3. Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
Jayden Daniels is a very good quarterback, but he might be a very good quarterback with some injury concerns. It's not the most shocking thing in the world, unfortunately, that Daniels played in just seven games in the 2025 NFL Season. He is slimmer in terms of what you'd ideally want your franchise quarterback to look like, and he is a dual-threat player.
However, he helped lead the Washington Commanders to within one game of the Super Bowl in 2024 and displayed everything you'd want to see in a franchise quarterback. I almost ranked Daniels ahead of our No. 2 quarterback, but the injury bug bit him big-time in 2025, and only being able to get on the field for seven games is brutal.
It would be an entirely different discussion, if, for example, Daniels had a sprained ankle that caused him to miss three games. He's got a high-end passing ability and appears to be capable of being an elite runner, so health is really the missing thing here.
2. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
I have criticized Jalen Hurts a lot over the years, and I stand by it all, but he is someone who knows how to win. That might not mean much to the average NFL fan, but winning does tend to follow certain quarterbacks. Now that AJ Brown is out of the picture, though, a lot more pressure is now on the shoulders of Hurts to produce like a legitimate franchise quarterback.
He's never thrown for more than 25 touchdown passes in a season and has also never hit 4,000 passing yards in a season, either. Those two milestones should be rather easy for a franchise quarterback to accomplish, but Hurts makes up for some of that by being a dual-threat player.
In 2026, we'll absolutely need to see Hurts progress as a passer so much of this critical talk is put to bed. If not, it'll only continue.
1. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Dak Prescott is the best, most consistent quarterback in the NFC East, so he tops our rankings for 2026. He's been doing it the longest, has a track record of winning, and does the most important jobs of a quarterback quite well.
He's been a high-end passer for years and could end up going down as one of the best to ever put on a Dallas Cowboys uniform. Much of the reason for the overall lack of deep playoff success by Dallas doesn't fall squarely on the shoulders of Prescott, either. He's simply a very good quarterback and has shown no signs of slowing down.
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