Every rookie quarterback goes through some hard weeks and months in the NFL. Well, not every rookie quarterback. Some smart teams don’t play their rookies. They let them sit and learn. You know, like Hall of Famers Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and soon-to-be Hall of Fame Patrick Mahomes.
No smart teams in the mix this year, though. We’ve got the Titans, the Giants, the Browns, and the Saints. Four franchises that churn and burn rookie QBs like it’s a business model.
Cam Ward Is Living a Nightmare in Nashville
It starts with the statistical disaster that is Cam Ward in 2025. The #1 overall pick is having a historically rough season in Nashville. Seven touchdown passes. Six interceptions. He’s been sacked 45 times already—the most in the NFL by a wide margin. The Titans are 1-11.
The Titans should have let Ward sit and learn. Yet in the modern NFL, there’s no patience to develop quarterbacks. As a result, it’s been horrid. Does Ward have the moxie to survive this season and not let it wreck his development? I hope so, because he’s a talented kid who walked into an impossible situation. Brian Callahan got fired midseason. The offensive line can’t block anyone. Calvin Ridley has been hurt. Ward’s playing behind an expansion-team roster with championship expectations.
Look, Ward’s shown some fight recently—four straight games without an interception, a 256-yard game against Seattle where he actually looked comfortable. The arrow is pointing up. But this season has been a masterclass in how to destroy a young quarterback’s confidence.
Where does Ward rank among all NFL quarterbacks right now? Check out HeyTC’s Daily QB Rankings for daily updated power rankings based on current performance, not reputation.
Jaxson Dart Might Actually Be the Guy
The Giants benching Russell Wilson after three weeks might go down as a franchise-altering decision. Or it could’ve been a disaster—rushing a rookie into a 0-3 situation doesn’t usually end well.
Dart made it end well. In eight starts, he’s thrown for 1,556 yards and 11 touchdowns while rushing for another seven scores. He became the first quarterback in NFL history to run for a touchdown in five consecutive games. Beat the undefeated Chargers in his debut. Beat the defending champion Eagles. The kid has 18 total touchdowns and just five turnovers.
The Giants are still 2-11, which tells you everything about the rest of their roster. But Dart’s been a revelation. He missed two games with a concussion in Week 10, forcing the Giants to start Jameis Winston (who, by the way, was another QB forced to start immediately in Tampa as a rookie back in 2015 and still hasn’t led a team to the playoffs as a starter). Dart came back Monday night against New England looking conservative but healthy.
One concern: Dart runs. A lot. Running quarterbacks going all the way back to Fran Tarkenton don’t win Super Bowls. He’s already been checked for concussions four times this season. That’s not sustainable.
Tyler Shough Is Quietly Outplaying Everyone
Here’s the sneaky story nobody’s talking about. Tyler Shough, the 40th overall pick, is putting up better per-game numbers than any other rookie QB. In four starts since replacing Spencer Rattler in Week 9, he’s thrown for 1,068 yards, five touchdowns, and four interceptions. That’s 267 yards per game. His 68.1% completion rate leads all rookie starters.
The Saints are 2-10 and a mess. Derek Carr retired after the draft, Kellen Moore is trying to figure out an offense without Alvin Kamara healthy, and Shough got thrown into chaos. But the kid from Louisville has looked competent. A 62-yard touchdown to Chris Olave against Carolina. A 282-yard performance in that win. He’s not flashy, but he’s not turning the ball over at an alarming rate either.
At 26, Shough is the oldest rookie in this class by a mile. Seven years of college football will do that. But that experience might be exactly what’s helping him process NFL defenses faster than his peers.
Can New Orleans actually turn this around with Shough under center? Sim this season and the next 99 years yourself with HeyTC’s Super Bowl Simulator. Find out how many Super Bowls the Saints will win over the next century. Spoiler: it’s not many.
Cleveland Is Just Cleveland
The Browns drafted both Dillon Gabriel (third round, 94th overall) and Shedeur Sanders (fifth round, 144th overall). Then they started Joe Flacco and then Gabriel, who got concussed. Then Sanders. Now Sanders is making his third start against the Titans this weekend in a battle of 1-11 vs. 3-9.
Gabriel had five starts, threw for 937 yards and seven touchdowns with two picks before getting hurt. Not terrible. Sanders dropped from a projected first-round pick to the 144th selection—one of the most stunning slides in recent draft history. He won his first start against the Raiders, becoming the first Browns quarterback to win his debut since 1995. That’s how cursed this franchise is.
Sanders has thrown for 405 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in three games. He’s shown some arm talent. The 66-yard touchdown to Dylan Sampson was a beauty. But he’s also looked like exactly what he was drafted as: a fifth-round developmental project playing behind a bad offensive line on a rebuilding team.
Joe Flacco could have started all year. Cleveland is not a well-run NFL franchise. Check out how Sanders and Gabriel stack up against the 60 years of Browns quarterback futility at HeyTC’s Cleveland Browns All-Time QB Rankings.
The Smart Play Is Sitting
The rookie QBs winning in 2025 are the ones afforded the luxury of sitting and learning. Watching. Practicing. Jalen Milroe in Seattle is the perfect example.
Milroe has played three offensive snaps all season. Three. The Seahawks gave Sam Darnold $100.5 million and made it clear: Milroe is here to develop, not to get his teeth kicked in behind a suspect offensive line. Darnold is having one of the best seasons of his career—finally looking like the third overall pick everyone expected back in 2018. He’ll probably be there in 2026 again. So Milroe benefits with ideally two years of not starting a regular season game.
That’s how you develop a quarterback. Not what Tennessee did to Ward. Not what New York might be doing to Dart’s long-term health. Not the Browns’ revolving door of four different starters.
2025 Rookie QB Stats at a Glance
| QB | Team (Pick) | Yards / TD / INT | Team Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cam Ward | TEN (#1) | 2,351 / 7 / 6 | 1-11 |
| Jaxson Dart | NYG (#25) | 1,556 / 11 / 3 | 2-11 |
| Tyler Shough | NO (#40) | 1,068 / 5 / 4 | 2-10 |
| Dillon Gabriel | CLE (#94) | 937 / 7 / 2 | 3-9 |
| Shedeur Sanders | CLE (#144) | 405 / 2 / 2 | 3-9 |
| Jalen Milroe | SEA (#92) | 0 / 0 / 0 | 9-4 |
The Rankings
- Jaxson Dart – 18 total touchdowns, franchise-altering potential, legitimate dual threat
- Tyler Shough – Boring but effective, highest completion rate among rookie starters
- Cam Ward – Worst situation in football, still showing flashes of why he was #1 overall
- Dillon Gabriel – Solid numbers before concussion, might never see the field again in Cleveland
- Shedeur Sanders – First Browns QB to win debut since 1995, which is both an accomplishment and a condemnation
- Jalen Milroe – Hasn’t played, which might make him the smartest rookie of all
Four more weeks of regular season. Ward will keep taking hits behind that Tennessee line. Dart will run headfirst into linebackers until his brain says stop. Sanders and the Browns will battle for draft positioning. And Milroe will sit on Seattle’s bench learning from a quarterback who figured it out after seven years of failure.
The smart teams don’t rush their quarterbacks. Unfortunately for this class, there weren’t many smart teams doing the picking.
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