Jayden Daniels legitimately looked like he was back at LSU, playing a mid-level SEC team in the Commanders Week 17 overtime win over the Falcons.
He ran for 127 yards on 16 carries, which anchored his strong grade in the victory. Elsewhere, Aidan O'Connell had another solid effort in the Raiders second-straight win, Bo Nix was efficient in the narrow loss to the Bengals, and C.J. Stroud looked completely lost in Houston's defeat at the hands of Baltimore.
There were 10 quarterbacks selected in the past two NFL draft classes who saw considerable playing time in Week 17. 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 17 stats
- 24 of 36 for 227 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 127 rushing yards
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the first quarter, Daniels threw a seed to Zach Ertz on a deep post that should've been a touchdown.
- Daniels showcased his speed on an 9-yard scramble in the third quarter that moved the chains after he drifted left out of the pocket.
- Near the end of the third, Daniels deployed an absurd stop-spin where he let a defender dive past him as he twirled on a run that accumulated 18 yards.
- In the fourth, Daniels bounced off a diving tackle attempt on what ultimately was a 7-yard quarterback keeper.
- In overtime, Daniels demonstrated his acceleration and elusiveness, forcing multiple missed tackles on an 16-yard scramble.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He simply didn't see the sinking linebacker on his first-half interception.
- In the third, he had an open receiver in a coverage hole down the left sideline but the pass was behind its target and fell incomplete.
- In the third, Daniels missed a throw into the flat to his running back.
Summary: Daniels was most impressive with his legs in this game, with nearly 130 yards on a ground on 16 attempts. Many of those runs did feature enormous rushing lanes. Daniels looked effortless amassing yardage on the ground against the Falcons. There were some misses in the pass game and a scattering of quality throws in the overtime win.
Grade: B+
Season Grade: B
Week 17 stats
- 16 of 28 for 122 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- His first throw of the game was a strike to Rome Odunze over the middle after gliding through his reads and while taking a hit, but the ball was dropped.
- He demonstrated his escapability and speed on a 16-yard scramble in the third quarter.
- On a fourth-and-5 late, while running backward away from two free rushers off his left, Williams made an incredible throw against his body into the arms D.J. Moore with two defenders tightly covering him to move the chains.
- After bouncing around and away from pressure in the pocket, Williams threw across his momentum again on a 15-yard pass to Odunze to move the sticks on 3rd and 14 late in the game.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- Late in the first, he stepped into the pocket and threw over the head of an open Odunze over the middle.
- He overthrew an open tight end in the front right corner of the end zone in the first half.
- Williams held the ball far too long as he drifted left on a third-quarter sack.
- He reversed field on another sack in that quarter, this time being dropped for a 14-yard loss.
- His second-to-last throw in this contest was yards over the head of Odunze over the middle.
Summary: Williams really battled in this game and faced repeated pressure throughout. The game plan was ultra-conservative, and he missed some open receivers that could've been all the Bears needed to win. The sacks remain a problem.
Grade: C-
Season Grade: C+
Week 17 stats
- 24 of 31 for 219 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the first, he squeezed a deeper crossing route into one of his receivers against super-tight coverage.
- In the third, Nix threw with ideal touch and placement on a red-zone fade to Courtland Sutton for a touchdown.
- The 51-yard touchdown to Marvin Mims in the fourth quarter was an absolute dime deep down the field to the back portion of the end zone. He threw Mims open.
- On the final drive of regulation for the Broncos, Nix moved left out of the pocket and found Sutton near the left sideline with a cornerback in tight.
- His next throw was gorgeously placed over the middle through traffic to Sutton for 14 yards.
- While it was a better catch than throw, Nix's fourth-down heave to Mims was ideally placed between two defenders.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the first quarter, Nix totally missed on a slot fade attempt into the end zone.
- The late interception came on a third-and-15 force in which Nix either didn't see the sinking linebacker or thought he could fit the pass in before the defender got to his target.
- In overtime, he threw behind Mims on a swing pass, forcing the receiver to spin to make the catch and leading to a 1-yard loss.
- Nix's final throw of the game came while moving right away from pressure but either was way out in front of an underneath target or well short of Troy Franklin at the next level.
Summary: Nix mostly took good care of the football in this game, hitting screens and check downs galore while sprinkling in some impressive downfield strikes and tight-window throws. Late, the interception certainly hurt his grade, as did some of the passes with ball-placement problems.
Grade: B-
Season Grade: C+
Week 17 stats
- 17 of 31 for 185 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the second, from the left hash, Stroud threw with plus arm strength toward the right sideline to Dalton Schultz to pick up a first down.
- There was a fine throw through layers of coverage down the middle to Collins last in the second quarter that was dropped.
- As he was being hit, Stroud threw with anticipation to Collins deep downfield for a 30-yard gain in the third.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- Late in the first, Stroud overthrew Nico Collins on a flag route.
- His next throw, from a crumbling pocket, was overthrown to Schultz on what should've been an easy check down.
- He missed on an out-breaking route run by John Metchie in the first half.
- Stroud attempted to reverse his field and was sacked for 13 yards by Odafe Oweh.
- His third-quarter interception was a force after being pushed from the pocket.
Summary: Ugly performance all around, from Stroud, and the Texans as a whole against the Ravens on Christmas. From the jump, Stroud's accuracy was off, and he held the ball far too long too often. This was a major challenge though against a surging Ravens defense.
Grade: D+
Season Grade: C+
Week 17 stats
- 15 of 28 for 203 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- Young's first attempt of the game was a bucket throw deep down the right sideline to Adam Thielen against air-tight coverage. Play went for 31 yards.
- His down-the-middle touchdown to Thielen was thrown with anticipation as he was being hit in the pocket.
- Young's second touchdown of the first half to Thielen was perfectly placed over the top of two defenders on the 40-yard score.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- While he was facing a heavy blitz, Young drastically underneath a deep shot to Xavier Legette down the sideline in the second quarter.
- He held the ball far too long on his final drop back of the game and was sacked.
Summary: Young was dealing in this game, it's just that the Buccaneers couldn't be stopped offensively, which made this a blowout. The first half was more impressive than the second for 2023's No. 1 overall pick. Altogether, he worked the underneath portion of the field well, hit some challenging throws while under pressure downfield and most of his incompletions were throwaways. He did take plenty of sacks.
Grade: B+
Season Grade: B-
Week 17 stats
- 19 of 39 for 223 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- While the ball fell incomplete after a huge hit, Penix threw a dot deep down the seam through multiple layers of coverage in the first quarter on target.
- Penix looked middle to freeze the safety before looking left and throwing a missile to Drake London on a deep flag route.
- His next throw was another out-breaker to London near the sideline against tighter coverage for 17 yards.
- There was ideal anticipation on a deep comeback run by London on the second-to-last drive by the Falcons in regulation.
- His 4th and 13 strike to Kyle Pitts was a dot through layers of coverage for the game-tying touchdown.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- Penix's third throw of the game was skipped down the middle toward Darnell Mooney.
- Penix missed an open receiver in the back right corner of the end zone in the first. Throw was wide.
- Near the end of the half, he threw behind Bijan Robinson on an option route over the middle. The ball was tipped and nearly intercepted.
- Penix well overthrew London on a corner in the end zone.
- He fumbled while stepping up and getting sacked in the fourth.
- With under 1:30 to play in this game was an airmail to an open London in the front right corner of the end zone.
- He overthrew Mooney on a deep corner with under a minute to play.
Summary: This was the full Michael Penix Experience in a blast of game against the Commanders. The arm strength was evident. He threw vertically often with plenty of anticipation. There were also inaccurate passes to all levels toward open receivers. The touchdown late -- his first in the NFL -- was a thing of beauty.
Grade: C
Season Grade: C
Week 17 stats
- 12 of 22 for 117 yards with 1 TD and 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- His second-to-last throw of the game was placed gorgeously over the outside shoulder of Ja'Lynn Polk but the ball was contested and fell incomplete.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- Maye took a bad sack for a 15-yard loss in the third quarter.
- Later that quarter, he overthrew a middle-of-the-field deep shot that should've been intercepted.
- In the fourth, Maye missed high and wide on a deep comeback toward the sideline intended for Kendrick Bourne.
Summary: A game to forget for Maye at home, coming off one of his best performances of the season. It wasn't that he put the ball in harm's way often. It's that he didn't have answers against pressure and his ball placement was off-kilter all afternoon.
Grade: D+
Season Grade: C+
Week 17 stats
- 24 of 47 for 170 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the first, he looked right then came back to the middle and hit his tight end on the backside of a route concept past a diving linebacker.
- In garbage time toward the end of the game, Thompson-Robinson cranked the velocity on a strike to Jerry Jeudy near the sideline with a defender converging on the throw.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- A rare bad throw on the completion -- in the second DTR hit Jeudy over the middle on a dig that went for 17 yards. It was from a clean pocket with a clear throwing lane and a trailing defender. The ball was behind the speedy receiver, forcing him to adjust to the pass by slowing down. A throw in stride could've amounted to a larger gain.
- His attempt at a seam throw on the next throw was easily intercepted by a sinking linebacker.
- Late in the third, DTR missed low and wide on a pass into the flat.
- He sailed a throw to Jordan Akins late in the game over the middle.
- DTR's last throw of the game was significantly overthrown into the end zone on a fade attempt.
Summary: Thompson-Robinson regressed after a respectable showing a week ago, in this game against the Dolphins in which he attempted 47 passes. Most of them were checkdowns underneath. The few times he let it rip, the results weren't great for the Browns.
Grade: D
Season Grade: D+
Week 17 stats
- 20 of 35 for 242 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- While rolling right, O'Connell led Terrace Marshall downfield on a 28-yard gain.
- Pressured moved him to his left, but he somehow got his shoulders square to find Brock Bowers for a 13-yard gain.
- After the two-minute warning in the first half, O'Connell dropped a bucket throw into the hands of Tre Tucker down the left sideline.
- On a third-and-9 in the third quarter, from a squeezed pocket, O'Connell threw with tremendous anticipation and placement on a dig to Meyers to move the chains.
- On a third-and-6 in the fourth quarter, O'Connell scanned for a while in the pocket before finding Tucker in the back left corner of the end zone.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He threw behind an open Jakobi Meyers on a deep crosser in the first quarter.
- O'Connell demonstrated bad pocket awareness attempting to vacate backward in the first which led to a Cam Jordan sack.
- In the second, O'Connell underthrew a sideline deep shot that could've been intercepted.
- He missed badly on the final throw of the game, a pass down the left sideline.
Summary: O'Connell was mostly sharp in this outing in New Orleans, finding his check downs quickly as usual, but also demonstrating his anticipatory skills, arm talent, and glimmer of pocket-navigation skills. Back-to-back quality performances for the second-year passer.
Grade: B-
Season Grade: C+
Week 17 stats
- 20 of 36 for 218 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- Rattler's first throw of the game was ideally placed between the seam and the numbers to Juwan Johnson but fell incomplete on the hit from the safety.
- Near the end of the half, as he was being hit by interior pressure, Rattler threw with gorgeous accuracy and trajectory on a deep corner for 23 yards.
- In the third, he made a free-rushing Tyree Wilson miss then threw a strike across his body that was defended after the ball arrived and fell incomplete.
- Rattler demonstrated surprising speed on a nifty 8-yard scramble in the second half.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- Midway through the fourth, he was late on a deeper in-breaking route that should've been intercepted.
- Late in the game, he misfired on a check down to one of his running backs.
- He airmailed a deep dig late in the game from a clean pocket.
- Rattler's final throw of the game was an interception in which he didn't see a backside defender flying to cut off his throw on an in-breaking route.
Summary: Rattler was darn good in this game... until the final few minutes which were technically in garbage time. He threw on time with plus accuracy and even demonstrated some sneaky athleticism as a creator. Then his accuracy dipped and he made a few bad decisions.
Grade: C+
Season Grade: C-
