Top 5 QB Performances of Week 1

The first week of the regular season has come to a close, and there were some more great quarterbacking performances that we were able to witness. A regular feature on our site is to take a look at the best five statistical performances from QBs, since it’s too hard to be subjective with so many games to choose from. As always, I use QB Rating, ESPN’s TQBR, and EPA to generate each week’s top five. Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer, and Derek Anderson came close but weren’t able to make the final cut.

Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has the potential to be one of the best in the NFL this season, because they have explosive talent at the skill positions around one of the best QBs in the game. Big Ben made the Cleveland Browns talented secondary look dreadful, as he torched them to the tune of 365 passing yards on 23-34 passing for a whopping 10.7 yards per attempt. Antonio Brown is his right-hand man as one of the elite receivers in the game, but Markus Wheaton will continue to be a dynamic threat in the Steelers offense. Wheaton is an explosive deep threat who is finally getting playing time in his second season, and he’s an upgrade as the No. 2 WR across from Brown. At least, he looked like an upgrade while whipping rookie corner Justin Gilbert, and it’s clear that his downfield speed fits the Steelers offense better.

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Once Lance Moore gets healthy and if Martavis Bryant rounds into shape, then the Steelers offense could be really scary. Justin Brown had a nice game on Sunday, Heath Miller is a very good TE, and we’ll all be praising the running back duo of Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount multiple times this season.

New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees

Although Brees was upstaged by the man who won our “Player of the Week” award, he still had a fantastic game in the 37-34 overtime loss against the Atlanta Falcons. It was great to see him and rookie Brandin Cooks strike up a rapport so quickly, and the Saints certainly aren’t lacking a guy who can make plenty of noise after the catch. Brees did his best to try and pull the Saints through in crunch time, but the Falcons tied it up on a field goal as time expired before Matt Bryant added another long game-winner to his resume. Both Matty Ices were ultimately too much to overcome, but Brees was precise against the Falcons secondary, completing 69% of his passes with 333 passing yards and the fifth-highest TQBR this week.

San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick

So far so good for Kaepernick, who is playing on the first year of his pay-as-you-go deal, and the uber-talented signal-caller is looking to stake his claim as one of the best ten quarterbacks in the league. He was a regular on this list near the end of the 2013 season once he recovered from a nasty foot injury that we didn’t learn about until recently, though the biggest thing was getting Michael Crabtree back.  Crabtree was limited with an injury on Sunday, so Kaepernick turned to Anquan Boldin and Vernon Davis (as he did last year) instead. But what’s different this year is depth, because even if Crabtree does miss some time, Kaepernick has more than just Boldin and Davis. Even though they didn’t feature much because the 49ers got off to a 28-3 lead at half-time and clearly pumped the breaks on a pathetic Dallas Cowboys defense, Brandon Lloyd, Bruce Ellington, Stevie Johnson, and Quinton Patton help make up one of the league’s deepest WR corpses.

Kaepernick was, as usual, brutally efficient through the air, and people don’t realize just how accurate he is. The defense across from him helped him out quite a bit, but a 69.6% completion percentage is still impressive, especially when you throw in his 93.5 ESPN TQBR. Kaep averaged 8.7 yards per attempt and was pretty much flawless against a very flawed opponent. If Tony Romo didn’t have such an off game, then this could have been a shootout with Kaepernick putting up over 300 yards on the ‘Boys.

Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford

Now this is how you want to start a season in a new offense, and we’re all salivating at Stafford’s potential under Jim Caldwell and Joe Lombardi; two coaches who actually know how to get the most out of a signal-caller with an elite skill-set. He benefited greatly from the addition of a fully legit No. 2 in Golden Tate, who helped ease pressure off of Calvin Johnson, as Megatron did some more Megatron things on Monday night. The New York Giants secondary didn’t play up to their potential, but it was still impressive to see Stafford rack up 346 yards on a unit that includes Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Prince Amukamara, who actually did play well. Stafford averaged a whopping 10.8 yards per attempt, didn’t throw a pick, and completed 68.8% of his passes in the blowout W.

Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan

But for as great as Stafford was last night, Matt Ryan was even better on Sunday afternoon against the New Orleans Saints, and he was clearly the main reason why the Falcons overcame the Saints explosive offense in a classic shootout. With Julio Jones and Roddy White fully healthy and the offensive line not a complete sieve (hopefully that holds up), Ryan’s stats finally reflected his play on the field. This guy was on fire, and he led some incredibly clutch drives in the overtime win. Ryan is one of the most accurate passers in the NFL, and there are few quarterbacks who are as good at using star talent and making smart throws. He’s the classic example of someone who thinks smart, and he added some gusty scrambling to his show of force through the air. Heck, he even got Devin Hester into the act as a receiver, as he finished with 448 very necessary yards.

He didn’t just pile up yardage either, as he was incredibly accurate and controlled with no picks and a 72.1% completion percentage. In fact, the Saints secondary defended just one of his passes on 43 attempts (four on 42 for Brees, if you would like to compare  the two in this category), which is a pretty awesome stat for the best QB in franchise history.