NFL

NFL’s most overrated and underrated QBs: Where do Cowboys, Eagles veterans rank going into 2025?

by
SaC Bot
July 1, 2025

Quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks. We love them. We love to debate them. We love to rank them into tiers. And it’s not hard to see why: Come September, when the NFL season begins, Sundays and Mondays and Thursdays will be decided chiefly by their performance. Some of them have been headliners for years, like Patrick Mahomes. Others are just storming the stage now, like Jayden Daniels. But all of them warrant steady attention as the unofficial faces of football.

Still, among the league’s 32 projected starters, it’s possible that some quarterbacks are getting a touch too much hype. This is a team sport, after all, and signal-callers are often only as good as their surroundings. So which quarterbacks fall into this category, requiring lots to fall in their favor? And which ones might actually be on the opposite end of the spectrum, deserving even more acclaim than they’re getting?

Here are some of our top picks for the most underrated and overrated quarterbacks going into the 2025 season, including a guy who literally won Super Bowl MVP just months ago:

Overrated

It’s not that Prescott is bad. He really isn’t. You don’t last nearly a decade as the Dallas Cowboys‘ starter, with seven playoff appearances, by accident. But that Cowboys brand magnifies everything, and the simple truth is that Prescott is the latest face of an organization that’s routinely failed to make deep-playoff noise out of the NFC. He’s regularly considered among the NFL’s top 10 or so starters, he’s survived multiple coaching changes and he’s repeatedly landed lucrative extensions in Dallas. He’s also struggled to stay healthy and/or control the ball in three of his last five seasons, and he enters Year 10 with just two postseason victories to his name.

2025 projection: Capitalizes on bolstered weaponry to bring the Cowboys back to playoffs

Like Prescott, the issue here isn’t overall quality; plenty of teams would love to have Tagovailoa’s pinpoint short-area precision, and the former Alabama standout deserves credit for skyrocketing his stock after an ugly start to his career. Yet the minute the Miami Dolphins handed him a whopper of a check to be “the guy” for good, expectations rightfully soared. And since then, Tagovailoa’s issues have remained the same. He’s missed multiple games due to injury in all but one of his five NFL campaigns, and his crisp accuracy hasn’t been nearly as apparent in critical off-script situations, making Miami incredibly dependent on coach Mike McDaniel’s script.

2025 projection: Struggles behind an iffy offensive line in a make-or-break year for McDaniel

Maybe it’s because he plays for the Arizona Cardinals and not the New York Giants, but Murray has faced curiously little national pressure to finally justify his No. 1 overall selection back in 2019. Yes, injuries have played a part here, knocking him out of extended action in two of his last three years. But that’s part of his story. It’s a story that’s going on Year 7 in 2025, and still we have no idea what, exactly, Arizona has under center. There’s no doubt Murray can make a highlight reel with his scurrying scrambles and deep shots to Marvin Harrison Jr., but he’s still in search of both his first career playoff win and a semblance of a sustainable passing approach.

2025 projection: Enjoys better chemistry with Harrison, plus defensive support, to flirt with a wild-card spot

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Underrated

Wait, really? The reigning Super Bowl MVP is underrated? It sure seems like it. You won’t find anyone who puts up a fight when you mention Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen in lists of elite quarterbacks. Throw Hurts’ name in there, however, and all of a sudden you’re clawing for your life. But since when did gaudy stats and pretty highlights mean more than, you know, winning games that matter? Hurts played more of a background role in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ historic Super Bowl LIX run, but too many people forget he’s now given two championship-caliber performances at that stage. And he’s still just 26! He may not be flawless, but he’s close to inevitable.

2025 projection: Airs it out more as the Eagles return to the playoffs in their bid to defend the crown

The pendulum swings back and forth in NFL conversations, and it’s swung more dramatically for Purdy than just about any player. First he was the darling of the league, going from “Mr. Irrelevant” to improbably poised point guard for Kyle Shanahan’s title contender. Then he was just a pawn of Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers attack. Critics got even more fuel in 2024, when the fragility of the 49ers’ lineup finally exacerbated his struggles when playing from behind. Maybe he’s not the prototype that is Allen or Jackson. But Purdy is still the best, most dynamic, most collected quarterback of the Shanahan era, far more capable of extending and creating plays than many suggest.

2025 projection: Rebounds with top-10 production thanks to his supporting cast returning to health

Hey, remember when that rookie quarterback took the NFL by storm in 2024, magically guiding his rebuilding team to the playoffs with effortless mobility and a fearless arm? And why do we only think of Jayden Daniels when asking that question? There’s little doubt Daniels enjoyed the better debut, dragging the Washington Commanders to the doorstep of a Super Bowl. But Nix was a revelation for Sean Payton even without Grade-A skill-group support. Tossing nearly 30 scores was one thing; moving the chains 40 times with his legs was another. Many scoffed at the Denver Broncos taking the older Oregon product in the first round. But he sure looks the part.