Some of the NFL’s best quarterbacks shined brightest in Week 3. Tua Tagovailoa fully dismantled the Denver Broncos. Josh Allen did the same on a smaller scale to the Washington Commanders. Justin Herbert put together a massive afternoon, then watched the Minnesota Vikings give away a win before his Los Angeles Chargers could.
The NFL is all about balance, however. These star performances were cantilevered by truly awful ones in losing — and winning! — efforts. That’s why this column exists. Now we’ve just got to figure out who truly played the grossest football of the bunch.
Who was the worst? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging these underwhelming performances were. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.
By comparing each passer’s Week 3 EPA against their 2022 average (or the small sample size of their 2023, if they hadn’t played enough) we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the third game of the 2023 season.