Why the Commanders couldn’t lift the NFC East higher in NFL QB rankings

The Washington Commanders have the best rookie player of 2024 on their team playing quarterback, but his presence alone can't make up for some of the perceived shortcomings across the division when it comes to stacking each one by the quality of their signal-callers.

While Daniels is surely one of the top young quarterbacks in the league, the NFC East Division as a whole falls a bit short of being the best division in football at that position. While the Commanders' young star bolsters the group, the unknowns surrounding the New York Giants and the will-he-won't-he dance around Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott hinder things.

So, despite having a new face of the franchise in Washington and a Super Bowl winner with the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC East came in third when Nick Shook of NFL.com stacked each division's quarterback rooms against each other.

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

"For a division that commands big-market attention annually, this feels right. There is a new hierarchy of main actors, however. In many previous years, Prescott would be the unquestioned top quarterback among the four. Instead, after missing nine games in 2024, he's third among this group, according to the year-end QBI rankings, and is going to need a strong bounceback season to usurp the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year (Daniels) and Super Bowl LIX MVP (Hurts)," Shook says in the column. "That's how high the bar is in the NFC East, where Wilson's Big Apple arrival will almost certainly be overshadowed, especially compared to the amount of attention his move to Denver in 2022 drew. More eyes will be focused on Daniels' sophomore season and Hurts' title defense. We'll see if the latter QB bumps his ranking up, which would appease the many Eagles fans who likely spend their free time throwing darts at my headshot."

Overly sensitive Eagles fans aside, it is hard to argue that the NFC East as a whole should jump either the NFC West at No. 2 or the AFC West at No. 1.

While Kyler Murray and Sam Darnold are far from solidified future presences on their respective clubs, those two are at worst a push with Wilson and Prescott entering the season, and until Daniels has done the job well for more than one year, even as impressive as that one year was, we can't objectively say he should outweigh either Matthew Stafford or Brock Purdy at this juncture.

In the AFC West, Bo Nix is certainly a shelf below Daniels but Patrick Mahomes is known for elevating his Kansas City Chiefs' ability to succeed where Hurts is commonly thought of as a participant in any winning that happens in Philadelphia.

Geno Smith jumping over to the Raiders is a better jump than Wilson's is to New York, and Justin Herbert is a name even Cowboys fans would likely rather have than Prescott at this juncture, if they're being honest.

At the end of the season, if Hurts can step out from running back Saquon Barkley's shadow a bit, if Daniels does his thing for another year or even better, if Prescott can have a healthy 2025, and if the Giants can piece together some vision of stability at the position, then we may very well see the NFC East in the top two. For now, however, No. 3 seems right.

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