Connect with us
Home » news » wildcard weekend qb rankings who has the best matchups

News

Wildcard Weekend QB Rankings – Who Has The Best Matchups

Find out which quarterbacks have the best matchups for wildcard weekend.

Mark Gunnels

Published

on

The NFL playoffs are finally here, so you know what that means. It’s time to see which quarterbacks have the best matchups heading into wildcard weekend.

1. Russell Wilson @ Vikings – The 27-year-old quarterback is coming off the best regular season of his young career.

Wilson set franchise records in completion percentage (68.1), yards (4,024) and touchdowns (34). As Wilson prepares to face Minnesota, he can look back to his week 13 performance when he torched them for 274 passing yards and three touchdowns.

2. Ben Roethlisberger @ Bengals – In his two games against the rival Bengals this season, Big Ben struggled to say the least.

Roethlisberger has thrown four interceptions with only one touchdown pass in the two meetings. However, the two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback has a knack for adjusting and with this being his third time facing this defensive unit, expect for him to make the proper adjustments.

3. Kirk Cousins vs. Packers – Just getting the Redskins to this point is remarkable within itself, even if they did it by winning a very weak NFC East.

Nonetheless, this is a huge opportunity for Cousins to put his name into Redskins lure.

Green Bay ranks among the best defenses against the pass, but their run defense is near the bottom. If Washington can establish a ground game, it’ll loosen up the Packers secondary.

4. Aaron Rodgers @ Redskins – Green Bay’s offense has been very stagnant over the past two months. First of all, their offensive line is broken as Rodgers is forced to run for his life week in and week out.

Secondly, none of their pass catchers have shown the ability to get consistent separation, which forces Rodgers to make throws in closed windows out of desperation.

On the flip side, Washington gives up tons of yards in the air.

Something has to give.

5. A.J. McCarron vs. Steelers – Typically, whenever you go to battle with a quarterback who’s prepping to make his first playoff start, you get a little nervous.

In the Bengals case, they should feel pretty good for a couple of reasons. McCarron started the last four games of the regular season and he handled himself well.

The former Alabama product had a touchdown to interception ratio of 6:2, while completing 66.5 of his passes.

As McCarron heads into his first playoff game, it’ll be a welcomed sign facing one of the worst teams against the pass in the NFL.

6. Alex Smith @ Texans – This matchup has all of the makings of a low scoring affair. For majority of the Chiefs 10-game winning streak, their offense has put up monster numbers.

With that being said, Alex Smith still hasn’t managed to ‘wow’ anyone with his numbers, although he gets credit for making smart decisions with the football.

Smith finished with 20 touchdowns, 3,486 yards and 7 interceptions.

Breaking through this Houston defense will be tough sledding, as J.J. Watt will be hawking Smith for much of the afternoon.

7. Brian Hoyer vs. Chiefs – The veteran quarterback returned last week against Jacksonville, and he completed 25 of 40 passes, for 249 yards to go along with a touchdown and an interception.

This week, Hoyer will have the daunting task of beating Kansas City’s stout defense.

The Chiefs ranked second in interceptions (22), only behind Carolina.

8. Teddy Bridgewater vs. Seahawks – This is just a matchup nightmare.

Seattle comes into this matchup with ultimate confidence. Their defense allowed the fewest points (277) and the fewest pass touchdowns (14).

Meanwhile, Bridgewater ranked dead last in touchdown passes (14) for any quarterback that started all 16 games.

When facing the Seahawks a few weeks ago, Minnesota was handled to the tune of 38-7.

Mark Gunnels is an NFL columnist for Football Insiders. He has several years of experience covering the NFL and NCAA football. He's the radio color commentator for Lincoln University football. Mark's work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports and Yard Barker.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

Buccaneers admit mistake, boot Aguayo

Avatar

Published

on

In the NFL, it’s always better to admit a mistake than to compound it. For the Buccaneers, the decision to burn a 2016 second-round pick on kicker Robert Aguayo has proven to be a mistake. The Buccaneers made the definitive admission of their error on Saturday, cutting Aguayo. He exits with $428,000 in fully-guaranteed salary [more]

Source: Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk

Powered by WPeMatico

Continue Reading

News

Did Bucs put too much pressure on Aguayo?

Avatar

Published

on

After the Buccaneers surprised everyone by taking a kicker with the 59th overall pick in the draft, G.M. Jason Licht explained the move by heaping superlatives on the player. “I was very excited along with my staff and coaches about Roberto for a very long time,” Licht told PFT Live in May 2016. “It’s not [more]

Source: Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk

Powered by WPeMatico

Continue Reading

News

Broncos holding their breath on Derek Wolfe

Avatar

Published

on

Only two days after losing Billy Winn for the year with a torn ACL, the Broncos are now sweating out another potentially serious injury along the defensive line. Via multiple reports, Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe was carted off the field during practice on Saturday. It’s being described as a right ankle injury by coach [more]

Source: Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk

Powered by WPeMatico

Continue Reading

The NFL On Twitter


Insiders On Facebook

Trending Now

Copyright © 2021 Insider Sports, Inc