Quarterbacks: There are a lot of them! Each week throughout the season, we’ll help you keep the game’s most important position in perspective by ranking the SEC starters 1-14 according to highly scientific processes and/or pure gut-level instinct. Previously: Week 1 … Week 2. … Week 3.

1. Bryce Young, Alabama

Bama scored 3 touchdowns via offense, defense and special teams in the first half of the first quarter against UL-Monroe, rendering the rest of Young’s afternoon largely irrelevant. He went on to throw multiple interceptions for just the second time in his career — the first being last year’s CFP Championship loss to Georgia — but still accounted for 4 TDs en route to a season-high 215.1 passer rating. Such is life when sometimes it comes a little bit too easy.
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(Last week: 1⬌)

2. Stetson Bennett IV, Georgia

Bennett’s emergence as a plausible Heisman contender is shaping up as one of the season’s more compelling subplots, and not only because it’s the only thing left to argue about after the Bulldogs ice every game by halftime. He has a lot going for him in terms of conventional Heisman politics: Good stats, great backstory, conveniently high profile as the face of the nation’s No. 1 team. Proven winner. Looks like a 6th-year senior in firm command of the offense. And capable of generating the occasional viral highlight:

Working against him, besides his Rudy-esque stature and marginal pro prospects, is the very obvious fact that playing for Georgia makes his life easier than any other quarterback in America. Voters want to see Heisman candidates make plays, which in Bennett’s case is not really necessary. His o-line is elite, his options on any given snap abundant, and the play-calling — while surprisingly creative thus far — rarely stresses his skill set. (More than 31% of Bennett’s pass attempts through the first 3 games have been behind the line of scrimmage, per Pro Football Focus, the highest share of any Power 5 starter; they’re averaging 9.2 yards a pop after the catch.)

Georgia’s defense guarantees he’s never forced to play from behind or make desperate decisions in must-throw situations. It’s about as close as a big-time QB can get to being ensconced in velvet.

Anyway, we might as well get used to hearing both sides of the case, because rehashing them is about to become a weekly ritual. Barring a shocking turn of events between now and December, that’s just how it’s going to be until the inevitable SEC Championship showdown against Alabama rolls back around, again. The big difference this time is that there’s no question whether Bennett is fundamentally capable of getting the job done.
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(Last week: 2⬌)

3. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

Jefferson had to do more than the Razorbacks would have preferred in a come-from-behind, 38-27 win over Missouri State, going the distance with a career-high 385 yards and 3 total TDs (2 passing, 1 rushing) to show for it. At least they succeeded in limiting the number of hits he was exposed to in the process: He logged just 9 carries, way down from the first 2 games, and wasn’t touched by the Missouri State pass rush, per PFF. Next up: Texas A&M.
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(Last week: 3⬌)

4. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee

Hooker, on the other hand, put in relatively light work in the Vols’ 63-6 massacre of Akron, bombing the Zips for 298 yards and 2 TDs on just 18 attempts. This weekend’s visit from Florida is shaping up as the pivotal game of both teams’ seasons, as it usually is.
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(Last week: 4⬌)

5. Will Levis, Kentucky

The rankings are determined to take Levis seriously as a potential first-rounder, but we’d love to see him deliver a really clean outing or two. Saturday’s 31-0 win over Youngstown State was typical: On the plus side, Levis threw for 377 yards and 2 TDs on 10.8 per attempt; he was also picked twice and sacked 4 times, moving his performance squarely into the “push” column against an FCS opponent. That was his 9th game at Kentucky with multiple touchdown passes and his 13th with at least 1 interception.
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(Last week: 7⬆)

6. Jayden Daniels, LSU

Daniels struggled in the first half against Mississippi State but finished hot, leading 5 scoring drives on LSU’s final 6 possessions in a 31-16 win. (Technically an upset, given that the Tigers were +2.5 at kickoff, but we’re not prepared to acknowledge LSU beating Mississippi State in Baton Rouge on those terms.) If they’d managed to pull off the wild opening-night comeback against Florida State, the buzz around the team — and around Daniels, specifically — might be considerably stronger right now. As it stands, he continues to look like a solid if unspectacular addition who’s going to give them a chance almost every time out.
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(Last week: 9⬆)

7. Will Rogers, Mississippi State

This space is a broken record concerning Rogers’ unwillingness and/or inability to push the ball downfield, which was a glaring issue again in the Bulldogs’ loss at LSU. (He was 0/2 on attempts of 20+ yards, a week after going 0/1 against Arizona.) In his defense, though, he’s not getting a whole lot of help: The o-line was overmatched against LSU’s pass rush, limiting Rogers’ ability to wait for downfield routes to develop, and PFF flagged his receivers for 6 drops — all but 1 of them in the 0-10-yard range, but still. In the absence of a big-play threat, the margin for error on the underneath stuff is pretty much nil.
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(Last week: 6⬇)

8. Jaxson Dart or Luke Altmyer, Ole Miss

Dart took every meaningful snap in the Rebels’ 42-0 win at Georgia Tech, finishing 10/16 for 207 yards and earning major Grit Points from the fan base — if not necessarily from his head coach — by smoking a Yellow Jacket safety at the end of a 3rd-down scramble in the third quarter:

Listen, the rankings love a quarterback willing to lay it on the line to move the sticks as much as anybody else. In the future, though, perhaps there are more opportune times to lower the shoulder than well into the second half of a game your team is leading 35-0. Ole Miss went through this last year with the constitutionally reckless Matt Corral, whose accumulation of unnecessary hits took a significant toll as the season wore on. Dart, listed at 6-2/220, is slightly bigger than Corral, but only slightly, and he’s certainly not in the game because of his legs. Ideally, Lane Kiffin would prefer to limit the wear and tear on his starting QB to situations where the reward is worth the risk.

Anyway, is Dart the starting QB? Not yet, at least not officially. Kiffin has alternated the pecking order through the first 3 games, giving Altmyer the nod in Week 2 against Central Arkansas in between Dart’s starts against Troy and Georgia Tech, and the official depth chart for this weekend’s final nonconference date against Tulsa still lists them as co-starters. It’s possible that Kiffin wants to give Altmyer one more chance to audition, especially after he was forced to leave the Central Arkansas game early due to a minor injury. It’s also possible that he’s settled on Dart and doesn’t want to tip his hand. Or maybe whoever is responsible for updating the depth chart just forgot and it carried over from last week. Whatever the case, after Saturday the consensus is that it’s Dart’s job to lose.
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(Last week: 10⬆)

9. Anthony Richardson, Florida

Another week, another alarming performance for Richardson, whose much-heralded upside remained on hiatus in a 31-28 win over USF. Instead, the Gators are getting all too well acquainted with his downside. Richardson has yet to throw a touchdown pass this season while serving up multiple INTs in consecutive games.

Growing pains are part of the deal with a first-year starter. But Richardson’s past 2 outings since his hugely promising turn against Utah have been especially painful. Even including the opener, his current passer (89.0) rating ranks 58th out of 60 qualifying Power 5 QBs – only Iowa’s Spencer Petras and Colorado’s JT Shrout have fared worse – and comes in nearly 40 points below any other SEC starter. His 5.5 yards per attempt is the conference’s worst ypa by more than a full yard. Kentucky and USF also neutralized Richardson as a runner, holding him to 28 yards on 13 carries (including sacks) after he went off for 106 yards and 3 TDs rushing in Week 1.

At some point, those are benchable numbers, even for a player with undeniable potential. Just don’t count on that point arriving any time soon. For one thing, Billy Napier has the luxury of a certain degree of patience in Year 1. For another, who’s the backup? Ohio State transfer Jack Miller III is still on the mend from preseason surgery on his thumb, leaving redshirt freshman Jalen Kitna and sophomore Kyle Engel, a former walk-on. Ideally, Richardson would be playing well enough that we wouldn’t even have to bother looking up the other guys’ names. But Napier has too much invested in his volatile young QB to consider pulling the plug before he’s had every opportunity to get there.
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(Last week: 8⬇)

10. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

Rattler’s stock report is similar to Richardson’s: Steady on the depth chart, but otherwise sinking by the week. Georgia made a mockery of the premise that his 5-star arm might move the needle against a top defense, holding Rattler to 118 yards on 4.7 per attempt and picking him twice.

It is true that he gives the Gamecocks more downfield juice than they’ve had since …  well, maybe ever. He already has 7 completions of 30+ yards, more in 3 games than any individual Carolina QB managed all of last year, and just 1 fewer than Ryan Hilinski and Collin Hill in 2019 and ’20, respectively. His one highlight-reel throw against the Dawgs, a 46-yard strike to Jaheim Bell, was a beauty.

But the pluses have been much too few and far between for an aspiring first-rounder – especially one who already had a giant neon question mark looming over his head after getting benched at Oklahoma. So far, Rattler looks more like the guy who slid down the mountain last year than the guy who climbed it in the first place as a redshirt freshman. He ranks 13th in the SEC in both efficiency and QBR. At this rate, he’s on his way to sliding out of the draft conversation entirely.
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(Last week: 9⬇)

11. Max Johnson, Texas A&M

Statistically, Johnson’s line in a 17-9 win over Miami was nothing to write home about: 10/20, 140 yards, 1 TD, 3 sacks – a marginal upgrade at best from the performance that got Haynes King benched following A&M’s demoralizing Week 2 loss to Appalachian State. Even the lone touchdown, a 25-yarder to Devon Achane, was all Achane making something out of nothing after the catch. Still, in a high-pressure environment against a top-20 opponent, Johnson fulfilled the most important part of his job description by taking care of the ball and not doing anything that might give Miami’s struggling offense a break. That can only go so far in SEC play (ask LSU), but for a spot start on short notice, it’s a step in the right direction.
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(Last week: n/a)

12. TJ Finley or Robby Ashford, Auburn

Finley hasn’t been demoted after Saturday’s 41-9 debacle against Penn State, but he has been ruled out for this weekend’s SEC opener against Missouri due to a shoulder injury, leaving Ashford in position to make a move in his first career start. Ashford took the garbage-time snaps against the Nittany Lions, leading a couple of sustained drives (as well as throwing his second interception in as many weeks) with the score well out of reach. But in meaningful situations vs. a competent opponent, he’s a blank slate.

If you’re wondering where Zach Calzada stands in this dynamic, join the club. Calzada was arguably the favorite to win the job after transferring from Texas A&M, and Bryan Harsin said following the Penn State loss that coaches discussed putting him in for his first reps as a Tiger. So far, that’s as close as he’s come to getting on the field. Presumably Harsin didn’t pursue Calzada in the portal with the idea of sticking him on clipboard duty, and given the collective din over his job security, he doesn’t have time to let Ashford take his lumps in the most winnable game on the conference slate. Until further notice, this remains one of the most wide-open QB situations in America.
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(Last week: 11⬇)

13. AJ Swann, Vanderbilt

All things considered, Swann’s first career start was a revelation: 18/28, 255 yards, 4 TDs and zero turnovers in a come-from-behind, 38-28 win at Northern Illinois. Down 28-14 in the third quarter, Vandy rallied to score 24 unanswered, sparked by a Manziel-ian connection from Swann to RB Ray Davis:

One game against a MAC team is just one game against a MAC team, and a suspiciously high percentage of Swann’s output went to one receiver, Will Sheppard (10 catches for 171 yards, 2 TDs). But who are we to rain on the ‘Dores’ parade? At 3-1 with Alabama on deck, this week is the moment to enjoy a faint glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel while they still can.
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(Last week: 14⬆)

14. Brady Cook, Missouri

Cook accounted for 354 yards with 3 touchdown passes in a 34-17 win over Abilene Christian, a reassuring turn coming off an abysmal Week 2 outing at Kansas State. This weekend’s trip to Auburn marks his first SEC road test, and Mizzou still has no good options if he fails.
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(Last week: 13⬇)