The quarterback ranking after Week 13 of the regular season

Who were the passers who were light and who were shadow, during the thirteenth day of the NFL campaign?

The Week 13 he was not very bright in terms of quarterback performances. There was not a single passer who managed to overcome the barrier of 90 points on the 0-100 scale of the Total QBR from ESPN, and only nine achieved a passing grade of 60 units or more.

On the other hand, at least there were no single-digit performances on the metric, something we’ve gotten used to in recent days.

As is our standard, we present – in strict alphabetical order – the five best and five worst quarterbacks in the league. Week 13 on the NFL.

Five quarterbacks on the rise

Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Is it possible for a seven-time Super Bowl champion and three-time NFL MVP to fly under the radar? If you are Tom Brady in 2021, yes. While names like Kyler Murray, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and others have been shuffled for MVP of the current season, Tom Brady keeps producing at a high level day by day, without hearing his name among the favorites. In Week 13, he completed 38 of 51 passes for 368 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. His 82.3 QBR Total was third best to date, and he was fifth best in completion percentage, at 74.5 percent.

Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers. The young Chargers quarterback continues to accumulate credit with brilliant performances this season. On matchday 13, he connected on 26 of 35 passes for 317 yards with three touchdowns against an interception. He was fourth-best in Total QBR at 79.9, and third-best in average yards per pass attempt, at 9.06. Only 11.4 percent of its shipments were inaccurate, the fifth-best mark for the day.

Gardner Minshew, Philadelphia Eagles. That Gardner Minshew? Yes, that Gardner Minshew. In the absence of starter Jalen Hurts, the former Jaguars quarterback managed to connect on 20 of 25 pass attempts for 242 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, marking the second-highest completion percentage of the day. Also, he was second-best in average yards per pass attempt, at 9.68, and unbelievably, none of his shipments were marked inaccurate, leading the NFL in that area. It’s not enough to bench Hurts, but that won’t stop Eagles fans from arguing about it. His only sin was a fumble that, fortunately, was not lost, culminating in the fifth best Total QBR of the date, a 78.3.

Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals. Murray returned to activity, and he did it in a great way. The Cards passer completed 11 of 15 passes for 123 yards with two touchdowns without interceptions, but he also added 59 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. Two fumbles, not lost, tainted his stat sheet, but he was also fifth-best with 8.20 yards per pass attempt, and eighth in completion percentage, at 73.3. With an 85.4, he led the NFL in Total QBR for the day.

Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins. The ‘Phins saw arguably the best version of Tagovailoa yet in their short NFL career, going 30-of-41 for 244 yards with two touchdowns with no interceptions. A 65.9 was enough to place him with the sixth best Total QBR of the day, and with a rate of just 9.8, he was the fourth best in percentage of inaccurate passes.

Five quarterbacks down

Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills. It is clear that the intense wind at Highmark Stadium prevented pyrotechnics through the air on “Monday Night Football,” but that does not exempt Allen – or the Bills, for the game plan they chose – from a bad note on the day. The Buffalo passer posted a QBR Total of 20.4, the lowest third of the day, and completed just 15 of 30 pass attempts for 145 yards with one touchdown and zero interceptions. Also, he rushed for 39 yards on six attempts, and fumbled. He had the second-highest rate of inaccurate passing for the week, at 26.7 percent, and the third-lowest completion rate, at 50 percent. His 4.83 yards per pass attempt was also the third-fewest average in the league. The question is, under those conditions, why did he shoot 30 times and run only six?

Teddy Bridgewater, Denver Broncos. The opposite team’s quarterback – Patrick Mahomes – didn’t play well, but Bridgewater played worse. He completed 22 of 40 pass attempts for 257 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He managed to connect on just 55 percent of his throws, the sixth-worst rate in the NFL, and he was the eighth-worst for imprecise passes, at 19.4 percent. His 25.5 QBR Total was the fifth worst in Week 13 throughout the league.

Andy Dalton, Chicago Bears. The Bears have already announced the return of Justin Fields to the starting job, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Aside from a left hand injury, Dalton is coming off a very poor performance of 26 completions of 41 attempts for 229 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions. His QBR Total of 11.5 was the lowest in the entire league, and his 5.59 yards per pass attempt was the fifth-worst average.

Mike Glennon, New York Giants. In his first start so far this season, the veteran managed to complete 23 of 44 shipments for 187 yards without a touchdown and with an interception. His 4.25 yards per pass attempt was the second-worst average for the date, as was his Total QBR of just 18.5. In terms of percentage of completions, he was the fifth worst, with a 52.3. It’s not yet known whether he will start again for the Giants – it will depend on whether he recovers in time from a concussion – but there’s a reason he hasn’t started more than five games in a season since 2013.

Taysom Hill, New Orleans Saints. The Saints live a classic situation where you never know what you have until you are lost. In this case, we are talking about quarterback. Hill finally started a game for New Orleans, after Trevor Siemian had done it in the absence of Jamies Winston, and the results were quite disappointing. He completed 19 of 41 pass attempts for 264 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions. His completion percentage of just 46.3 percent was the second-lowest on the day, and no one had a worse inaccurate pass rate than his 29.3 percent. He ran 11 times for 101 yards, too, but that wasn’t enough to get him off the bottom of our weekly chart.

Data of ESPN Stats & Information and TruMedia were used in the writing of this note.