Kirk Cousins led the Minnesota Vikings to their first win of 2023 in Week 4. He didn’t make it look easy.
The veteran quarterback threw a pair of interceptions — both deep in enemy territory — but managed to earn a comeback victory in Charlotte. That left him as an aberration on this week’s list of worst quarterbacks. He’s the only winner among this six-man crew.
He’s not the only big name, however, nestled between the growing pains of rising quarterbacks like Jordan Love and Desmond Ridder is Joe Burrow — a preseason MVP candidate who has clearly been affected by the calf injury that stole his preseason. His inability to create throwing space and generate deep balls has been a massive detriment for a now 1-3 Cincinnati Bengals team.
Who was the worst quarterback this week? 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 4 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 fourth game of the 2023 season.