Ranking 2026 NFL playoff quarterbacks: Who's most likely to carry their team to the Super Bowl?

From Bryce Young to Matthew Stafford, ranking the 14 playoff QBs based on who can put a team on their back

Quarterbacks are the most important position in football. The NFL's contracts hammer home this point: these players are the most critical component in every franchise's chase for Super Bowl glory. That's why the coming postseason will be reduced at times to quarterback legacy discussions for those who wish to analyze the position on a more surface-level basis.

Here, we'll take stock of the 2025 playoffs' 14 starting quarterbacks and rank them by their capability to be the driving factor in a potential Super Bowl run for their respective squads this season.

In a vacuum, Aaron Rodgers would rank No. 1 because he's a Super Bowl MVP and four-time league MVP. However, at age 42, he's not the same player he was even four years ago in 2021, when he last earned NFL MVP honors. So where do the 14 postseason quarterbacks rank entering the playoffs based on their ability to put the team on their back right now? Let's dig into that discussion.

14. Bryce Young (Panthers)

The 2025 NFC South champion Panthers enter the postseason with the third-worst point differential (-69) by a division winner since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. That's in large part due to quarterback Bryce Young and the Panthers' offense.

Young threw for 3,011 passing yards this season, the fewest by a quarterback to make 16-plus starts and reach the playoffs since Christian Ponder in 2012. (Ponder threw for 2,935 yards despite playing alongside 2012 NFL MVP running back Adrian Peterson.) Young's 87.78 passer rating is also the lowest among the 14 postseason starting quarterbacks and ranked seventh-lowest in the NFL this season.

The good news for Young and Co. is that he played the best game of his three-year career against the Rams, Carolina's wild-card round opponent, in a 31-28 Week 13 win. It is Young's only career game with a 75% or better completion percentage (15 of 20), three or more passing touchdowns (three) and no turnovers.

He'll be throwing plenty of targets the way of first-round wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who led all rookies in receiving yards (1,012) and receiving touchdowns (seven). That yardage total is the most by a rookie in Panthers history, and it's the only receiving total on Carolina's roster this season above 400 yards.

Young is incredibly inconsistent on a week-to-week basis, so the Panthers' hope is that he can consistently replicate -- or come close to replicating -- his Week 13 effort.

13. Bo Nix (Broncos)

Bo Nix is a unique quarterback. He's the only player this season with more than 3,900 passing yards (3,931, eighth-most in the NFL) and a yards-per-attempt average under 6.5 (6.4, 28th out of 33 qualified quarterbacks). Nix's up-and-down play is the reason the Broncos -- who have one of the five best defenses in football -- won by just one score (20-13) against the Chiefs' third-string quarterback, Chris Oladokun, on Christmas in Week 17 and slogged through a 19-3 Week 18 home win against the Chargers' backups.

Passer rating isn't necessarily the end-all, be-all metric for evaluating quarterback play, but it doesn't help that Nix's 87.81 passer rating is the eighth-lowest in the NFL this season and sits just decimal points ahead of Young's 87.78 to avoid being the lowest among the 14 playoff quarterbacks.

Three of the top four teams with the most punts in the 2025 regular season -- the Browns (93), Titans (78) and Raiders (74) -- missed the playoffs and fired their respective head coaches. The fourth team in that group is Nix's Broncos, with 75 punts. He is a beneficiary of a strong offensive line and a strong defense. If there's a reason Denver doesn't emerge as the AFC champion as the conference's No. 1 seed, it will likely be because of Nix's play.

12. Jalen Hurts (Eagles)

Jalen Hurts has three consecutive games with fewer than 200 passing yards, and he didn't complete any of his seven passes in the second half of the Eagles' 13-12 road win at the Bills in Week 17, the last game he played this season. The Eagles' offense has the highest three-and-out rate in the NFC at 38.2%. Hurts is fortunate Philadelphia's defense is the league's fifth-ranked scoring unit (19.1 points per game allowed).

Last postseason, 2024 NFL Offensive Player of the Year running back Saquon Barkley produced a Herculean 499 rushing yards, the third-most in a single postseason all time. Philadelphia may need more of the same from Barkley if Hurts continues to struggle to find the magic that allowed him to win Super Bowl LIX MVP honors last year.

11. Caleb Williams (Bears)

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams helped lead his franchise to the NFC North title and the No. 2 overall seed in the NFC. He did so while setting the franchise's single-season passing yards record (3,942). He's starting to find a groove with multiple touchdown passes in five consecutive games to close the regular season, the longest such streak of his young career.

However, Williams was one of the more volatile quarterbacks in the NFL when it came to efficiency during the 2025 regular season. He led the NFL with 12 games featuring a completion percentage of 60% or lower, while no other quarterback had a double-digit number of games in that category. Rookie Cam Ward, the 2025 first overall pick by the Titans, was the closest with eight such games.

Williams has the ability to carry a team, as he did in a narrow 42-38 loss at the 49ers on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 17, but he can also struggle to find a rhythm for weeks at a time. It will be intriguing to see how he fares in his playoff debut against the Packers, a team that limited him to a 55.1% completion percentage (38 of 69) across two matchups this season.

10. Sam Darnold (Seahawks)

Sam Darnold is the quarterback of the NFC's No. 1 seed, but his play is trending down at the wrong time. He has eight total touchdowns to 10 turnovers since Week 11. His NFL-leading 20 turnovers are what's holding him back in these rankings. That, and he took an NFL playoff-record nine sacks in his postseason debut last year in the Vikings' opening-round loss to the Rams.

His 8.5 yards per pass attempt (second-best in the NFL) and passer rating (99.1, 11th best in the NFL) are solid, but there's always concern he could revert to the Jets version of himself, as he did last postseason.

9. C.J. Stroud (Texans)

Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud has played well since returning from a concussion in Week 13, throwing eight passing touchdowns to just three interceptions. He is starting to get non-Nico Collins receiving options involved of late, highlighted by a 75-yard passing touchdown to Jayden Higgins and a 43-yard passing touchdown to Jaylin Noel to jumpstart a 20-16 victory over the Chargers in Week 17 that helped Houston earn the AFC's top wild-card spot.

It will be interesting to see if he can win his first playoff road game at the Steelers on Monday night. Stroud has failed to throw a touchdown in his two career playoff road starts, which led to the Texans averaging 12 points per game in those two losses -- at the Ravens in 2023 and at the Chiefs in 2024.

8. Aaron Rodgers (Steelers)

Aaron Rodgers is one of the most accomplished players in NFL history and one of the most prolific playoff performers in league history. The four-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl XLV MVP enters the playoffs with 45 postseason touchdown passes, tied for the third-most all time, and 5,893 passing yards, the fourth-most all time. Rodgers needs just two touchdown passes to move into the No. 2 spot in that category and just 79 yards to rise to No. 3 in passing yards.

Rodgers being 42 years old and lacking the mobility he once had limits what he can accomplish at this stage of his career. If he survives an opening-round matchup against the NFL's most prolific pass-rush duo -- five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Danielle Hunter (15.0 sacks this season, third-most in the NFL) and two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. (12.0 sacks, tied for eighth-most) -- the chance is there for Rodgers to make another magical run. However, that's a big if against a Texans defense that ranks as the NFL's best.

7. Brock Purdy (49ers)

The 49ers won six of their last seven regular-season games largely due to Brock Purdy's performance. During that span, he completed 70.6% of his passes (second-best in the NFL since Week 11) and produced 19 total touchdowns (third-most in the NFL since Week 11) with a 105.6 passer rating (third-best in the NFL since Week 11).

Purdy also has the highest first-down rate (46%) of any quarterback this season and the highest first-down rate on third and fourth downs combined (58%) by any quarterback in the past 35 seasons, according to CBS Sports Research. 

It will be interesting to see if he can continue elevating a team that can't rush the passer (20 sacks, fewest in the NFL). There's also the injury concern of All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, who hurt his hamstring on Purdy's pick-six to open the 49ers' 42-38 win over the Bears in Week 17. He didn't play in Week 18 against the Seahawks, a game San Francisco lost at home by double digits, 13-3.

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6. Justin Herbert (Chargers)

It's a miracle the Chargers are an 11-win team and playing postseason football given the injury-plagued nature of their offensive line, which is without both tackles -- Rashawn Slater (patellar tendon) and Joe Alt (ankle).

Despite facing the NFL's highest pass-rush pressure rate (42.8%) and being the most-hit quarterback in the league (129), Justin Herbert threw for the ninth-most passing yards (3,727) and ran for the second-most rushing yards by a quarterback (498) en route to earning the second Pro Bowl selection.

Not many quarterbacks could have survived -- let alone performed -- at the level Herbert did in his offensive ecosystem. His ceiling is unfortunately limited by his offensive line.

5. Jordan Love (Packers)

The Bears knocked Jordan Love out of Week 16 early with a helmet-to-helmet hit that sent the Packers quarterback into concussion protocol, and he was unable to clear it before Green Bay's Week 17 loss to the Ravens. The Packers then held him out in Week 18 with the team locked into the No. 7 seed.

Love enters the playoffs healthy after playing top-five-caliber football this season. He ranks sixth in the NFL in touchdown-to-interception ratio (23-6), sixth in passer rating (101.2), fourth in expected points added (EPA) per play (0.20) and second in EPA per dropback (0.22). 

The Packers are back in the playoffs for the third time in Love's three seasons as Green Bay's starting quarterback, and they have a favorable playoff path at the Bears and then at the Sam Darnold-led Seahawks if they advance to the divisional round.

4. Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars)

The Jacksonville Jaguars enter the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, averaging 33.6 points per game. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence played a major part in that, leading the entire NFL in total touchdowns (24) since Week 11. Lawrence's 38 total touchdowns this season are the third-most in the league behind only 2024 NFL MVP Josh Allen (39) and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (46). 

He'll have a tall task ahead of him against the Buffalo Bills' No. 1 ranked pass defense that is surrendering just 156.9 passing yards per game, but the bracket could open up nicely for Lawrence and the Jaguars in the coming rounds. 

3. Josh Allen (Bills)

This is Josh Allen's best shot at finally breaking through to win the AFC and reach the Super Bowl, with Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs, Lamar Jackson's Ravens and Joe Burrow's Bengals watching the playoffs from the couch. The Chiefs and Bengals are responsible for the Bills' last five playoff defeats.

Allen enters this postseason as the NFL's all-time playoff leader in total yards per game (311.0) and total touchdowns per game (2.5). However, with the Bills in the field as the No. 6 seed, he'll need to do what he's never done in the playoffs before: win on the road. The Bills are 0-4 in Allen's playoff road starts, and Buffalo as a franchise is on an eight-game playoff losing streak on the road.

Allen will need to be efficient when on the field, with his defense allowing the fifth-most rushing yards per game (136.2) and the third-most rushing yards per carry (5.1) in the NFL this season.

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2. Drake Maye (Patriots)

Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is the first player to lead the NFL in completion percentage (72%), yards per pass attempt (8.9) and passer rating (113.5) since Tony Romo in 2014. He also led the league in expected points added (EPA) per dropback (0.28). The Patriots finished as the NFL's No. 2 scoring offense (28.8 points per game) and ended the season as the AFC's No. 2 seed and AFC East champion.

The Patriots played the easiest schedule in the NFL since the 1999 Rams, who went on to win the Super Bowl. Maye's path stacks up favorably against a Chargers squad that can't regularly protect Justin Herbert, with Bo Nix's Broncos holding the No. 1 seed.

1. Matthew Stafford (Rams)

The NFC is a gauntlet this season, but Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford enters the 2025 postseason playing the best football of his career. He just put the finishing touches on the fourth season in NFL history in which a quarterback threw for 45-plus passing touchdowns (46) and fewer than 10 interceptions (eight). The other three such seasons -- Tom Brady in 2007, Aaron Rodgers in 2011 and Aaron Rodgers in 2020 -- all resulted in NFL MVP honors. Stafford finished the regular season with multiple touchdown passes in 11 straight games, the longest such streak in Rams history.

Stafford is also on a playoff heater with multiple touchdown passes in all seven of his postseason games with the Rams, which is tied for the third-longest streak of games with multiple passing touchdowns in NFL playoff history. He is averaging the second-most passing yards per game (299.6) and the fourth-highest passer rating (102.3) in playoff history, minimum 10 playoff starts, per CBS Sports Research.

No quarterback is currently more equipped to carry a team to the Super Bowl than Stafford in this 2025 playoff field.