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 … Week 4 … Week 5 … Week 6 … Week 7 … Week 8 … Week 9.

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU

On paper, Daniels is the most impressive QB in the country: No. 1 nationally in total offense, No. 1 in yards per attempt, No. 1 in EPA, No. 1 in overall efficiency, 2nd in Total QBR, etc. I could go on, and have been for most of the past 2 months. His statistical résumé has him squarely in the Heisman race. His campaign from this point on, though, hinges on one factor and one factor only: Beating Alabama.

It is not a hard-and-fast rule that the eventual Heisman winner is always on the right side of his team’s biggest game of the year. But it is certainly a major factor, and the few exceptions in the past two decades — Tim Tebow in 2007, Robert Griffin III in 2011, Lamar Jackson in 2016 — are all telling in their own ways. Tebow and Jackson, for example, both had compelling individual efforts in close, instant-classic losses to the eventual national champion. And Griffin, despite turning in the worst outing of his Heisman season against the best opponent on Baylor’s 2011 schedule, Oklahoma State, rebounded a few weeks later in a season-defining win over Oklahoma. (In fact, in terms of audience and impact, the upset over OU was arguably the “bigger” game, despite Baylor having already been eliminated from the Big 12 race by that point; it was evidence enough of RG3’s brilliance that the lowly Bears were competitive at all.) Which brings us to the other common factor in all 3 of those examples: None of them took place in November.

Losing the big game late, with championship implications more plainly at stake and little time to wash the bad taste out of voters’ mouths, is a deal-breaker. Seventeen of the past 19 Heisman winners were undefeated in November and December, the only exceptions being Jackson in 2016 (for a Louisville team that had already vastly exceeded preseason expectations) and Caleb Williams last year, who got a pass after limping through most of USC’s loss in the Pac-12 Championship Game with an obvious injury. For Daniels, who has already presided over high-profile losses to Florida State and Ole Miss in LSU’s 2 biggest games to date, it’s difficult to imagine a number he could possibly put up that would be enough to eclipse a 1-3 record vs. ranked opponents. The really great ones never have to say, “yeah, but if not for such a terrible defense…” even when it’s true. Hell, especially when it’s true. If Daniels belongs on that tier when it counts, it begins with taking down the Tide.
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(Last week: 1⬌)

2. Carson Beck, Georgia

Halfway home, Beck’s production is eerily similar to Stetson Bennett IV’s 2022 pace across the board. And just like Bennett, it’s impossible to separate his success from his pristine environment behind Georgia’s o-line. Per Pro Football Focus, Beck has faced pressure on 15.8% of his total drop-backs, the 2nd-lowest rate nationally behind only Oregon’s Bo Nix. Saturday’s 43-20 win over Florida was his 5th sack-free outing in 8 games.
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(Last week: 2⬌)

3. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss

Dart spent October on autopilot, putting up just OK numbers in wins over bottom-quadrant opponents Arkansas, Auburn and Vanderbilt. The going gets considerably steeper over the next 2 weeks against a couple of elite defenses, Texas A&M and Georgia. Everyone in Mississippi remembers last year’s 7-1 start collapsing in a 1-4 finish, which prompted Lane Kiffin to pursue multiple challengers for Dart’s job via the portal. Now we get to see what kind of difference a year makes.
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(Last week: 3⬌)

4. Brady Cook, Missouri

Compared to the blistering pace he was on over the previous month, Cook cooled off considerably in Mizzou’s past 2 games against Kentucky and South Carolina — hardly an ominous development considering the Tigers still won both games decisively on the strength of the defense and ground game. Sustaining a 4-quarter upset bid at Georgia on Saturday with the East Division lead hanging in the balance is a different beast. If they’re going to avoid getting smacked back down to the ranks of the also-rans, Cook and All-America-in-waiting Luther Burden III need to be back on their A-game, and then some.
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(Last week: 4⬌)

5. Jalen Milroe, Alabama

In retrospect, it’s safe to say the panic that followed Milroe’s brief demotion early in the season has not aged well. At the time, Milroe was coming off a mediocre Week 2 outing against Texas in which 2 costly interceptions and 5 sacks overshadowed a handful of splash plays in a deflating loss; in response, Nick Saban identified a Week 3 trip to South Florida as an opportunity to give backups Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson a test drive in a game the Tide were essentially guaranteed to win. The result was arguably the worst offensive performance of the Saban era, initiating a full-blown existential crisis over the state of the program. In the weeks since, though, Milroe has been entrenched, and the original logic behind his promotion to QB1 — the big plays will outweigh the growing pains — has largely born out over the course of a 5-game win streak.

As inconsistent as he’s been in most other respects, the one area in which Milroe has excelled is the one that grants him the widest possible margin for error: Throwing deep. Twenty-three percent of his total attempts on the season have been throws of 20+ yards, per PFF, the highest rate in the SEC; on those throws, he ranks among the top 3 nationally in average depth of target (35.9 yards), completion percentage (60.0%), and yards per attempt (22.9), with 10 touchdowns to 1 interception. On all attempts, he leads the nation in a category PFF labels “Big Time Throw Rate,” with a “big time throw” defined as “a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.” By that accounting, all 17 of Milroe’s big-time throws have come on attempts of 20+ yards.

Milroe tends to draw comparisons to fellow Houston-area native Jalen Hurts, for fairly obvious reasons given his thickly-built frame and mobility. The more we see of Milroe, the less apt that comp looks: Hurts was a notoriously conservative passer in his Bama days, to the extent that he was benched on the biggest stage specifically for failing to provide enough downfield juice. Instead, Milroe’s game reminds me more of another big-armed boom-or-bust type, Jameis Winston — volatile, turnover-prone, but ultimately worth the gray hairs (at least at the college level) for his ability to generate big plays on a weekly basis. It’s been a while since Alabama fans have had to summon patience with a quarterback who seemed so determined to test it. But slowly, week by week, Milroe has rebuilt trust that if nothing else he is on the right track to actually becoming who they hoped he was at the beginning of the season. The big question this weekend with the season on the line against LSU is just how much longer he has left to get there.
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(Last week: 6⬆)

6. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

It’s difficult to watch Rattler without imagining what he might look like in an offense that didn’t regularly leave him running for his life. As it is, he’s been under such relentless duress this season that his body is instinctively shifting into self-preservation mode. Three of the 4 “sacks” in the box score of Carolina’s loss at Texas A&M were actually the result of intentional grounding penalties on consecutive possessions where Rattler ditched the ball rather than absorb another full-speed hit.
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(Last week: 5⬇)

7. Graham Mertz, Florida

Mertz turned in a surprisingly cromulent stat line against Georgia, finishing 25-for-34 for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns. If it didn’t seem that way in real time, that’s because for the most part, it wasn’t: Following an impressive opening drive, the Gators failed to cross midfield again until well into the second half, by which point they’d been beaten to a pulp. The bulk of Mertz’s output came on a couple of garbage-time touchdown drives that made the 43-20 final look relatively sanitized.
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(Last week: 7⬌)

8. Joe Milton III, Tennessee

After Milton’s shaky second half at Alabama in Week 8, I was prepared to speculate about whether it was time for the Vols to give 5-star freshman Nico Iamalavea a head start on his ascension to QB1 next year. On cue, Milton rebounded in Week 9 with his best performance of the year at Kentucky, setting season highs for completion percentage (85.0) and yards per attempt (11.4) on a lethally efficient 17-for-20 passing. With a New Year’s 6 bowl still in play and Georgia and Missouri still on the schedule, Iamalavea’s redshirt can remain safely in the freezer.
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(Last week: 8⬌)

9. Devin Leary, Kentucky

On the other side, Leary also had his best game as a Wildcat against Tennessee, finishing 28-for-39 for 372 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no INTs in a losing effort. Not coincidentally, that line came on a night when workhorse RB Ray Davis was limited to season lows on the ground, forcing Leary to pick up the slack with his arm. Even with Davis bottled up, Kentucky punted only once, on its opening possession. Still, between 2 turnovers on downs, 2 field goals from the Vols’ 10-yard line, and a missed go-ahead field goal in the 4th quarter, the Cats will be ruing their missed opportunities for a while.
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(Last week: 10⬆)

10. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

Arkansas badly needed a week off following a depressing, 7-3 Homecoming loss to Mississippi State, and the subsequent sacking of offensive coordinator Dan Enos the next day. For his part, Jefferson was so off his game vs. the Bulldogs it was hard not to wonder if he was dealing with an undisclosed injury. Regardless of who’s calling the plays or how well-rested they may be, the Hogs’ biggest issues persist: They struggle to run, struggle to protect, and pending the return of RB Rocket Sanders, remain totally devoid of SEC-caliber weapons at the skill positions.
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(Last week: 9⬇)

11. Max Johnson, Texas A&M

Even when things are going relatively well, Johnson is still finding himself under fire at an alarming rate. Per PFF, he faced pressure on 14 of his 34 drop-backs in A&M’s 30-17 win over South Carolina, including 3 sacks — a slight improvement over his season average, actually, considering that prior to Saturday he’d been pressured on exactly 50% of his drop-backs on the year. His current rate of 48.3% is the 2nd-highest in the Power 5 ranks, “trailing” only Utah’s Bryson Barnes.
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(Last week: 11⬌)

12. Payton Thorne, Auburn

It’s been a rough year for Thorne, who found himself out of a job at Michigan State and subsequently languishing at the bottom of the SEC in almost every major passing category. After a month of playing the goat, though, he finally gave Auburn fans a glimpse of what they hoped they were getting Saturday in a 27-13 win over Mississippi State, his best outing of the season by a mile:

The competition accounts for some of that gap — Mississippi State ranks 123rd nationally and dead last in the SEC in pass efficiency D — but we don’t have to pretend the Bulldogs are better than they are to give Thorne credit for taking advantage of the opportunity to level up. On that note, he has 3 more opportunities over the next 3 weeks against Vanderbilt, Arkansas and New Mexico State before his final exam in the Iron Bowl. If he has any designs on returning as the Tigers’ starter in 2024, Saturday was just the first step in making his case.
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(Last week: 13⬆)

13. Will Rogers or Mike Wright, Mississippi State

For all his statistical prowess over the years, it’s never been easier for Bulldogs fans to appreciate Rogers than the past 2 weeks in his absence. With Rogers sidelined by a shoulder injury, the offense has largely ground to a halt under Wright, managing a grand total of 20 points in 2 games against Arkansas (a 7-3 win) and Auburn (a 24-13 loss). Rogers’ status for this weekend’s date against Kentucky — a big one for bowl eligibility — remains uncertain.

Beyond Saturday, it’s getting to be about that time to start wondering about his status for his 5th and final year of eligibility in 2024, which is also TBD. Rogers has played a ton of football, but before the injury had clearly regressed in the transition from Mike Leach’s version of the Air Raid to … well, whatever it is the Bulldogs are trying to do now, which seems to change by the week.

Does Rogers even want a 5th year? Any career records he manages to break would come with an asterisk due to the free COVID year, and he’s not suddenly going to grow into a more attractive pro prospect. If he does decide to stay in school, does he necessarily want to spend that year in Starkville, where his tenure appears to have run its natural course? The clock is already ticking on head coach Zach Arnett, who’s going to face pressure to make changes to his staff, and possibly to his quarterback, too. At this point, calling on Rogers to sign up for yet another rebuild might be asking for more loyalty than anyone has any right to expect.
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(Last week: 12⬇)

14. Ken Seals, Vanderbilt

Seals was overdue to have the Vandy entry all to himself, so he’s finally got it following his 4th consecutive start, a 33-7 loss at Ole Miss. It’s been more than a month since our last glimpse of former starter AJ Swann, who may or may not still be nursing a sore elbow, and may or may not have played his last game in a Vanderbilt uniform. We’ll see.

In the meantime, the Dores just dropped yet another new character into the mix: Walter Taylor, a 6-7, 235-pound redshirt freshman who replaced a struggling Seals in the 2nd quarter in Oxford and played the rest of the game. Taylor didn’t pose much threat as a passer (4-of-12 for 32 yards, 1 INT), but he did supply a spark on the ground, accounting for 80 yards and Vanderbilt’s only touchdown on 15 carries. Lane Kiffin admitted after the game that he had no idea who Taylor was, and that his appearance off the bench caught the Rebels by surprise. Whatever his role is going forward, that definitely will not be the case again.
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(Last week: 14⬌)

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