C.J. Stroud, Deshaun Watson, Baker Mayfield and the 6 grossest quarterbacks of Week 3
Week 3 was the backdrop to some tremendous NFL quarterback performances. Sam Darnold slung four touchdown passes to crush the Houston Texans. Andy Dalton stepped into the smoking crater Bryce Young left behind and had one of the best games of his career. Malik Willis improved to 2-0 as a starter for the Green Bay Packers.
It was not all sunshine and rainbows. There were several bad performances as teams like the Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten. Who was the most disappointing? Fortunately, we’ve got a metric to help figure that out.
Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player. By comparing each passer’s Week 3 EPA against their 2023 average we get a better picture of just how frustrating their debuts were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com.
Who was the worst? There were several candidates but only one man can truly call himself the grossest quarterback of Week 3.