Who was the better rookie quarterback last season?
In the 2021 NFL draft, there were 5 quarterbacks taken in the top 15 picks. Here is a reminder of the order in which they were picked:
1- Trevor Lawrence 2- Zach Wilson 3- Trey Lance 11- Justin Fields 15- Mac Jones
All of the players above had their fair share of struggles last season. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Justin Fields played a lot but they were on pretty bad teams. They were not in the best situations, team-wise. However, I think it is fair to say that, out of these three names, Justin Fields played the best last season. He showed, in my mind, the most potential. He played 12 games this season and he was very efficient, in particular, as a runner.
Trevor Lawrence, surprisingly, had a lot of troubles. He was not very accurate and he was careless with the football on a lot of occasions. He lead the league with 17 interceptions last season. However, you could make the case that, out of any quarterback in the league, he was the one in the worst situation. I believe the potential is still there, but he will have to make some huge strides as a passer.
Zach Wilson was straight-up bad this year. He, quite frankly, did not live up to the hype of the second overall pick and he did not show that much to make the Jets' fan optimistic for things to come. He could certainly improve in year 2 but he seems a long way out.
Mac Jones was fine. He was in an amazing situation. His defense was in the top 5 in the NFL, his offensive line was great and he had the best coaching staff in all of football. He was able to make some nice plays when he was needed to but, towards the end of the season, he did not play great. I think his ceiling is quite low for the future when you compare him to other guys on the list.
Finally, Trey Lance did not play a lot. He only started 2 games. He had a lot of struggles in his first game but he played fine in the second one. The thing that I did not like about his season is the fact that he was not able to beat out a very mediocre quarterback in front of him, Jimmy Garoppolo.
In conclusion, they all were a little disappointing. I will have to give the nod to Mac Jones because he won the most games. Justin Fields is the close second in my mind. I think you could make the argument that Fields would have won more than Mac Jones in New England this year. I would go with Trevor at 3, Trey Lance at 4 and at the very bottom, Zach Wilson.
So, the final ranking is:
1. Mac Jones2. Justin Fields 3. Trevor Lawrence 4. Trey Lance 5. Zach Wilson
