the Shuffle Up series going. This week, I'll offer my player tiers for the four major positions in fantasy football. Consider them as you get ready for your own drafts, or self-scout the teams you've already assembled. Quarterbacks are the opening assignment; the running backs, wide receivers and tight ends will follow later this week. What matters is how the players relate to one another, where the talent clusters and where it drops off. Players at the same price are considered even. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] As usual at quarterback, the position is deep. It's one of the long-running ironies of fantasy football — while real-life football is all about the quarterback, it's not a position of stress for most fantasy managers. This doesn't mean you can't attack the position proactively — especially with so many of the superstars offering a juicy rushing upside — but you can do well at any draft price point. Tier 1: The Big Tickets $31 Josh Allen $31 Lamar Jackson $28 Jayden Daniels $26 Jalen Hurts $26 Joe Burrow Allen finally bagged his first MVP award despite ordinary help from the Buffalo offense — the Bills didn't have anyone make it to 830 receiving yards, and Mack Hollins led the club in touchdown catches, a pedestrian five. Unfortunately for Allen, the Bills are basically asking him to play Superman again. Allen's aggressive running at the goal line (27 rushing scores in two years) hasn't cost him a start, and he's missed just one game since the beginning of the 2019 season. Allen will need to keep the rushing scores up to hold his place in line — the Bills have become more run-heavy under coordinator Joe Brady, and Allen's passing-yard count from last season was his lowest in five years. I usually don't go for a vanity QB in my roster builds, but Jackson presents an appealing case. Jackson didn't repeat as MVP last year, but he was the best quarterback in football, leading the league in YPA, touchdown rate and QB rating while trimming his sack and interception rates to career-low numbers. The Ravens don't ask Jackson to run a lot at the goal (just 14 touchdowns in four years), but he averages 1,018 rushing yards for every 17 games started. His professional maturity has coincided with the Ravens surrounding him with better talent and offensive scheming. There's no good way to defend these guys. Tier 2: Legitimate Building Blocks $17 Patrick Mahomes $17 Baker Mayfield $16 Justin Fields $15 Bo Nix $15 Brock Purdy $13 Kyler Murray $13 Dak Prescott The Chiefs have made it to the Super Bowl three years running, but Mahomes hasn't been much of a fantasy treat the last two seasons. His YPA has dipped to 6.9 over this sample (his career rate is 7.8) and his touchdown rate has slipped to 4.5 in the period (against a career norm of 5.9). Maybe the Chiefs will get a boost from a healthy Hollywood Brown, and Xavier Worthy might have an expanded route tree in his second season. But we have to temper expectations for Travis Kelce in his age-36 season, and it's possible Rashee Rice could be looking at a multiple-game suspension. I can't view Mahomes as a proactive pick. Fields probably had the highest gap between real-life and fantasy value. His sack problem is an ongoing one — remember, sacks are more a quarterback stat than an offensive line stat — and the Jets might try to hide him in the offense. But Fields also is the unquestioned starter — Tyrod Taylor is a non-challenging backup — and Fields has the athleticism and willingness to run for 1,000 yards. The receiver room in New York is not deep, but at least Fields and Garrett Wilson know each other from two successful years together at Ohio State. I'll be ahead of market on Fields. If the Cardinals improve the offensive scheme and unlock their passing game, it will come at my expense. Murray is a straight fade for me. I worry that his below-average height keeps him from seeing the middle of the field properly — consider how the Cardinals struggled to get layup targets to Marvin Harrison Jr. last year, or unleash Trey McBride in the red area. And Murray's rushing has become a hit-and-miss proposition in recent years, something that doesn't always translate — he's averaged fewer than five rushing attempts over the last two seasons, and some kneeldowns are baked into that stat. Murray's career started with QB8 and QB3 finishes — he's been stuck in a QB10, QB18, QB26 and QB10 pattern since (last year's finish buoyed by playing the full schedule). He's not going to be part of my 2025 portfolio. Tier 3: Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down $12 Trevor Lawrence $11 Caleb Williams $11 Drake Maye $11 Justin Herbert $10 Jared Goff $10 Jordan Love $10 J.J. McCarthy $9 C.J. Stroud $8 Matthew Stafford Williams would like to forget most of his rookie year — those 68 sacks were a horror show — but the Bears basically set him up to fail. Since the end of the year, Williams got everything he wanted for Christmas: an improved offensive line, skill talent in the draft and a respected play caller to take over the offense. Williams needs to get more comfortable playing under center, and although he showed mobility as a rookie, he didn't run for any touchdowns. I don't dismiss his upside case out of hand, but I see other players around his general tier that make me more excited. Lawrence can be had about two rounds cheaper than Williams in early Yahoo drafts, which might present a buying opportunity. We've already seen some proof of concept with Lawrence — he was the QB7 back in 2022 — and new schemer Liam Coen is just as respected as Chicago designer Ben Johnson. And although the Jaguars don't have the offensive depth that the Bears enjoy, opening with Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter in the passing game is a good place to start. Lawrence also should run for a handful of touchdowns, offering some extra floor. After watching Coen orchestrate the best season of Baker Mayfield's career, I'm excited to see what's possible with the Jaguars. McCarthy is another inexpensive upside pick to get excited about, because we've watched Kevin O'Connell perform miracles before. Sam Darnold may have crashed at the end of the 2024 season, but we can't discount 35 touchdown passes or a juicy 7.9 YPA. And recall when the Vikings had injury problems at quarterback the previous season, O'Connell somehow coaxed an 8.8 YPA from Nick Mullens (three starts) and an 8.4 YPA from Jaren Hall (two starts). McCarthy was a five-star recruit and a first-round pick, and I'd follow his coach into a burning building. Even if Jordan Addison misses some time with a possible suspension, the Vikings obviously have plus-talent to throw to. Tier 4: Some Plausible Upside $7 Bryce Young $7 Tua Tagovailoa $6 Michael Penix Jr. $6 Geno Smith $5 Cam Ward $5 Sam Darnold Young was the QB6 over the final six games of the year, in part due to improved passing stats, but also boosted by a surprising five rushing touchdowns. The former could be sticky, the latter likely will not be. But the Panthers seemed to make a plus-hire with Dave Canales a year ago, and Young finally gets to work with a bona fide No. 1 target in rookie WR Tetairoa McMillan. Young might not have the upside to climb into the second tier of the position, but he's a reasonable backup for standard leagues or a solid QB3 target if you play in the Superflex format. Mike McDaniel has all offseason to fix his passing game, but after watching Tyreek Hill go without a 30-yard catch after Week 1 last year, I'm running away from this offense. Tagovailoa's concussion history has encouraged the Dolphins to focus on a short-hold passing game, and I'll need some proof of improvement before I trust this offense again. If that means I miss out on 2025 values, so it goes. Tier 5: Bargain Bin $4 Aaron Rodgers $3 Daniel Jones $3 Russell Wilson $2 Anthony Richardson Sr. $2 Tyler Shough $1 Joe Flacco $1 Jaxson Dart $1 Jalen Milroe $1 Kirk Cousins
