Grading NFL’s next generation of quarterbacks: Joe Burrow strong in defeat, Tua Tagovailoa still conservative

After one of the biggest wins for the franchise over the past five years, the Bengals were upended by the Jets, but Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow had one of the best performances of the season. 

And Mac Jones looked like a completely different quarterback in Week 8 compared to what he had shown up until Sunday. As for Tua Tagovailoa, his line isn’t helping him, but he, again, looks like he’s limiting the Dolphins offense.  

A grand total of eight quarterbacks selected in the past two NFL Draft classes saw considerable playing time — more than 10 pass attempts — during a wild Week 8.

Let’s dive deep into the individual efforts of each quarterback and assign a grade on a per-snap basis, taking every individual aspect of their performance into account.

Best Throws: 

• Late in the first, there was a tiny window on an out-route to Jared Cook that Herbert ripped into the tight end. 
• With under two minutes to go in the game, Herbert connected with Jalen Guyton on the super-long throw near the sideline from the far hash. Velocity and anticipation. 
• His last throw of the game was a touchdown on a nicely placed back-shoulder to Josh Palmer.

Worst Throws: 

• Herbert took a bad sack when he unnecessarily stepped up into a pocket and was corralled by Lawrence Guy.
• Late in the second, he missed on a long ball to Mike Williams down the sideline.
• Midway through the third, Herbert took a shot down the field to Keenan Allen into double coverage that was easily broken up. 
• In the fourth, he threw behind Austin Ekeler on a drag route. 

Summary: Herbert’s had better days. Much better days. Bill Belichick and the Patriots defense confused him for most of the afternoon. His performance was hindered by some drops, but the plethora of awesome throws Herbert typically puts on film every week were simply not there in Week 8. 

Grade: C-

Season Grade: B-

Best Throws: 

• As Burrow rolled left on a play-action on a fake pitch, he had a defender in his face but was able to contort his body and get the ball to Tyler Boyd. 
• Late in the second, Burrow placed it perfectly down the right sideline to Tee Higgins for 26 yards through tight coverage.
• Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase to his left on a scramble drill for a two-yard score. The ball had to be thrown with major velocity and perfect placement and was. 
• Late in the third, Burrow stepped into a long throw across the field to Higgins for 54 yards. Rope.
• Midway through the fourth, Burrow beamed a laser to Tyler Boyd over the middle just in front of a diving defender.
• After stepping up and around multiple defenders in the pocket, Burrow somehow got the ball to Boyd down the left sideline for 19 yards. He was hit as he threw the ball too. Big-time throw on a crazy improvisation.

Worst Throws: 

• On a rollout near the goal line, Burrow threw too wide of Joe Mixon and the ball fell incomplete. A better throw would’ve resulted in a touchdown.
• In the second Burrow took a bad sack — simply held the ball way too long — and fumbled.
• After the two-minute warning, Burrow threw into the flat to Mixon but the throw was low and outside and fell incomplete. Could’ve had a touchdown if the throw was better placed.

Summary: Burrow had a strong performance against the Jets. There were a few misses, but I loved that he put a handful of high-end throws on film and was comfortable and effective while ad-libbing, one of his forte’s at LSU. 

Grade: B+

Season Grade: B-

Best Throws: 

• His second throw of the game was perfectly fit into DeVante Parker down the sideline against tight coverage. 
• After deciding not to make a throw into the right flat, Tagovailoa somehow squeezed a short pass into Parker between three Bills defenders. 
• With under a minute to go in the first half, he couldn’t have placed it better in Mike Gesicki’s arms on a short out-breaking route that was just beyond the reach of Matt Milano.
• While being forced out of the pocket to his right, on a huge fourth down in the fourth quarter, Tagovailoa dropped it in the bucket to Gesicki for 40 yards.

Worst Throws: 

• In the third, Tagovailoa missed low and outside on a sideline comeback route to Jaylen Waddle.
• On a 3rd and 2 in the third, he misfired slightly on a throw to Myles Gaskin that was knocked away. Big incompletion from a clean pocket.
• Early in the fourth, he was a tick late on a short comeback to Ahmad that was broken up. 
• The interception to seal the win for the Bills was late and didn’t have nearly as much velocity as it needed over the middle. 

Summary: Not an atrocious game for Tagovailoa. But basically every week, the offense feels so limited with him under center. It’s very RPO/quick-game oriented, and he’s simply not making many difficult, game-changing throws every week. That was the case against the Bills, outside of the long throw to Gesicki late.  

Grade: C-

Season Grade: C+

Best Throws: 

• Late in the first, Hurts waited patiently in the pocket and threw a strike for 16 yards to Quez Watkins near the end zone. 
• In the second, Hurts got away from an edge rusher and scampered for 14 yards. 
• Hurts again showed off his twitch and explosiveness as a runner on a 17-yard run up the middle in the third.
• On his last throw of the game, Hurts connected with Devonta Smith on a longer throw toward the sideline that was made with some anticipation.

Worst Throws: 

• While scrambling left, Hurts missed Dallas Goedert, who was open. 
• After spinning inside the pocket in the third, Hurts was late and wide on a short throw to Boston Scott.

Summary: This was a blowout from the jump, and Hurts only dropped back to pass 17 times. Hard to take much from this performance but the quick game stuff and scrambling flashes were there, as usual.

Grade: B-

Season Grade: C+

Best Throws: 

• While rolling left in the second, Fields zinged a laser to Jesse James for a touchdown, just beyond a diving 49ers defender. 
• In the third, on another roll to his left, Fields got his shoulders square and found James again, this time deeper downfield, for 19 yards.
• After the pocket collapsed on a third-quarter drop back, Fields showcased his speed by beating the defender to the corner. He turned it and ran for 15 yards.
• Later in the third, he squeezed an in-breaker into Marquise Goodwin through loads of traffic. 
• Early in the fourth, he threw with just enough velocity to get past the underneath linebacker and into Darnell Mooney for 20 yards outside the numbers. 
• The touchdown run was an amazing display of his athleticism and awareness on the field.

Worst Throws: 

• In the first, he was hurried inside the pocket and airmailed an awkward throw over the middle. 
• Fields had Goodwin open on an in-breaking route in the fourth but the throw was too high and fell incomplete.
• In the fourth, he sailed one over the head of Mooney on a go ball. 
  
  
• On the next play, he took a bad sack that should’ve been a throwaway as he tried to elude pressure.
• His last throw of the game was an underthrown deep ball — into double coverage — to Mooney that was picked.

Summary: Tons of scrambles in this game from Fields. But what I like from his development is that the frequency of the difficult throws he’s connecting on are increasing while the egregious misses are decreasing.

Grade: C+

Season Grade: C+ 

Best Throws: 

• Jones dropped one in the bucket to Nelson Agholor early in the first. The throw wasn’t particularly difficult because the receiver had a few steps on his defender, but Jones had to move in the pocket first.
  
  
• While it was dropped, late in the second, Jones placed a back-shoulder down the sideline to Jakobi Meyers.
• With under two to go in the first half, Jones threw a fastball to Kendrick Bourne near the sideline against tight coverage.

Worst Throws: 

• His first throw of the game was a miss into the flat. 
• Later in the first, he threw low on another swing pass. 
• Jones had Bourne wide open for a touchdown breaking back to the middle of the field but the ball was unnecessarily high and fell incomplete.
• On a fourth down at the Chargers one-yard line, he threw a fade to Meyers that was almost uncatchable. 
• He missed wide on a long out-route to Agholor.
• Jones had Bourne open on his second read on a shallow cross that was too high and wide.

Summary: This was easily the most aggressive I’ve seen Jones this season. And the results weren’t great. Not brutal. Eventually, Jones was going to have to start taking more vertical shots or the Patriots offense would’ve been too stagnant to compete.

Grade: C

Season Grade: C+

Best Throws: 

• Early in the fourth, Mills ripped one between two defenders to Danny Amendola that was dropped.
• The double-move touchdown to Brandin Cooks was perfectly placed downfield.
• With under five to go in the fourth, Mills spun away from a free rusher then found Chris Conley running across the field with a trailing defender in close for 24 yards. 
• His second touchdown was a vertical throw to rookie tight end Brevin Jordan and arrived a split second before the safety could knock it away.
• With under two minutes to go, he pumped then found Jordan deep down the field for 23 yards.
  
  
• On the second to last throw of the game, Mills ripped a pass to Jordan Akins between two diving defenders for 24 yards.

Worst Throws: 

• While drifting to his left out of the pocket in the first half, Mills threw a pick directly to an underneath defender. 
• The first throw of the third quarter was a late toss on an out-route and knocked away by Jalen Ramsey, who’s quite good.
• Late in the game, Mills misfired on an out-route to Jordan.

Summary: Strange game from Mills, that, altogether wasn’t that bad. In the fourth quarter, he put a collection of high-end throws on tape but really struggled dealing with pressure — see: Aaron Donald — for most of the first three quarters. The arm talent was certainly on display late.

Grade: B-

Season Grade: C+

Best Throws: 

• From deep in his own end in the third, Lawrence got inside pressure, moved right then navigated back toward the middle of the field and made a defender miss for an eight-yard scramble.
• Early in the fourth, he threw with perfect ball placement on an intermediate out route to Jamal Agnew against tight coverage. 
• As he was hit inside the pocket, Lawrence uncorked a cannon shot to Marvin Jones over the middle that was dropped. Ball needed to have serious heat and did.
• On another pressured play inside the pocket, Lawrence had to shorten his delivery to fit a pass into Dan Arnold through traffic. 
• In garbage time, Lawrence threw a laser to Tyron Johnson deep down the sideline that was perfectly lofted above the underneath defender, but the hit from the safety knocked the pass away.
• The touchdown to Agnew was thrown with good accuracy and anticipation.

Worst Throws: 

• Late in the first, Lawrence threw behind Laviska Shenault on a short out route that fell incomplete.
• After nearly tripping in the pocket on his drop back, Lawrence regained his balanced but skipped a short throw into Agnew. Weird play. 
• On the next snap. Lawrence bounced up into the pocket, couldn’t find anyone open, but dangerously tried to flip the ball to a teammate as he was being dragged to the turf. It was nearly intercepted.
• In the third, he aggressively stepped up and ripped a throw over the middle to an open wideout, but the ball was too low and fell incomplete.
• On the final drive of the game, he stared down a slant, threw it late, and was nearly intercepted on what would’ve been a pick six.

Summary: The Jaguars were thoroughly overmatched in this contest, especially up front. It started pretty slowly for Lawrence, with not many opportunities to show off his immense arm talent. In the second half, when the game was clearly out of reach, he flashed more.  

Grade: C-

Season Grade: C-

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