28. JJ McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings
How about the Minnesota Vikings? The Detroit Lions probably expected to walk away with a relatively comfortable win here in Week 9, but the Vikings winning this one really made the NFC North a lot more interesting, as the Vikings are 4-4 and are all of a sudden one game behind the Lions in the standings.
Moreover, this game was in Detroit, so it’s such a huge win for this franchise. McCarthy played well, all things considered, but we obviously can’t rank him super high. This is his third start of the season and his third NFL start, period. There is still a ton of unknown with this player, and it won’t do us any good to overreact to one game.
Sure, it was impressive, but in order for McCarthy to rise in our QB power rankings, he has to keep stacking positive performances like this one. Good for McCarthy and the Vikingsn nonetheless.
27. Geno Smith, Las Vegas Raiders
With four touchdown passes on the day in the loss, Geno Smith has at least now thrown as many touchdowns as interceptions. For weeks, he had more interceptions than touchdowns, which is just not nearly good enough ti be a starting QB in the NFL.
However, predictably, it was another Las Vegas Raiders’ loss, as they fall to 2-6 on the season with this latest loss, in overtime against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Raiders’ decision to trade legitimate NFL draft capital for Geno Smith was a horrendous mistake and something that they should honestly be ashamed of - Smith is not a starting-caliber QB at this stage of his career and is only making things worse for the Raiders. He’s been largely bad this year, and things aren’t going to change.
Vegas is on a short week and travels to Denver to face the Broncos on Thursday Night Football, so the Raiders might again be staring down another loss. Their starting QB is not good enough to win consistently in the NFL. Smith is again low in our QB power rankings.