The 2018 opening day NFL quarterback rankings

Breaking down all 32 starters, from Nathan Peterman to Aaron Rodgers

Brandon Anderson
13 min readSep 12, 2018

The 2018 NFL season is off and running, and not a moment too soon. An incredible 11 opening day starters from 2017 did not open the new season, a 35% turnover rate. Of course that counts Carson Wentz and Jameis Winston, but it also includes Carson Palmer, Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer, Mike Glennon, DeShone Kizer, Trevor Siemian, Josh McCown, Tom Savage, and Scott Tolzien. An ugly list. I ranked Hoyer the #23 opening day QB. Brian Hoyer was an opening day starter and wasn’t even in the bottom quarter of the league. You don’t even remember what team Hoyer started for, do you?!

The NFL is in a much better place this season, at least outside of Buffalo. There are at least vaguely competent quarterbacks on nearly every roster, and that means better football for everyone since no position in sports is more important than QB.

If you had to rank every opening day starting quarterback from worst to first based on their ability to help you win this season, how would you do it?

Tier X — No. Just no.

32. Nathan Peterman (last season: not ranked)

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Brandon Anderson

Sports, NBA, NFL, TV, culture. Words at Action Network. Also SI's Cauldron, Sports Raid, BetMGM, Grandstand Central, Sports Pickle, others @wheatonbrando ✞