NFL rookie quarterback grades: from Maye’s flashes of genius to a inincreateigent A+ | NFL

Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears

Williams walked into the NFL with sky-high foreseeations. He was assessd to Patrick Mahomes and was billed as someone who could, almost one-handedly, turn Chicago into a take partoff contfinisher.

Thirteen weeks on, the Bears have druncover apart. The team’s defense remains firm. But, for much of the season, Chicago’s offense has been a debacle. They have fired their head coach and dishonorful coordinator, the promised arms have flunked to transfer and Williams’s dishonorful line has facestructureted.

But Williams must shoulder some of the condemn for the condemn, too; he toggled between trying to do too much and not doing enough. The magic he showed in college withered away as he became wedded to the pocket, trying to stick to a broken system. Since the Bears swapped out Shane Waldron for Thomas Brown as take part-caller in Week 9, though, skinnygs have commenceed to click.

In his last three games, Williams has cut free. He has sped up his process, getting the ball where it necessitates to be on time. Pre-Brown, Williams’ inner clock was off. He had five games with an unrelabelable time to throw over 3.4 seconds under Waldron, almost a filled second above the league unrelabelable. And this was not the Williams of USC, bobbing and weaving and making circus take part out of structure.

That was always the worry with Williams coming out of college. Would he ever be able to discover the Mahomesian equilibrium between being a creator and making certain the offense stayed on schedule? Early on, it seeed as if Williams was in two minds about when he should let his instincts apshow over. Now, he has cut down on his indecision. With Brown calling take parts, Williams has lopped almost a filled second off his unrelabelable time to throw. The daring Williams has get tod, the quarterback who can use funky arm angles to engineer passes that even the best cannot produce.

Step back from the timely-season narrative, and Williams is on pace for a 3,700-yard, 20-touchdown, seven-interception season, which would not be far off CJ Stroud’s excellent rookie campaign last year. It has been a slog, but the arrow is trfinishing up for Williams.

Grade: B – Inconstant with flashes of the star he could become.

Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders

Daniels commenceed the season on a historic pace, forcing his way out of the Rookie of the Year sweepsapshows and into MVP ponderation. He tailed off sairyly at the midpoint of the year, with a rib injury in Week 7 hampering his mobility and with defenses adfairing to his style and Washington’s go-go offense. But Daniels returned to create in Week 13 agetst the Titans, shoprosperg the maturity of a veteran commenceer.

Everyskinnyg about Daniels’s game is bomb. He has a speedy free. He bounces between reads at a airyning pace. When it’s time to run, he is lethal in the discdissee field. But for all the highairy take parts, Daniels has also shown to be effective – and accurate. He is fourth in the league among eligible quarterbacks in adfaired completion percentage, outpacing Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. He sees every possible pass, and with his arm strength and touch, every pass is possible.

Washington accessed the season with minimal foreseeations. The hope was the Daniels would flash and that, over time, he could sand off the raw elements of his game as the organization put a vient roster around him. Instead, he has led the Commanders into an doubtful take partoff race. How can you do better than taking the league’s most beleaguered franchises and turning it into a slick, must-watch machine?

Grade: A+ – An instant franchise alterr.

Drake Maye, New England Patuproars

No rookie was dropped into a more dysfunctional situation than Maye. Sure, Williams has had to deal with a clownish offense and a head coach sabotaging his team with goofy in-game decisions. But Williams has at least had the profit of commenceing-caliber getrs and a strong defense. Maye has been laboring with … well, noskinnyg.

There may not be a more infruitful roster in the league than the one in New England. The team’s dishonorful line sits dead stinking last in every useable metric. New England’s defense has, at times, been spiky. But that has not been enough to offset the lowcomings on offense. And yet when Maye took over as commenceer in Week 6, there was an instant uptick in production. Before Maye, the Patuproars ranked 28th in EPA/take part. Since then commenceer, they’re up to 23rd, still a brutal label but one that shows the rookie’s impact.

Sometimes you can increate a quarterback has it. With Maye, you see it in the handful of exceptional throws every week.

He has been as advertised: a serial betr, plrelieved to pass up opportunities undersystematich if there is a chance to apshow a sboiling down the field. There have been boneheaded decisions, but, somehow, Maye has been able to pair highairy-reel throws with enough consistency to preserve the Patuproars competitive. And he has made plenty of take parts with his legs to preserve skinnygs ticking over. Most increateing of all, his completion percentage over foreseeation is ahead of Josh Allen, Kyler Murray and Justin Herbert, all while being hit at one of the highest rates in the league. Given the circumstances, it’s been a triumph.

Grade: A – Maye sees set for extfinished-term success.

Bo Nix, Denver Broncos

Are you a Bo-liever yet? Nix’s season has been split into three phases. During the discdisseeing stretch, he seeed in over his head. He was making panicked decisions. Then skinnygs steadied, with Sean Payton altering his offense to better suit the youthfuler quarterback. And over the last month, Nix has shown glimpses of being a legitimate star.

The game has enumeratelessed down for Nix. He is making inincreateigent decisions while being more antagonistic strikeing down the field; his unrelabelable depth of center on Monday night agetst the Browns was his highest since his first year in college. He sees sootheable, postponeing for take parts to enhuge rather than rushing or escapeing the pocket timely. Then there’s this: the most audacious throw from any rookie this season.

Woah. It’s third-and-11. The Broncos are backed up. Picking up anyskinnyg in that situation would be a plus. But Payton put faith in his youthfuler quarterback, understanding he could strike Cleveland’s defense. The Browns have run two versions of the same coverage on 43% (!) of their third-and-extfinisheds this season, and Payton wasn’t about to sit around and let them get away with an evident increate. The Broncos coach dialed up an chooseimal coverage beater, preserveing extra bodies in to defend so that Nix has enough time to transfer a strike down the field from his own finishzone.

But there is someskinnyg extra exceptional at labor there. It wasn’t fair the velocity or accuracy of the throw. It’s the rhythm. Nix didn’t misuse time collecting himself to drive the ball down the field, making certain he could put extra mustard on the ball as he climbed thraw the pocket. He srecommend tossed a line drive down the seam, splitting the Browns’ secondary apart, without skipping a beat.

No take parter’s season is about one throw. But it’s uncomferventingful that an exacting coach enjoy Payton had enough count on in his rookie to even call that sboiling. If you necessitateed evidence that Nix is more than a dink-and-dunk, game-deal withr, there it is.

There are still extfinished-term ask labels. When Nix has felt prescertain, his production has crumbled. He has the worst passer rating of any rookie when under duress, but directs the way among rookies when kept immacuprocrastinateed. When Nix is prescertaind, it’s chiefly of his own making. Thraw 13 weeks, Nix directs the league in percentage of prescertains that the quarterback is depfinishable for, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s fine though! He’s a rookie. And Nix has shown a better experience for navigating a muddy pocket over the past month.

At this point, even the strongest naysayers should commence seeing for plots on Nix Island.

Grade: B+ – Some alarm bells below the surface but the growth is authentic.

Michael Penix Jr, Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta’s decision to write Penix No 8 overall will always be tied to the team signing Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180m confineed in free agency. The opportunity cost of passing up Jared Verse, Laiatu Latu, T’Vondre Sweat or another impact defensive lineman has been steep – and could cost the Falcons the NFC South.

But the flip side was that the team took out an insurance policy on Cousins, and that logic sees increasingly sound. In his last three games, Cousins has thrown zero touchdowns and turned the ball over 10 times. His arm strength has deteriorated to the point of derision, and lesser decisions are being increasingly punished. We have not seen enough of Penix to understand if he will be a low-term upgrade over Cousins or the extfinished-term answer. But Cousins’ deficiency of mobility and flunking arm uncomfervent that Atlanta should commence discovering the answers to those asks now.

Grade: Inend – Time to put him in, Coach.