Jayden Daniels came off the bye and had one of his best performances of the season in a Week 15 win on the road against the Saints. It wasn’t quite as sensational as some of the early season efforts from the rookie, but it should all but have officially closed the door on the Offensive Rookie of the Year debate.
And that’s not just because Daniels only had six incompletions in the Commanders’ 20-19 win. Bo Nix had three interceptions — along with three touchdowns — in the Broncos‘ victory over the Colts.
Caleb Williams held his own against the Vikings in yet another Bears loss, and C.J. Stroud came off his bye week with his most impressive individual performance in a while. Will Levis? Not so much.
There were 10 quarterbacks selected in the past two NFL draft classes who saw considerable playing time in Week 15. Let’s dive deep into the individual efforts of each quarterback and assign a grade on a per-snap basis, taking every individual aspect of their performance into account.
(At least 10 attempts were needed to qualify for this piece, which comes out weekly on Tuesdays.
Week 15 stats
- 25 of 31 for 226 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 66 rushing yards
High-caliber throws/plays
- Late in the first quarter, Daniels bounced away from multiple defenders, drifted left and almost lost his balance before throwing a dart to Terry McLaurin for a 16-yard touchdown.
- On a third-and-8 in the second quarter, Daniels fired a rocket to Jamison Crowder sitting down in zone near the numbers as two defenders converged on the receiver.
- The second touchdown to McLaurin was perfectly placed on a tough angle.
- Also in the second quarter, Daniels ran through what should’ve been a sack on a third-and-1 conversion.
- There was a quick-release strike on a deep corner run by McLaurin for 25 yards in the third quarter.
- Daniels demonstrated his speed and flexibility, spiraling through traffic up the middle on a 24-yard scramble on the next dropback.
- Daniels’ second-to-last dropback featured a throw over the middle through layers of coverage.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He took a bad sack late in the first half when he didn’t really attempt to elude a free outside rusher.
Summary: This game got very dicey for the Commanders late, but they controlled most of the contest, and Daniels was superb against a sneaky-good defense on the road. While he did take a fair amount of hits and was sacked more than normal, his decision-making and ball placement were borderline outstanding all afternoon.
Grade: A
Season Grade: B
Week 15 stats
- 18 of 31 for 191 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- On a free play midway through the third, Williams stepped up in the pocket and fired a rocket to Rome Odunze with a defender converging on the receiver. The play ultimately went for 29 yards.
- On a third-and-3 in the fourth, he found Keenan Allen tiptoeing the sideline while rolling right, the ball had to fly over an underneath defender and had perfect trajectory and touch.
- There was a gorgeous seam throw against a blitz into the end zone that Odunze dropped.
- His final throw of the game was fit between multiple defenders in the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown to Allen.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the first half, he attempted a throw over the middle but didn’t identify Harrison Smith flying downhill to the football and was nearly intercepted.
- Early in the third, he missed Keenan Allen with a wide throw over the middle.
- He sailed a throw to an open Allen down the sideline for what could’ve been a touchdown.
Summary: The Bears offense was mostly overwhelmed by the Vikings’ heavy pressure throughout this prime-time game. Williams was running for his life and demonstrated his twitchy athleticism and creativity as an ad-libber all night. While I can’t call this a fantastic game from Williams, because he did have a handful of clear-cut misses, I thought he held his own in a super-challenging environment.
Grade: C
Season Grade: C+
Week 15 stats
- 20 of 33 for 131 yards, 3 TD, 3 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- There was a well-placed deep ball to Sutton in the third down the sideline and into the end zone that was dropped.
- While not the most difficult throw of his career, the dagger touchdown to Sutton in the fourth was perfectly placed on a double move.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the first quarter, Nix threw his first interception of the game directly to a Colts defender. Not sure what he was looking at when he released the football.
- His second interception was a blatantly inaccurate target toward Courtland Sutton in the third.
- Nix’s next pick was late on another sideline route run by Sutton. The safety over the top was able to plant and drive on the pass.
Summary: Bizarre game for Nix and the Broncos. His three interceptions were all on him, and Denver’s offense really struggled out of the game, leading to a sizable hole. The second half was a tick better, but this was not one of Nix’s better performances. Sean Payton did a fine job getting the rookie back into a groove by providing ample screens.
Grade: D+
Season Grade: C+
Week 15 stats
- 10 of 21 for 135 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the third quarter, Rattler delivered a crazy throw as he was being hit between defenders for 39 yards.
- Rattler delivered a strike while being hit in the pocket to Foster Moreau for 19 yards between defenders.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the fourth, Rattler attempted a pass over the middle to his tight end that should’ve been intercepted by an underneath linebacker.
Summary: Rattler played admirably in this relief appearance for an injury-riddled Saints team. Was he spectacular? Not necessarily. I do like how he’d played with zero fear and, besides one throw, kept the ball out of harm’s way. He should start the remainder of the regular season for the Saints.
Grade: C+
Season Grade: C-
Week 15 stats
- 18 of 26 for 131 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- Midway through the second, Stroud made a nice throw on a comeback to Tank Dell on a bootleg to his left.
- The touchdown on the next drop back to Nico Collins was a tremendous display of his pocket-navigation skill and athleticism. He floated left then threw a strike to his right for the score.
- In the third, while being taken to the ground, he somehow got the ball out to Dell for 11 yards to move the chains on a third down.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He missed on a deep comeback run by Nico Collins in the second half.
Summary: Far from a prolific game from a classic perspective from Stroud, yet I thought he handled himself well under pressure on most occasions and drifted away from oncoming rushers well all game.
Grade: A-
Season Grade: C-
Week 15 stats
- 19 of 28 for 219 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the first, Young hit Jalen Coker between defenders on a deep dig for 15 yards.
- As he was hit in the pocket, Young threw to an open Coker in stride down the numbers for what amounted to an 83-yard touchdown.
- On his second-to-last throw of the game, Young fit a pass to David Moore on an in-breaker between defenders that was dropped upon contact from an underneath linebacker.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He airmailed a throw near the sideline close to the end of the first quarter.
- In the fourth, he was late escaping the pocket and was sacked by Micah Parsons.
- Later in the final quarter, Young displayed essentially no burst attempting to get away from another Cowboys defender on a 12-yard loss.
- His last throw of the game was far too late and didn’t have enough juice deep down the middle of the field. It was easily intercepted.
Summary: This was a step back from Young after what had been a surge from him that lasted nearly two full months. He was pressured early and often by the Cowboys in this game, didn’t have many high-caliber throws and his lack of plus arm strength appeared somewhat often.
Grade: C-
Season Grade: C+
Week 15 stats
- 8 of 12 for 89 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- Early in the game, Levis threw with ideal anticipation and placement on a deep corner run by Tyler Boyd that ultimately went for 40 yards.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- His first interception was either a brutal read or throw made much too high and wide.
- Levis took a bad sack in the third quarter when he had a clear outlet to his left and a check down waiting in the flat on that side of the field.
- His third pick, which led to his benching, was a dreadful decision, as he attempted to throw a deep over right near the hash marks with a deep middle safety sitting right on top of the route.
Summary: Last week’s game against the Jaguars was bland. This was an outright stinker against a Bengals defense that has been one of the more porous units in football this season. He made incorrect reads throughout, and his accuracy was very inconsistent. Plus, there were really no plus throws to counteract the bad after the connection with Boyd early in the game.
Grade: D
Season Grade: C-
Week 15 stats
- 17 of 38 for 172 yards, 0 TD and 2 INT, 46 yards rushing
High-caliber throws/plays
- Early in the game, Richardson uncorked a rock to Josh Downs down the middle of the field between defenders for a 22 yard gain. Absolute laser.
- Later in the first, after looking left, he came back to the middle and threw a strike to Michael Pittman over the middle against tight coverage for 17 yards.
- He demonstrated his speed on a 23-yard touchdown designed run in the first quarter.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- He missed on an easy out-breaking route in the first quarter.
- There was a blatant airmail of a pass on a deep over to an open Downs.
- Richardson threw a pass too high for Alec Pierce that was intercepted.
- After being forced to his left, Richardson noticed an open Adonai Mitchell near the sideline but threw low and away, leading to an incompletion.
- In the fourth, while attempting to hit a corner route, Richardson didn’t noticed Patrick Surtain floating back underneath the route and was intercepted.
- He airmailed another easy throw toward the sideline in teh fourth quarter.
Summary: This was a regression game from Richardson, who missed on a variety of throws against a good defense on the road. And not all of them came when he was under duress. After his early exquisite throw with velocity and anticipation to Downs, the impressive plays from the young quarterback were few and far between in the loss.
Grade: D
Season Grade: C-
Week 15 stats
- 19 of 23 for 202 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
- In the fourth quarter, Maye connected on a bucket throw down the right sideline to Kendrick Bourne for a 37-yard gain.
- His flip touchdown was a fine illustration of his improvisational capabilities.
Low-caliber throws/plays
- In the third quarter, he sailed a corner toward the front left pylon.
- While rolling right in the third, he missed an open receiver on that side of the field. Another overthrow.
Summary: This game was littered with screens and swing passes to start, which I’m assuming was the plan to mitigate the Cardinals pass rush. Nothing much to take from the first half of this one from Maye. In the second half, he played better, and flashed his big arm and off-structure skills. The blatant misses lower this grade.
Grade: C
Season Grade: C+
Week 15 stats
- 4 of 10 for 49 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
High-caliber throws/plays
Low-caliber throws/plays
- His first interception was a huge force while rolling to his right. Haener wasn’t even throwing to an open receiver.
- His final throw of the game was forced and nearly picked.
Summary: Haener was ill-equipped for this start, and the Saints’ shoddy offensive line certainly didn’t help him, as he took a sack on his first drop back. It was ugly from the beginning
Grade: F
Season Grade: F
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Author: Chris Trapasso
December 17, 2024 | 11:15 am
