The NFL Hall of Fame Game has already come and gone, which means we're about to start reacting to actual football things happening in just a few short weeks. For now, we all get to continue to enjoy the NFL content mill churning out rankings that are definitely not going to end up on Old Takes Exposed at any point.
Our latest NFL power rankings are going to take a look at every division in the league but with a twist. We're going to rank every team and every division based on their starting quarterback for the 2024 season. Which divisions around the league have the best quarterback play and which ones are lacking? Who has the most potential this year?
NFL Power Rankings: Ranking every team and division by starting QB
8. NFC South team/quarterback rankings
4. Bryce Young, Panthers
I think just about everyone wants to see Bryce Young find a way to turn it around this year with the Panthers.
The former #1 overall pick now has some better weapons around him and a head coach in Dave Canales who has helped revive the NFL careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield over the last couple of seasons. Young is in a much better position right now than he was a year ago but he’s at the bottom of the overall totem pole – the worst QB in the division with the “worst” QBs overall.
3. Derek Carr, Saints
Statistically speaking, there was nothing really about Derek Carr’s first year with the New Orleans Saints that you wouldn’t like. In fact, there wasn’t really anything that you wouldn’t have expected from him, in general. He kind of is what he is at this point.
There are going to be some weeks when the Saints go off for 40-plus points and there are going to be weeks where they struggle to get 10 points on the board. Luckily for them, Carr falls somewhere in between there “most” of the time. It’s going to be intriguing to see how he fares with all of the changes on the offensive line in 2024.
2. Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers
Baker Mayfield now has a big new contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after his second “breakout” NFL season.
Hope seemed completely lost for Mayfield at this time a year ago and there were certainly plenty of people who had written him off, despite the fact that the Bucs provided him a great situation to rehab his career on paper. After bouncing back late in 2022 with the Rams, Mayfield earned his job with the Bucs and played really well, even helping the team win a playoff game against the Eagles.
We’ll see if he can keep it up without Dave Canales calling the shots as the Bucs’ OC. He’s been replaced by Liam Coen.
1. Kirk Cousins, Falcons
I still believe that Kirk Cousins is one of the better and more underrated overall quarterbacks in the NFL when he’s fully healthy. The issue is, we’re seeing signs of his body really wearing down over the last couple of years, and the Falcons saw the signs as well.
But they were still willing to pay the $180 million price tag to get him out of Minneapolis.
We saw on the Netflix Quarterback show that Cousins was getting beat up regularly in Minnesota. Then he suffered an Achilles injury last year. How is he going to do in a new city with all new playmakers around him in 2024? Can he fend off Michael Penix Jr.?