The Toxic Quarterback of the Year Nominees

Every single year, there appears to be one quarterback that dominates the social media landscape and debate shows for some particular reason when it comes to the one question we all want answered regarding the face of our franchise:

“Is he good?”

Good enough to win WITH and good enough to win BECAUSE OF are two entirely different things. Football is a game that is impacted by seemingly a million different variables like coaching, schemes, surrounding roster, injury luck, and moxy, yet the position is still always going to be viewed as one of the most important roles in team sports, and wins and losses often hang in the balance of the man under center.

For a while, it was Lamar Jackson. Coming out of Louisville with a slighter frame and being one of the fastest players you’ve ever seen, Bill Polian literally said he should have been a running back before the Lamarmy defended the man who would eventually become the MVP.

Justin Herbert has, and still is, the analytics darling, with the amount of arm talent he possesses to sling the ball with such precision over such great air yards, but the detractors said coming out that “he’s too introverted and is too smart!” and the Chargers have yet to win a playoff game with him as the leader with several blown leads in Chargers fashion.

The ship has since sailed on Tua Tagovailoa and TuAnon- there was the 2023 season where Miami and the fast-paced Mike McDaniel offense that once put up 70 points on the Broncos and got Tua massively paid, but all he’s done since has compiled up more injuries, and South Beach vibes have never been the more opposite of Miami Vice.

We just saw it with Brock Purdy and Jalen Hurts. Purdy arguably has been the best at operating the Kyle Shanahan “system” better than anyone else who has run through it, and he got paid to be the franchise guy because of it, despite being Mr. Irrelevant. Hurts, meanwhile, already has a ring and two Super Bowl appearances, but does it behind one of the best rosters assembled and with a tush push play that is unbeatable and a debate in itself.

That leaves us with the question of who’s next. Here are the nominees for the next toxic quarterback.

Jordan Love // Green Bay

Ironically, three of the quarterbacks that are nominees are going to be from the NFC North, but none have the level of expectations this year on Jordan Love after the Packers have the youngest roster in the NFL and made the all-in move to go out and get Micah Parsons. When Love went down last year, we saw Matt LaFleur use Malik Willis in essentially a Naval Academy-style offense and still manage to win games.

Love has made it to the divisional round and was top 10 in passing in 2023, but now that he’s making $55 million a year and has the roster he has as well as a coach and coordinators that the league thinks highly of, there’s going to be swirls of whether or not he’s elite if he doesn’t improve the rest of the roster, show growth, and win the big one with this team.

Caleb Williams // Chicago 

It’s already been happening since the moment the #1 overall pick hailed as a savior came into the league wearing fingernail polish. The Bears were awful again last year despite having what many considered to be “the best situation a rookie quarterback has ever walked into.” It got the coach and coordinators fired, a tell-all book released where no one was watching film with him that resulted in a he-said-she-said game, and another year was put in the Bears Curse folder.

They went out and hired the bigshot offensive guru Ben Johnson, who scored the most points in football last year and made Jared Goff, Sonic, and Knuckles, and even offensive WEAPON Penei Sewell, one of the most innovative schemes in recent memory. Now, Caleb is officially in the “there are no coaches to blame” zone. The Bears are 1-2, and the one win came against the YMCA Cowboys‘ defense. He’s only had one pick and has looked great with Rome Odunze thus far, but the Lions got after him 4 times, and the level of urgency just hasn’t been there. The truth is, we’re not sure if he’s good just yet, and Johnson will need time to save the Chicago franchise. With Williams’ expectations, the toxicity is going to flow.

JJ McCarthy // Minnesota

Ironically, after 8 quarters of playing time, we’re already here with JJ McCarthy. The Monday Night Football Game against the Bears, he played one excellent quarter against the Bears to win it and won NFC Offensive Player of the Week, but the remaining 7 have yielded 12 total points. With Kevin O’Connell already being hailed as a quarterback whisperer and taking Sam Darnold to 14 wins last season and making Joshua Dobbs playable, it doesn’t help when there are already whispers of him being “shadow benched” with an injury and Carson Wentz stepping in and winning 48-10 in his absence.

There’s a lot of heat on him to pan out, considering this was already a winning team, and they chose the rookie rather than paying Sam last year. Unfortunately, with KOC’s success, he may not benefit from getting the credit and the spoils if they do win with him.

Bo Nix // Denver

PHOTO: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images

Bo Nix played the most college games at quarterback ever, going from Auburn, where he was less than successful (he somehow beat Justin Herbert, going 13-31!), before transferring to Oregon and being successful in Will Stein’s system that made Dillon Gabriel a Heisman candidate the following year. Nix was viewed as a big reach coming out of college due to his age, and Sean Payton, the QB whisperer, took a swing and compared him to Patrick Mahomes upon drafting him. He went out, shocking the world with 29 touchdowns and a wild-card appearance, and now, with one of the best defenses in the league this year, the expectation is that he takes the leap, as many had Denver as the “hipster sleeper Super Bowl candidate” this year.

Bo Nix still has an interception problem, and thus far, Denver is 1-2 to start the year with only a win against a Titans team that could be… quite poor. With Payton and a defense this strong, he’s likely going to be the one to bear the brunt of the blame if he doesn’t take the second-year leap we wanted him to.

Trevor Lawrence // Jacksonville

It’s plain and simple: Trevor Lawrence was THE can’t-miss superhuman draft prospect that won a National Championship his freshman year. We’re running out of excuses for Lawrence – it was “he had Urban Meyer as a coach” to “he needs another year to learn Doug Pederson’s system” to the injuries, and just plain not winning the AFC South despite being paid like it already is as the guy. Liam Coen was hired to do exactly what he did with Baker Mayfield last year with Lawrence as he enters his age-25 season.

He’s got one playoff win to his name, and the rest have been complete duds. Is a haircut necessary? That remains to be seen, but for someone who talked up the expectations of Andrew Luck and had the college pedigree he has, the internet is foaming at the mouth to label him as a bust until he proves he can do so consistently.