• New Falcons QB Kirk Cousins may be limited outside the pocket: After recovering from a torn Achilles, Cousins may face even more struggles outside the pocket in Atlanta.
• The playoffs remain an issue for Dak Prescott and Lamar Jackson: Both have been elite regular-season signal-callers, but postseason success continues to elude them.
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Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes
No quarterback is perfect. Each one has a weakness to their game — and often multiple. Offensive coordinators aim to highlight their quarterback's strengths while coaching up their weaknesses. Let's take a look at each starter and highlight their kryptonite heading into the 2024 NFL season.
JUMP TO A TEAM:
ARZ | ATL | BLT | BUF | CAR | CIN | CHI | CLE | DEN | DAL | DET | GB | HOU | IND | JAX | KC | LVR | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN | NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF | SEA | TB | TEN | WSH
Arizona Cardinals: Kyler Murray
Biggest Weakness: Pressure and Middle-of-the-Field Reads
Murray hasn’t been great under pressure in his NFL career — and especially in 2023, when he earned a poor 44.5 PFF passing grade when under duress. While it is a smaller sample size due to his missing half the season, his struggles under pressure aren’t new. Another weakness of Murray's, possibly due to his short stature, is that he struggles on reads to the middle of the field, earning a 43.6 passing grade on such plays over the past two seasons while sporting a 75.5 grade on all other reads.
Atlanta Falcons: Kirk Cousins
Biggest Weakness: Passing Outside the Pocket
Cousins has never been a mobile quarterback, and that showed up in 2023. He struggled when either rolling out of the pocket or being forced out by pressure, recording a 57.2 PFF overall grade. On the contrary, he earned an NFL-best 91.4 PFF grade from inside the pocket. Cousins coming off a torn Achilles tendon will likely exacerbate this problem in 2024.
Baltimore Ravens: Lamar Jackson
Biggest Weakness: Playoffs
Jackson has two MVPs to his name and is one of the most electrifying players in the NFL — at least during the regular season. When the playoffs arrive, we don’t see the same quarterback we’re accustomed to. Across four postseasons, Jackson's 55.7 PFF passing grade is the worst of 14 eligible quarterbacks, as is his expected points added per dropback figure and success rate. Jackson’s career is likely taking him to Canton at this rate, but if he wants legend status, he needs to put together a couple of great postseason runs.
Lamar Jackson | Postseason Career
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen
Biggest Weakness: Quarters Coverage
In 2023, Allen faced 10 different coverage schemes on at least 10 dropbacks. On nine of those, he graded above 72.6. The lone scheme he struggled against was quarters, where he graded out to 52.9. He faced that scheme 118 times, the third most of any scheme. Teams would be wise to up that number in 2024 to see if Allen has figured out how to dissect the common two-high coverage scheme.
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