There’s a new wave of quarterbacks in the AFC East, but the division’s legend still remains.
Tom Brady, who will be 42-years-old when next NFL season kicks off, is coming off his sixth Super Bowl victory. The New York Jets boast a promising young talent in Sam Darnold, as do the Buffalo Bills with Josh Allen. For now, Luke Falk appears to be the next Miami Dolphins quarterback following their trade of Ryan Tannehill, unless, of course, they draft or trade for someone else.
So how do they all stack up with one another?
Manish Mehta, a noted Patriots detractor who covers the Jets for the New York Daily News, ranked the AFC East quarterbacks from projected best to worst in 2019.
To the surprise of pretty much no one, he had Darnold at the top above Brady.
Current starting QBs in the AFC East… from projected best to worst in 2019:
1) Sam Darnold
2) Tom Brady
3) Josh Allen
4) Luke Falk pic.twitter.com/VR65Xq9d0DWhat do you think? Leave a comment.— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaSports) March 15, 2019
It’s pretty tough to take Mehta seriously, but let’s try for a moment.
Darnold has plenty of upside, sure, but he didn’t exactly set the world on fire as a rookie. Brady, meanwhile, continued to play at a mostly high level in 2018, and to this point has shown few signs of slowing down. Maybe Darnold will play at a higher level in 2019, but there’s really no reason at this juncture to believe that’ll be the case.
That’s why they play the games, though, so time will have to tell.