Fox Sports recently dropped its rankings of the top 10 quarterbacks heading into the 2025 NFL season, and as expected, it didn’t take long for the list to stir up reactions across the football world. Josh Allen landed the No. 1 spot, edging out Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, and Jalen Hurts, who rounded out the top five. The rest of the list included Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, Jayden Daniels, and Dak Prescott at No. 10.
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And that’s where the discourse truly began.
While the majority of NFL fans on Reddit had no issue with most of the list, eyebrows were raised when they saw Dak Prescott being included as the 10th best QB over Matthew Stafford. The Rams QB was actually listed under Honorable Mentions.
“Where’s Stafford? Feels like he should be on here instead of Dak,” wondered a fan. “No Stafford is weird for me,” added another.
For these fans, Stafford was an easy shoo-in over the likes of Prescott, Daniels, and Herbert. “Stafford over anyone in that bottom tier,” chimed in a Redditor.
The rest, meanwhile, took issue with Brock Purdy missing the ranking. Like Stafford, he was part of the Honorable Mentions list alongside Jordan Love, C.J. Stroud, Kyler Murray, and Bo Nix.
“And Purdy not there is ridiculous. Still #1 in the league in passer rating and #2 in ANy/A since entering the league, and a worse supproting case than Hurts and Goff on the list [especially considering last year’s trainwreck of a team, where he still put up top 10 QB stats with a below average supporting cast]”
Redditors wonder how Matthew Stafford missed the top ten list of the best quarterbacks heading into the 2025 season. pic.twitter.com/0XlwhES8Tu
— NFL News and Updates (@NSportsrus8926) July 2, 2025
The fans have a point. Brock Purdy ended last season as the league leader in passer rating, while ranking second in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (ANy/A), a metric often cited for balancing efficiency with explosiveness.
Even in a down year for the 49ers, especially with key injuries [Christian McCaffrey & Brandon Aiyuk] all around and to Purdy himself, who played a portion of the season with injuries, managed to throw for 3,861 yards with 20 TDs and 12 Interceptions.
As for Stafford, he might not have had the flashiest campaign in 2024, but he was as steady as ever. The 37-year-old threw for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns in 16 games, even as his supporting cast reshuffled midseason.
The Rams playmaker also posted better decision-making numbers than several QBs ahead of him, including Dak Prescott, limiting himself to just 8 interceptions and maintaining solid red-zone efficiency.
The Cowboys quarterback, meanwhile, missed a chunk of last season with a torn hamstring and hasn’t played a full healthy campaign since 2023, the year he put up his best numbers with 4,516 yards and 36 touchdowns.
So, simply put, Prescott’s 2024 body of work is simply too small to evaluate, making his inclusion, especially over a durable and productive Matthew Stafford, hard to justify.
That said, the rest of the top five is hard to argue with. Joe Burrow had a career-best statistical year in 2024, while Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson both carried their teams deep into the postseason, with the former winning the Super Bowl.
Lamar, in particular, added 41 passing touchdowns to his already absurd rushing totals, proving once again that he might be the most complete dual-threat quarterback the league has seen in a decade.
The real eyebrow-raiser, however, was Josh Allen sitting atop the entire list. Allen had a strong 2024, throwing for 3,731 yards and 28 touchdowns despite a depleted receiving corps after Stefon Diggs’ exit.
The reigning NFL MVP also added 531 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. Still, there’s the Patrick Mahomes-sized elephant in the room because even in a down year, he remains the most dangerous postseason QB alive.
But… with Allen offering a more consistent dual-threat package in 2024 and carrying an offense light on weapons, Fox’s choice, while surprising, isn’t indefensible.
All said and done, rankings like these are often meant to spark conversation, and this one certainly did.
Dak Prescott was the protagonist of the chatter this time and rightly so, because if consistency, performance, and availability still matter, Stafford and Purdy had as strong a claim as anyone on that list.
