Our final division to rank quarterbacks is the NFC West.

Home to seven of the past 13 NFC Championship winners, and four of the last seven, this is a division that has seen excellence during this century.

Whether this is the Seattle Seahawks’ Legion of Boom in the early to mid-2010’s, the Arizona Cardinals’ reaching the Super Bowl with star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald having a postseason for the ages, the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl appearances under head coach Kyle Shanahan, the Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald becoming one of the greatest defensive players of all time or their Greatest Show in Turf roster in St. Louis, this has been a division glittered with iconic moments.

The current state of the NFC West is being a division that has quarterbacks with more questions than answers, but how do they rank?

Here is a ranking all four starting quarterbacks from first to fourth.

The easiest selection of the four is putting Matthew Stafford top of the list.

With the best career numbers, the most talent when throwing the ball, and being the only quarterback in the division to win a Super Bowl, Stafford is in line to wear a Hall of Fame jacket, especially if he is to go out and win a second ring.

However, Stafford is not without question marks, with a back issue dominating the team’s headlines over the past few weeks.

Rams head coach Sean McVay has said that he expects Stafford to start on Sunday in, as they prepare to take on the Houston Texans in Week One.

Whether we see Stafford at his fluid best leads to a lot of intrigue, with running back Kyren Williams a prime contender to lead a lot of rushing stats both in real life and on fantasy football in the opening few weeks.

There are many that feel that this could be Stafford’s last season, especially if they were to reach the Super Bowl in San Francisco and beat who you would assume would be one of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Joe Burrow.

This is not out of the realms of possibility, given their young and exciting defence, the offensive weapons of Puka Nacua, Williams and Davante Adams and the coaching ability of McVay.

Even if Stafford is half of the quarterback the NFL world has gotten used to seeing since he was drafted first overall by the Detroit Lions back in 2009, he is still easily above the other three players in this list.

2024 saw regression from Brock Purdy as the Niners finished with a 6-11 record, a season they went into as reigning NFC Champions.

A year from Purdy being heralded as the Mr Irrelevant pick that secured the NFC Championship for Niners almost hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in just the second Super Bowl in history to go to overtime.

Recency bias is extremely common in the What have you done for me lately nature of the NFL. Every quarterback has tough seasons and it should not be forgotten how many injuries the 49ers suffered in 2024.

Whilst there have been several big-name departures this offseason, particularly on defense, Purdy still has Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall alongside him on the offense.

Whilst having a short career, heading into his fourth season in 2025, Purdy has done something that only he and Stafford have done in this list, win a playoff game.

In fact, Purdy has won more playoff games than he has lost, with a 4-2 postseason record. Across these six games, he has thrown for just one interception.

Purdy was also instrumental in a lot of these playoff wins, throwing for four touchdowns in his first playoff game as the 49ers beat the Seahawks in the Wildcard Round. He also guided the 49ers to two comeback wins in January 2024 against the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round and the Detroit Lions in the Conference Championship. It may have even been back-to-back Super Bowl appearances had injury not struck in their NFC Championship defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Whilst it was a down year for Purdy in 2024, it should not encourage detractors from what has been a brilliant career so far.

So far, it has been a story of ifs and maybes since Kyler Murray was drafted first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.

In his six seasons as a pro, only three of these have seen Murray play a full season.

Injuries and inconsistencies have plagued Murray’s career, despite his excellence with his legs.

Murray has not been short of memorable moments, most notably his “Hail Murray” throw to Deandre Hopkins for a walk off touchdown in the 2020 season against the Buffalo Bills.

His start to the 2021 season had him seen as an MVP front runner after his first seven games, with 2,002 passing yards, 17 passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns and five interceptions.

Murray has failed to live up to this spell since, with just one playoff appearance in his career. He will go into the 2025 season with the best offense he has ever worked with. This includes running back James Conner, wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr and tight end Trey McBride.

This could be a season where Murray reminds the NFL world what he can do.

It was a career year for Sam Darnold in 2024, throwing for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

This came after years of struggling to live up to his draft position of third overall in 2018, both with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers before a backup role in San Francisco.

However, this was with the Minnesota Vikings.

It remains to be seen whether 2024 was a one season wonder for Darnold. Whilst they aren’t the duo of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, Jaxson Smith-Njjgba, Cooper Kupp is still more than serviceable.

Despite this, is has been one good season for Darnold, which puts him in last place in this list. In 2025, we will know whether 2024 was a purple patch (no pun intended) or if his time under Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was the making of him.

We saw Baker Mayfield turn his career around with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a short spell playing under McVay with the Rams in 2022. Playing for a whole season under O’Connell, who has a deep history of producing quarterback excellence, may be exactly what is needed for Darnold to have a Mayfield type of redemption arc.

Andy Davies

NFC West Quarterback Rankings

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