The regular season is in the rearview and all but one rookie quarterback is done playing football. It’s time to look back on the 2024 class and see how the rookies stacked up against each other and against their pre-draft profiles. These rankings were done with a fantasy outlook in mind, though I wouldn’t make any changes if I were an NFL staffer ordering the rookies.

No. 1: Jayden Daniels, Commanders

Daniels finished as the QB5 on the season and logged the second-most fantasy points for a rookie quarterback ever. He set the rookie record for rush attempts (148) and yards (891) as well. He wasn’t just a runner. Daniels ranked sixth in EPA per play.

Pro Football Focus charted him with a modest big-time throw rate of 3.9 percent, narrowly cracking the top 20. However, he more than balanced this out with the second-lowest turnover-worthy play rate in the league. This also aligns with his 7.9 aDOT, which ranked 24th among qualified passers. Long story short, Kliff Kingsbury dialed up a conservative passing attack and Daniels pushed the boundaries of what that style allowed him to accomplish. There shouldn’t be much of a debate on the QB1 of the class. If there was, a playoff victory on the road silenced any doubts.

No. 2: Drake Maye, Patriots

I had Bo Nix as the QB2 up until five minutes before I published this article. Nix is the safe bet. He was positive in EPA per play, added plenty with his legs, and made the playoffs. Maye was slightly in the red by EPA per play and his heroics were rarely enough to get New England the win. On the other hand, Maye was not too far from Nix in both EPA and fantasy points per game. This was despite playing behind PFF’s No. 31 pass-blocking offensive line while throwing to PFF’s No. 30 graded receiver unit.

Note: The above data is from the regular season only. For fantasy points per game (FPPG), I threw out Maye’s Week 18 in which he started but got most of the game off. I did not throw out a previous game he left because of a concussion.

Maye was more accurate based on the charting data and CPOE. He is also an elite scrambler. His mark of 7.8 yards per carry is the highest for a quarterback since Michael Vick in 2006. Ranking Maye over Nix is shooting for a home run while forgoing a double—a bet I’ll make every time I can.

No. 3: Bo Nix, Broncos

Nix finished the season as the QB10 and recorded the fifth-most fantasy points for a rookie quarterback. QB Wins don’t put fantasy points on the table, but they do give Nix job security. He also has less injury risk than Maye. No one loves taking unnecessary hits more than Maye, who suffered one concussion this year and was checked for at least one other. Nix also made strides as a passer over the course of his debut season. PFF graded him as their No. 28 passer over the first seven weeks. He was their 10th-highest-graded passer from Week 8 through the Wild Card Round. Just like in college, Nix’s arm talent didn’t jump off the tape. The Broncos seemingly conceded this point as well. Nix ranked 24th in aDOT and had the second-highest rate of throws behind the line of scrimmage. In an era of scheme merchants and a dearth of explosive plays across the league, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for Nix to be a quarterback who can press all of the buttons and then some. If this quarterback class is going to give us a Joe Burrow or a Josh Allen, my money is on Maye. However, Nix’s floor is undoubtedly the highest of the non-Daniels options.

No. 4: Caleb Williams, Bears

We’ll start with the good. Williams threw four interceptions in his first three games, five in his first six, and then went nine games without a pick. We’re getting to the good, I promise. He was intercepted once over his final 11 appearances. Williams also rushed for 489 yards and made some truly spectacular throws.

The counting stats—3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns—were serviceable. He had four games with at least 300 passing yards and multiple touchdowns. Onto the bad.

Williams may not have thrown many interceptions, but that’s because he simply refused to let go of the football. He took a league-high 68 sacks. The list of quarterbacks to take at least 50 sacks in their rookie season is short and damning:

• David Carr (76)
• Caleb Williams (68)
• Bryce Young (62)
• Tim Couch (56)
• Blake Bortles (55)
• Jake Plummer (52)
• Dieter Brock (51)

Offensive line play is often assigned the blame for this and that played a part. But the numbers and play-charters don’t see the Bears’ line in the same light as New England’s, for example. ESPN measured Chicago with a slightly above-average pass block win rate. PFF charted them as the ninth-best pass-blocking unit in the league. On the other hand, PFF held Williams responsible for 19 percent of his pressures, the 10th-highest rate in the league. Last but not least, the accuracy wasn’t ideal either. He logged a -.1% CPOE and PFF charted just 54 percent of his throws as accurate. That ranked 28th out of 30 qualified quarterbacks. This was all while having what we thought was an elite wide receiver trio heading into the season. We got very little of the good from his college tape and all of the bad. That’s not to say we will see the same next year. He’ll have a new head coach and offensive coordinator to start plus likely more help on the offensive line. But, at this point, Williams is closer to Michael Penix than he is to Bo Nix in the rankings.

No. 5: Michael Penix, Falcons

Penix only made three starts as a rookie, taking over for a struggling Kirk Cousins late in the year. The sample size isn’t large and he is exactly who we thought he was coming out of college. Penix has a laser of an arm and handles pressure well. He had an extremely low pressure-to-sack rate of 12.1 percent but only added 11 yards on the ground, albeit with one touchdown. Among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks, Penix finished the year ranked fourth in PFF passing grade and 10th in EPA per play. The EPA mark is all the more impressive when you consider this happened to him not once but twice.

His lack of rushing output will probably prevent him from ever posting a top five fantasy season, but Penix showed a lot of promise as a rookie.

No. 6: J.J. McCarthy, Vikings

McCarthy injured his knee in the preseason and did not play as a rookie. In his absence, journeyman backup Sam Darnold balled out, leading the Vikings to a 14-3 record and a playoff berth. Despite imploding in the Wild Card Round, I’d bet on Darnold starting Week 1 for the Vikings next year.

No. 7: Spencer Rattler, Saints

Rattler was a film darling prospect who crashed out in the spreadsheets and the nerds took a decisive victory in New Orleans. Rattler ranked second-to-last in the NFL in EPA per play and CPOE. He is in the bottom six in both categories since 2018 (min. 250 dropbacks). He has a long way to go to even be a useful QB2 for an NFL team.