Robert Griffin III, a former Heisman Trophy winner in college and former NFL Quarterback, weighed on his thoughts of the landscape of the AFC Quarterback position. Now with Mr. Rodgers, entering the fold.
Top 5 Quarterbacks in the AFC
1. Patrick Mahomes
2. Josh Allen
3. Lamar Jackson
4. Joe Burrow
5. Aaron Rodgers pic.twitter.com/s4nbsKSfck— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) March 22, 2023
Initial Thoughts
“RGIII” ranked his top five AFC Quarterbacks as Mahomes, Allen, Lamar, Burrow, and then Rodgers. Immediately some people in this tweet’s comments questioned the rankings of Lamar and Rodgers. First off, lets remember RGIII just a short time ago served as the backup Quarterback in Baltimore to Lamar Jackson, so he is going to serve some favoritism there. Then a lot of people believe Rodgers is “washed” now and does not deserve to be that high on the list. Which is fair after a down season, but he just won two straight MVPs.
Reaction
I personally agree with the top two in the rankings that were presented. Mahomes and Allen are easily the class of the AFC and the NFL due to their exceptional talent ability. And not to mention, Mahomes has the accolades with two Super Bowls and two MVPs. While after the top two, I will have to disagree with the next three spots. My third ranking would have to go to the Bengals Quarterback, Joe Burrow. Burrow has been on fire the last two seasons, putting up much better stats than Lamar Jackson and owning a 5-2 postseason record. The last two seasons included two AFC Championship appearances, one in which he defeated Mahomes to reach the Super Bowl. Jackson, only has a 1-3 playoff career record.
Cincinnati Bengals At Kansas City Chiefs Afc Championship Jan 29 139
Reranking 4-5
After raising Burrow from three to four off of RGIII’s rankings, I will have to raise another player up from four to five, Aaron Rodgers. I personally have seen Rodgers my entire life and even coming off a poor season, the previous two seasons he won two MVPs, I think he can retain his ability and fire with the right surrounding tools. If I were a team right now to play one season when I have an excellent supporting cast like the New York Jets do, it is an easy decision who I want to help me try to win a Super Bowl in Rodgers. Though still the next couple AFC QBs I would rather have over Rodgers long-term due to age, but I am more focusing on this very second with these rankings. Lastly, with 5 I have to go with new young hot shot QB in Trevor Lawrence of Jacksonville. Lawrence showed in his second NFL season what impact he can have with a solid coach and supporting cast. Lawrence even racked up his first career playoff win which ties Lamar Jackson already.
The Rest of the Field
The next two guys easily are Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert. Both have all the talent in the world and have put together incredible individual seasons. Lamar already has won an NFL MVP and Herbert has the most passing yards in a player’s first three NFL seasons of all time. But the reality is Lamar has struggled to stay healthy the last two seasons and has struggled in the playoffs. And, Hebert has faced team struggles, finally reaching the playoffs this past season for the first time but immediately lost to Lawrence and the Jaguars. These two QBs are exceptional and great players to build around. One of them will easily knock Rodgers down the rankings in the next year or even this season, my guess would have to be Herbert.
The AFC is a loaded QB conference and RGIII took on the difficult task of ranking them. I give him props as it was incredibly tough to do it myself. Good thing as a Packers fan, we are in the NFC with a lot… less QB talent.
