Last Monday, we brought you my personal 2022 QB rankings. Since then, we’ve had two great podcasts with myself, Dave Bryan, Josh Carney, Tom Mead, Tyler Wise, and Jonathan Heitritter to discuss their rankings and thoughts on this polarizing group of arms. If you missed it, check out the episodes here and here.
To quickly recap and put (virtual) pen to paper on our rankings, I wanted to lay them out for you guys here along with some additional nerdy analysis and recap below.
First, here’s our top five QB rankings in this class. To avoid making one table too wide and potentially not fitting the screen for mobile users, I broke it up into two tables of rankings. You’ll notice just how different each board looks. Here are our rankings:
| Tom | Dave | Josh |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sam Howell | 1. Malik Willis | 1. Desmond Ridder |
| 2. Malik Willis | 2. Kenny Pickett | 2. Malik Willis |
| 3. Matt Corral | 3. Sam Howell | 3. Sam Howell |
| 4. Desmond Ridder | 4. Matt Corral | 4. Matt Corral |
| 5. Kenny Pickett | 5. Desmond Ridder | 5. Kenny Pickett |
| Tyler | Alex | Jonathan |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Malik Willis | 1. Malik Willis | 1. Malik Willis |
| 2. Desmond Ridder | 2. Matt Corral | 2. Sam Howell |
| 3. Kenny Pickett | 3. Sam Howell | 3. Desmond Ridder |
| 4. Matt Corral | 4. Kenny Pickett | 4. Matt Corral |
| 5. Sam Howell | 5. Desmond Ridder | 5. Kenny Pickett |
Malik Willis is generally viewed as the top QB. Those who didn’t have him first had him second. From there, the rest of it is totally open-ended. Desmond Ridder appears 1st and 5th on the list, while Kenny Pickett ranged anywhere from 2nd to 5th. Matt Corral ranged from 2nd to 4th while Sam Howell ranged from 1st to 5th.
In the aggregate, here is the final ranking of the six combined list. I also took it a step further and measured the variance via an online calculator. The higher the number, the larger the variance.
| Player | Average | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Malik Willis | 1.3 | 0.22 |
| 2. Sam Howell | 2.8 | 1.47 |
| 3. Desmond Ridder | 3.3 | 2.22 |
| 4. Matt Corral | 3.5 | 0.58 |
| 5. Kenny Pickett | 4.0 | 1.33 |
So the overall ranking goes: Willis, Howell, Ridder, Corral, and Pickett. Willis had the least amount of variance, being ranked either first or second. From there, Howell, Ridder, and Pickett all had a high amount of variance, while Corral was generally plugged into that fourth spot (four of six votes). Ridder’s variance was easily the most extreme and is the most polarizing name on the list. Despite just six votes, he has slotted into every spot, first through fifth. The only duplicate was a pair of fifth place votes from Dave and myself. Josh (#1) and Tyler (#2) were highest on him.
The ultimate question becomes: who’s right and who’s wrong? No one knows. And no one will probably know for at least 2-3 years, if not longer. There will always be outside variables to consider too. Injury history, scheme fit, coaching changes, overall offensive talent, and whatever else unpredictable storylines happen along the way.
Let us know your top five QB rankings in the comments below and see how it stacks up with ours. And tell us which person’s ranking you most agree with.
