The first football game of the 2023 preseason will take place on Thursday between the Jets and Browns in the NFL Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. Even though the regular season doesn’t start for another six weeks, people are starting to get the feeling that football is back. With the season approaching, it’s important to see how players and teams rank before Week 1.
The Athletic surveyed a handful of NFL coaches and players to rank the starting QBs by tier, rookies were excluded. Tier one consists of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers and Justin Herbert. Unfortunately, no Alabama guys make the upper echelon of the list.
The first former Crimson Tide QB to crack the tier list is [autotag]Jalen Hurts[/autotag] as he is at the top of the second tier. He is coming off of an MVP runner-up season and played one of the greatest Super Bowls by a QB of all-time. I think people want to see one more year of high level play from Hurts before catapulting him into tier one. For a brief moment this offseason, Hurts was the highest paid player in NFL history and it is clear he is ascending at an unprecedented rate.
[autotag]Tua Tagovailoa[/autotag] and [autotag]Mac Jones[/autotag] both qualified for the third tier, however I believe they both have an opportunity to play themselves into a higher tier. Neither one of the guys feels like they have ever had the full support of their franchise, but have shown they are both capable of being high end NFL starters.
When Tagovailoa has been healthy he’s been awesome for the Dolphins as he’s gone 21-13 as a starter through three years and led the NFL in passing yards per attempt (8.9) and Quarterback rating (105.5). Jones, on the other hand, earned Pro Bowl accolades as a rookie and has often looked like the lone bright spot in an anemic Patriots offense.
I think that we will see at least two of the three Alabama quarterback’s move up a tier before the start of the 2024 season. I also believe that Young has all of the pieces around him to have an outstanding rookie season and could be viewed as a tier two QB by this time next season.
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