In week 1, the passing stats were once again remarkable: the league averaged 7.08 ANY/A and produced a passer rating of 100.2.
In week 2, though, things dipped down quite a bit to 5.96 ANY/A and a passer rating of 87.6. There are injuries to be discussed. Sam Darnold is out with mono and didn’t play last night. Nick Foles broke his left clavicle early in week one and is out indefinitely. In week two, two Hall of Fame quarterbacks went down: Ben Roethlisberger is out for the season with an injured right elbow, and Drew Brees is out for two months torn ligament in the thumb on his throwing hand.
There are also the Dolphins to be discussed. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen combined to be terrible: 7 passing first downs, 4 interceptions, and 7 sacks. And Eli Manning, Carson Wentz, and Derek Carr all had ugly weeks, too.
What did help week 2? The reigning MVP of the NFL, Patrick Mahomes. The best player in football put together a 2nd quarter for the ages on Sunday against the Raiders. Mahomes completed 12 of 17 passes, for a remarkable 278 yards (23.2 yards per completion) and 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions or sacks and *ten* first downs. Jimmy Garoppolo and his former mentor Tom Brady both had great weeks, but there’s no question who was the best quarterback in week two.
The table below shows the full passing stats:
| Rk | Quarterback | Tm | Opp | Result | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk | Yds | ANY/A | VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Mahomes | KAN | OAK | W 28-10 | 44 | 443 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 11.15 | 239 |
| 2 | Jimmy Garoppolo | SFO | CIN | W 41-17 | 25 | 297 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12.48 | 163 |
| 3 | Tom Brady | NWE | MIA | W 43-0 | 28 | 264 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 9.83 | 116 |
| 4 | Russell Wilson | SEA | PIT | W 28-26 | 35 | 300 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 26 | 8.56 | 101 |
| 5 | Jared Goff | LAR | NOR | W 27-9 | 28 | 283 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 9.19 | 100 |
| 6 | Dak Prescott | DAL | WAS | W 31-21 | 30 | 269 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8.9 | 91 |
| 7 | Kyler Murray | ARI | BAL | L 17-23 | 40 | 349 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 7.65 | 73 |
| 8 | Lamar Jackson | BAL | ARI | W 23-17 | 37 | 272 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 7.64 | 65 |
| 9 | Josh Allen | BUF | NYG | W 28-14 | 30 | 253 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 7.79 | 60 |
| 10 | Baker Mayfield | CLE | NYJ | W 23-3 | 35 | 325 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 7.37 | 53 |
| 11 | Jameis Winston | TAM | CAR | W 20-14 | 25 | 208 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 19 | 7.46 | 42 |
| 12 | Luke Falk | NYJ | CLE | L 3-23 | 25 | 198 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 6.78 | 22 |
| 13 | Case Keenum | WAS | DAL | L 21-31 | 37 | 221 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 6.53 | 21 |
| 14 | Philip Rivers | LAC | DET | L 10-13 | 36 | 293 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6.54 | 21 |
| 15 | Aaron Rodgers | GNB | MIN | W 21-16 | 34 | 209 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 6.42 | 16 |
| 16 | Matthew Stafford | DET | LAC | W 13-10 | 30 | 245 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6.5 | 16 |
| 17 | Andy Dalton | CIN | SFO | L 17-41 | 42 | 311 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 6.22 | 12 |
| 18 | Dante Pettis | SFO | CIN | W 41-17 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 10 |
| 19 | Josh McCown | PHI | ATL | L 20-24 | 5 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.8 | -6 |
| 20 | Mason Rudolph | PIT | SEA | L 26-28 | 19 | 112 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.63 | -6 |
| 21 | Cam Newton | CAR | TAM | L 14-20 | 50 | 324 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 5.74 | -12 |
| 22 | Gardner Minshew | JAX | HOU | L 12-13 | 33 | 213 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 35 | 5.35 | -23 |
| 23 | Matt Ryan | ATL | PHI | W 24-20 | 43 | 320 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 5.34 | -27 |
| 24 | Ben Roethlisberger | PIT | SEA | L 26-28 | 15 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4.25 | -27 |
| 25 | Drew Brees | NOR | LAR | L 9-27 | 5 | 38 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1.4 | -37 |
| 26 | Mitchell Trubisky | CHI | DEN | W 16-14 | 27 | 120 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.44 | -41 |
| 27 | Teddy Bridgewater | NOR | LAR | L 9-27 | 30 | 165 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 4.66 | -42 |
| 28 | Kirk Cousins | MIN | GNB | L 16-21 | 32 | 230 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4.64 | -44 |
| 29 | Jacoby Brissett | IND | TEN | W 19-17 | 28 | 146 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 25 | 4.39 | -49 |
| 30 | Marcus Mariota | TEN | IND | L 17-19 | 28 | 154 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 35 | 4.34 | -52 |
| 31 | Joe Flacco | DEN | CHI | L 14-16 | 50 | 292 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 4.94 | -53 |
| 32 | Deshaun Watson | HOU | JAX | W 13-12 | 29 | 159 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 22 | 4.15 | -60 |
| 33 | Trevor Siemian | NYJ | CLE | L 3-23 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 17 | -1.75 | -62 |
| 34 | Josh Rosen | MIA | NWE | L 0-43 | 18 | 97 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 1.48 | -94 |
| 35 | Eli Manning | NYG | BUF | L 14-28 | 45 | 250 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 3.72 | -103 |
| 36 | Carson Wentz | PHI | ATL | L 20-24 | 43 | 231 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 3.11 | -131 |
| 37 | Derek Carr | OAK | KAN | L 10-28 | 38 | 198 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 2.63 | -136 |
| 38 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | MIA | NWE | L 0-43 | 21 | 89 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 23 | -2.76 | -218 |
| Total | 1127 | 7996 | 44 | 26 | 77 | 527 | 5.96 | 0 |
Right now, the state of the AFC is pretty ugly. In the AFC East, the Jets and Dolphins are completely lost in the short term at quarterback: despite the good-looking numbers produced by Luke Falk last night as New York’s third string quarterback, they all came in garbage time. The Jets finished with 6 passing first downs on 36 dropbacks. In week 2, the Jets and the Dolphins became the first two teams in 2019 to pick up a first down on less than 17% of their passing plays.
The AFC South has backup quarterbacks in Indianapolis and Jacksonville, and two quarterbacks who can’t stop taking sacks in Houston and Tennessee (there are three quarterbacks who have taken a sack on 11% of their dropbacks since 2018, and all three are on these two teams: Marcus Mariota, Deshaun Watson, and Ryan Tannehill). All four quarterbacks struggled in week two.
There are good quarterbacks right now in New England, Kansas City, and Baltimore, but after that, the majority of the other teams have more questions than answers at the most important position.