The Athletic unveiled 2026 quarterback tiers Tuesday.
They are worth exploring, with two caveats: they are anonymous and opinion-based. The exercise polls NFL coaches and executives — and has for more than a decade — but it’s not a definitive evaluation of the players included.
Put together by Mike Sando, and incorporating votes and input from 29 coaches and 21 execs overall, there are 35 quarterbacks placed into five tiers, from the best (Tier 1) to the worst (Tier 5).
The top is headlined by Patrick Mahomes, who for the first time since 2022 received a Tier 2 vote from a general manager. That person said, “He’s not carrying them (the Chiefs) every week anymore,” and wonders about his future: “They had the season (2024) when they were historically, you could say, lucky in the one-possession games and then got trounced in the Super Bowl. They were not as impressive in the one-possession games (in 2025). Now, he’s coming off an injury. Is he gonna deteriorate physically?”
Mahomes is back on the field for Chiefs training camp after suffering an ACL injury, by the way, and Sando detailed that “One veteran coach laughed off suggestions Mahomes was in decline, noting that Joe Montana faced similar questions after three successive one-and-done playoff exits in the 1980s.”
The past two MVPs, Josh Allen (2024) and Matthew Stafford (2025), tied for second behind Mahomes, and they were joined in Tier 1 by Joe Burrow, who has dealt with injuries but is distinguished as a passer.