Most and Least Valuable Quarterbacks: Week 3

As a weekly feature I’ll be assigning values based on a statistics based formula to every quarterback in the NFL. The statistical output is converted into dollar figures to reflect what a performance like this in a given week is worth to a team. The excess value created by the player is the difference between his value for the week and his annual salary.

Top 3 Quarterbacks

Trevor Siemian- $20.7M

This was a banner week for John Elway whose QB gave him a 4 touchdown, 312 yard performance to earn the top spot for the week. Elway’s decision making on the QB position has been criticized, but the narrative changed big this week after Siemian’s play versus Brock Osweiler’s in a national stage game.

Matt Stafford- $20.2M

This is probably a hard game to judge because the Lions fell behind big early, but Stafford continued to sling the football and bite into the Packer’s lead. Stafford has an outside chance of being the highest paid football player this time next year.

Carson Wentz- $20M
Wentz dinked and dunked his way around the Steelers defense and ended up averaging nearly 11 yards per opportunity, 3rd best this week. While it’s still early in his career the Eagles are looking like geniuses with their decision to move up in the draft and then unload Sam Bradford for a 1st rounder.

Bottom 3 Quarterbacks

Ryan Fitzpatrick- $450,000

This was one for the ages as Fitzpatrick turned the ball over 6 times and failed to reach the 200 yard mark. It was a massive fall for Fitzpatrick who just a week earlier has the second best showing of the week. There were even rumblings of Geno Smith after this one.

Carson Palmer- $4.9M

Palmer was another big faller going from his TD fueled 3rd place finish in week 2, to a 4 int dud this week. Palmer needs a bounce back game because his numbers across the board are not great and there seems to be some real streaky play right now. Arizona needs more consistency in a tough division.

Blaine Gabbert- $5.7M

Gabbert plays like a backup quarterback which is really his calling in the league, but a team should never opt into playing a backup over a potential starter. There is no reason for him to be starting in San Francisco when they have a more talented option sitting on the bench.

Most Valuable Quarterbacks

Trevor Siemian- $20.1M

No surprise here as Siemian makes pennies and gave a top notch performance. Broncos fans should be very happy.

Dak Prescott- $18.7M

Thus far Prescott has played very well for the Cowboys and he’s given new hope to the team long term. As just a rookie Dallas can plan for three years of incredible value if he shows this kind of consistency.

Brian Hoyer- $13.9M

I don’t think anyone would, or should, classify this as a good game for anyone on the Bears, but Hoyer is cheap and he put up mid level numbers that would be expected from a veteran starting QB, even if they were meaningless.

Least Valuable Quarterbacks

Carson Palmer- -$16.1M

The Cardinals gave Palmer a one year extension to bring his salary into the $20M range. He needs to do more to earn that salary.

Joe Flacco- -$14.9M

40 attempts to reach 214 yards is never going to be a great day at the office, especially for a $22 million player.

Cam Newton- -$12.7M

Not much has gone right for Newton and the Panthers this season and they were stuffed by the Vikings defense this weekend.

Here are the rankings for every QB with more than 10 pass attempts in week 3:

PlayerActual APYWeek 3 APYWeek 3 Value
Trevor Siemian$583,196$20,687,414$20,104,218
Matt Stafford$17,666,667$20,177,261$2,510,594
Carson Wentz$6,669,085$19,997,550$13,328,465
Dak Prescott$613,348$19,271,307$18,657,959
Aaron Rodgers$22,000,000$18,469,014-$3,530,986
Jameis Winston$6,337,819$18,215,496$11,877,677
Russell Wilson$21,900,000$17,886,089-$4,013,911
Drew Brees$24,250,000$17,508,618-$6,741,382
Kirk Cousins$19,953,000$17,248,197-$2,704,803
Philip Rivers$20,812,500$16,869,704-$3,942,796
Matt Ryan$20,750,000$16,462,830-$4,287,170
Andrew Luck$24,594,000$16,159,992-$8,434,008
Brian Hoyer$2,000,000$15,974,444$13,974,444
Ryan Tannehill$19,250,000$14,786,397-$4,463,603
Eli Manning$21,000,000$14,590,619-$6,409,381
Alex Smith$17,000,000$13,601,816-$3,398,184
Cody Kessler$847,271$13,202,863$12,355,592
Derek Carr$1,342,951$11,941,752$10,598,801
Case Keenum$3,635,000$11,415,488$7,780,488
Sam Bradford$17,500,000$11,156,037-$6,343,963
Andy Dalton$16,000,000$10,614,897-$5,385,103
Ben Roethlisberger$21,850,000$10,528,264-$11,321,736
Jacoby Brissett$852,708$10,091,069$9,238,361
Tyrod Taylor$18,000,000$8,825,776-$9,174,224
Brock Osweiler$18,000,000$8,140,778-$9,859,222
Cam Newton$20,760,000$8,091,140-$12,668,860
Marcus Mariota$6,053,494$7,818,367$1,764,873
Joe Flacco$22,133,333$7,167,592-$14,965,741
Blake Bortles$5,163,701$5,824,513$660,812
Blaine Gabbert$2,000,000$5,666,558$3,666,558
Carson Palmer$21,000,000$4,909,566-$16,090,434
Ryan Fitzpatrick$12,000,000$450,000-$11,550,000