Sometimes young quarterbacks look exactly how we'd expect -- they're anxious, make questionable decisions, and can't connect on the challenging throws provided to them throughout the game.
It leads to pedestrian statistical outputs, and that's precisely what we got in Week 14 for the young passers in the NFL.
None threw for more than 191 yards.
That doesn't mean they were all terrible.
And years of doing this weekly project has ingrained in my mind that statistics don't tell the true story of how a quarterback played in isolation. Caleb Williams and Bryce Young were mostly impressive in their losses on Sunday. Will Levis did struggle, as did Aidan O'Connell before his injury.
With Anthony Richardson, C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Drake Maye all with byes, there were only a few quarterbacks selected in the past two NFL Draft classes who saw considerable playing time in Week 14. Let's dive deep into the individual efforts of each quarterback and assign a grade on a per-snap basis, taking every individual aspect of their performance into account.
(At least 10 attempts were needed to qualify for this piece, which comes out weekly on Tuesdays.
Week 14 stats
- 17 of 23 for 134 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- His third-quarter touchdown to Rome Odunze was gorgeously placed in the back right corner of the end zone.
- Williams' next throw on the following drive was a fastball on a corner route in front of two defenders.
- At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Williams bounced his way around defenders in the pocket and hit a spin move on a nice scramble.
- Williams' second touchdown of the half to Odunze had great touch, up and over an underneath defender and arrived before the safety could make a play on the ball.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the second, had a clear lane to run but was too late to abandon the pocket and was tripped up well behind the line.
Summary: Despite some of the sacks throughout this game, Williams played reasonably well in what amounted to a trouncing at the hands of the 49ers. He got the ball out of his hands quickly, didn't make any dangerous throws or clearly bad decisions and, while in garbage time technically in the second half, ultimately played a fairly good game.
Grade: B
Season Grade: C+
Week 14 stats
- 19 of 34 for 191 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- On a third-and-13 in the first half, Young fit a pass for a first down to Adam Thielen with a defender on his back in coverage. Great throw over the middle.
- Later, he threw with great anticipation on a sideline throw to Thielen that went for 24 yards.
- On an third-and-2 in the second quarter, Young placed the football beautifully over the shoulder to David Moore against tight trailing coverage for 19 yards.
- On a third-and-11, catching the shotgun snap deep in his own end zone with under three minutes to play, Young bounced around defenders in the pocket before finding Xavier Legette for 31 yards downfield.
- With under a minute to go, Young dropped one in the bucket to Legette on a post that should've been the go-ahead touchdown but was dropped.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He missed on a deep comeback in the first half.
- Young overthrew a pass into the flat later.
- After the two-minute warning in the second quarter, Young overthew Thielen on a corner route and was intercepted.
- While it was covered well, there was a fourth down in the fourth quarter that was thrown at the feet of Legette.
Summary: Another positive performance from the transformed Young. This was a hostile environment, against one of the best teams in football, and he more than just held his own the entire game. The creativity as an improviser appeared throughout this contest, he continued to throw with reasonably impressive anticipation and accuracy. There were some bad decisions and flat-out misses in this close loss.
Grade: B
Season Grade: B-
Week 14 stats
- 19 of 32 for 168 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- On a third-and-6 in the third quarter, Levis was flushed to his left and fit a pass to his receiver near the sideline to move the chains against tight coverage.
- In the fourth, he threw with perfect timing and placement on a deep over to Calvin Ridley for 30 yards.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the low red zone in the first half, on a fourth down, Levis missed a completely with open Chig Okonkwo and threw with a covered Nick Vannett on a pass that was knocked away.
- On the final drive of the game, Levis attempted a fastball over the middle that should've been intercepted on a diving attempt by the underneath defender.
Summary: This performance from Levis was about a bland as the game between the Jaguars and Titans that ended 10-6. There weren't many brutal decisions or wildly inaccurate throws. There weren't many impressive tosses from the second-year quarterback either, as the scheme was ultra conservative and he wasn't able to create with his legs really at all.
Grade: D+
Season Grade: C-
Week 14 stats
- 11 of 19 for 104 yards, 0 TD and 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the first quarter, O'Connell just fit a seam throw to Michael Mayer over the outstretched arms of an underneath linebacker but the ball was dropped.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He blatantly forced to the wrong shoulder of a completely covered Brock Bowers in the third quarter.
- There was an interception in the third that was a carelessly lofted screen attempt that was overthrown.
Summary: There wasn't much from a positive perspective from O'Connell in this outing against the Buccaneers, and the two highlighted throws in the low-caliber section were egregiously bad.
Grade: D+
Season Grade: C
