14. CJ Stroud, Houston Texans
It is far from CJ Stroud’s fault that the Houston Texans began the year 0-4. He’s certainly far from perfect, but Stroud did have another solid day through the air. He finished with 261 passing yards, one touchdown, and a 107.6 passer rating. He now actually has six touchdowns and zero interceptions on the season, which is very interesting. With the Texans being 1-4, you almost struggle to acknowledge that Stroud has not played poorly this year, but the team being 1-4 also tells you that he hasn’t been great.
Stroud has thrown for at least 250 yards in four of five outings this year, and he has a passer rating of at least 106 in three of his five outings. If Stroud were to keep this play up for the rest of the season, the Texans would probably offer him a long-term extension.
Stroud rises up a bit in our QB power rankings.
13. Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks
Sam Darnold has been fine this year, right? Darnold tossed one touchdown pass against two interceptions in a pretty shaky performance in Week 5, a loss to San Francisco at home. Darnold now has two starts this year with fewer than 200 passing yards, and both have come in the past two weeks.
His passer rating this week was a measly 64.6, as the Seattle Seahawks just weren’t able to do enough to win. The veteran QB now has seven touchdown passes against five interceptions, and, dating back to the start of the 2025 season, he has 19 interceptions, so he definitely puts the ball in harm’s way more than you’d like.
Darnold is most certainly a QB who is more along for the ride than anything else, but as long as the Seahawks are able to continue playing well on defense, they’ll be fine. This is certainly not a loss they were hoping for, but being 3-2 after five games is a decent spot to be in.
It feels fair to drop Darnold a bit in our QB power rankings.
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