Quarterbacks’ legacies are made in the Super Bowl, but to get there, they need to win the conference championship round first. This year’s final four has an old veteran who has been here before — and won a Super Bowl — along with last year’s MVP looking for revenge from coming up short last year. Those are two obvious picks when it comes to the best two quarterbacks entering the conference championship round. It gets a little dicier as we look at the final two. Remember, these rankings are which quarterback we’d rather have right now So, don’t get salty Packers fans.
Patrick Mahomes
This ended up being an easy choice. Mahomes is an absolute force of nature when he’s healthy and has all the Kansas City weapons at his disposal. The Chiefs adjuted their scheme to take advantage of his vast skill set and they can’t be stopped. Give me another quarterback who can bring his team back from down 24 points as quickly as they fell behind due to mistakes and mishaps. It’s weird because everyone knew that the Chiefs were going to make a comeback and that’s a testament to how great Mahomes is in his second full year as a starter.
In the last two years, Mahomes has 76 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He’s completed almost 66 percent of his passes. In his short time in the playoffs, he has eight touchdowns and zero interceptions. He’s averaging almost 300 yards per game over his postseason career. He has the most weapons going into championship week. He has the best arm out of all the quarterbacks, and he absolutely tortured the Texans dropping 51 points. Yes, Aaron Rodgers has a Super Bowl ring, but we’d still take Mahomes.
Aaron Rodgers
At one point in time, Aaron Rodgers was considered one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. He looks past that consistent peak. He can still wow fans with throws — his dimes to Davante Adams last week were stunning — but he also misses some easy reads and tends to extend plays at the detriment of his team.
Make no mistake about it, he’s still great. We just hold Rodgers up to an incredibly high standard because we’ve seen his greatness before. We’ve seen him make NFC title games. We’ve seen him win Super Bowls. We’ve seen his creativity lead to plays no one thought could be made. We get it. He’s great.
Rodgers has a chance to reach the pinnacle of the NFL again and to do so he will have to go up against a very strong defensive line and overall defense when they play San Francisco. The Niners absolutely worked the Packers in the regular season. The Packers may need an older version of Rodgers to show up to have a chance at a win.
Ryan Tannehill
Here’s the shocker: Tannehill comes in third. Yes, he hasn’t passed for over 100 yards in a single playoff game, but he’s not asked to do so. He’s asked to hand the ball off to Derrick Henry and make plays every once in a while.
He’s done just that. He ran for a touchdown and threw for two touchdowns in the game against the Ravens. Tannehill was the one who closed down the Patriots with some key pickups on third down in the wild card round. When he is called upon, he is making plays. He’s also not making mistakes, turning the ball over, or giving his opponents great field position. Sometimes a situation calls for a game manager — and every QB hates that term — and Tannehill has been it.
Also, let’s not forget Tannehill sparked the Titans run to the playoffs. He’s been extremely deadly off play-action and actually had a historic yards-per-attempt rate of play fakes. Ryan Tannehill is exactly what Tennessee needs right now.
Jimmy Garoppolo
There’s no shame in Garoppolo finishing fourth on this list. He’s led his team to the NFC title and the Niners are the favorite in that game. Garoppolo has shown flashes this season and he’s seen big playoff games from the sideline. Maybe that can transition over to the field this Sunday.
It didn’t feel like that experience helped much last week. Kyle Shanahan essentially took the football out of Jimmy G’s hands after the first few drives against the Vikings. Garoppolo wasn’t allowed to make a mistake — and he’s good for about one or two extremely bad throws a game. If Shanahan can’t trust Garoppolo, how can we?
Of course, Garoppolo is in a similar situation to Tannehill. He doesn’t have to win games. That’s fine. He may have to do so this Sunday.
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