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 1-16 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 | Week 10 | Week 11.

1. Jaxson Dart | Ole Miss

Dart’s part in the Rebels’ landmark, 28-10 win over Georgia is going to be remembered more for the image of him hobbling around on a visibly gimpy ankle than for his good-not-great stat line, but you know what they say: An image is worth a thousand yards. As Dart’s Heisman campaign ramps up over the next few weeks, the ankle is going to get a little gimpier and the tape a little thicker with every retelling. By the time the Rebels are recruiting little Jaxson Dart Jr., they’ll be telling him about the time his dad out-scrapped the mighty Dawgs with his foot on the verge of amputation.

Anyway, Dart got the W, but with a big assist from his understudy, redshirt freshman Austin Simmons, who played a brief but crucial role off the bench after Dart initially suffered the injury on the game’s opening series. At that point, the early momentum was decidedly with Georgia: The Bulldogs had just turned a quick turnover into a short-field touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Enter Simmons, who promptly led a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that evened the score and swung the pendulum to Ole Miss’ side for good. Simmons was 5-for-6 for 64 yards on the drive — the first meaningful action of his career — including a 12-yard completion on 4th-and-1 and a 20-yard completion on 3rd-and-7 to set up the touchdown. He immediately yielded to Dart after that and spent the rest of the afternoon as a spectator. But his cameo instilled confidence that the Rebels can survive at least temporarily without Dart during what they hope is a sustained Playoff run, and when the time comes to settle on his successor in 2025, it will be remembered.
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Last week: 1⬌

2. Jalen Milroe | Alabama

When Milroe is at his best, he looks like God’s gift to the sport, and he’s rarely been better than when he’s facing LSU. In 2 starts against the Tigers, he’s accounted for 668 total yards, 8 touchdowns (all rushing) and 40 first downs, emphatically ending LSU’s Playoff hopes in both seasons. His 99.3 Total QBR rating in Bama’s 42-13 romp in Baton Rouge set a career high and, along with his stellar September outings against Western Kentucky and Georgia, gives him the top 3 single-game ratings of the season among SEC quarterbacks.

That’s a Heisman-caliber list, and Milroe may indeed have reestablished himself on Saturday as the league’s best shot at earning an invite to NYC next month. (He and Dart are running even as bubble candidates on the Heisman betting market.) At this stage of his career, though, do the peaks still inspire confidence that the maxed-out, dual-threat version on display against Georgia and LSU is sustainable? Or are they just that? Peaks on an uneven arc that will never level off.

There’s always been a boom-or-bust element to Milroe’s game, which is more obvious in his volatility as a passer but applies to his rushing production, too. Alabama’s 2 losses this season were also his least productive outings as a runner; excluding sacks, he ran for just 20 yards against Vanderbilt and 34 yards against Tennessee, the only game this season in which he didn’t record a rushing touchdown.

The surrounding cast isn’t good enough to pick up that slack: Milroe has been more productive on the ground vs. Power 4 opponents than the top 2 running backs, Jamarion Miller and Justice Haynes, combined. (Without even looking at the numbers, it’s enough for me that 9 games into the season, I still have a hard time telling Miller and Haynes apart.) Derrick Henry and Najee Harris are not walking through that door. If the Tide have a championship run in them — a big if, but not an impossible one — it’s only with Milroe hitting the high notes week-in, week-out.
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Last week: 2⬌

3. Quinn Ewers | Texas

Ewers was overdue for a big game coming off a meh October, and came through right on schedule against Florida, bombing the Gators for 333 yards and 5 touchdowns in a 49-17 blowout. Sure, take that line with a grain of salt: It came against an injury-plagued, checked-out Florida secondary that repeatedly left receivers running wide open and had little interest in open-field tackling; 4 of Ewers’ 5 TD passes were the result of glaring coverage busts and basic screen passes that broke contain. He faced essentially zero pressure after taking a sack on the game’s opening series. Still, when you’re trying to convince the rest of the world on a weekly basis that Arch Manning belongs on clipboard duty, every little bit helps.
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Last week: 4⬆

4. Carson Beck | Georgia

In certain respects, Georgia’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss was a culmination of red flags that had been piling up for weeks. Still, watching the Dawgs’ once-vaunted offensive line get thoroughly abused by a former underling in the conference food chain was a shock. The Rebels barely laid a hand on Beck last year in a 52-17 beatdown in Athens, arguably his best game as a starter. This time around, they made him look like a sitting duck.

On paper, Beck’s 39 drop-backs in Oxford resulted in 14 pressures (per Pro Football Focus), 5 sacks and 2 fumbles. In real time, it seemed like the pass rush was in his earhole on nearly every snap that wasn’t an immediate release. Worse, they didn’t have to sacrifice extra defenders to make it happen: 12 of those 14 pressures and all 5 sacks came on standard 3- or 4-man rushes, leaving Beck with few options against full-strength coverages.

He got off just 1 attempt of 20+ air yards, a 29-yard completion in the second half that took advantage of Ole Miss edge rusher Princely Umanmielen trying and failing to run with RB Cash Jones in coverage. (That play set up a field goal, Georgia’s only points after scoring on its first possession.) Otherwise, the Dawgs’ array of would-be playmakers was nonexistent in one of the worst offensive outings of Kirby Smart’s tenure.

The absence of an established go-to guy among the skill players was a predictable issue before the season, and still is. None of the wideouts has distinguished himself from the pack, and PFF has Beck down for more dropped passes (19) than any other SEC quarterback. But the o-line was supposed to be as solid as they come — Beck went into the Ole Miss game boasting the lowest pressure rate in the conference for the second year in a row, and with All-American guard Tate Ratledge back in the starting lineup for the first time since Week 3. Instead, Ratledge lasted just 17 snaps against the Rebels (giving up a sack in the process) and the line spent the rest of the afternoon in flux. Three of the 5 OL stations were manned by multiple players over the course of the game as the pressure kept coming.

Beck has had his own issues, of course, most notably a ghastly interception rate in conference play. He was only picked once in Oxford, on a 4th-and-10 attempt with Georgia in comeback mode in the 4th quarter — 1 of 4 straight second-half drives for UGA that ended with a turnover or turnover on downs to close the game. There is still time to salvage both the Dawgs’ fading CFP outlook and Beck’s tanking draft stock, beginning this weekend against Tennessee. But the margin for error has run out.
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Last week: 3⬇

5. Nico Iamaleava | Tennessee

All signs out of Knoxville point toward Iamaleava starting this weekend’s season-defining trip to Georgia, but there is enough uncertainty to fuel a couple of news cycles between now and kickoff. On Saturday, Iamaleava left the Vols’ 33-14 win over Mississippi State at halftime with what was initially described as an “upper body injury”; after the game, Josh Heupel said that holding him out in the second half was merely a “precautionary measure” in a game Tennessee had well in hand. On Monday, Heupel remained optimistic despite news that Iamaleava is in concussion protocol, telling reporters that he was participating in practice and was in “great shape” to play on Saturday. We’ll see. For now, I’ll just say that FanDuel Sportsbook‘s 10.5-point spread in Georgia’s favor makes a lot more sense if the oddsmakers know more than Heupel is willing to let on in the vicinity of a microphone.
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Last week: 7⬌

6. Garrett Nussmeier | LSU

Nussmeier is a cromulent starter, but whatever hope there was for him to make the leap into the kind of difference-maker who could lead the Tigers to a Playoff berth opposite a sketchy defense went down the drain Saturday night against Alabama. With the season on the line, Nussmeier averaged a meager 5.7 yards per attempt, threw 2 picks and posted season-lows for efficiency (110.4) and QBR (56.5); LSU didn’t crack the end zone until the closing seconds in a nearly empty Tiger Stadium.

With that, the central drama over the coming month is the fate of massively hyped 2025 QB commit Bryce Underwood, a longstanding LSU commit who has been on the receiving end of a full-court press from his home-state school, Michigan, as the recruiting cycle hits the closing stretch. Underwood was on hand Saturday night for a grim scene, taking in a miserable offensive performance, a mass exodus of LSU fans in the second half, and generally the worst vibes of Brian Kelly’s tenure to date. Then again, if there was any question about how quickly he would be able to get on the field next year, Nussmeier’s performance left him looking less entrenched than he’s been all season. As it stands, it would be a wide-open competition in the spring.

But that’s only if Underwood is still in the fold in the spring, which frankly Kelly is counting on to keep selling the dream of bigger and better things to come. Losing big to A&M and Bama in consecutive games is bad enough, but hey, at least there’s something to look forward to. If the No. 1 recruit in the country slips through his fingers, that might be the one thing that could actually get Kelly sent to the gallows sooner rather than later.
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Last week: 6⬌

7. Diego Pavia | Vanderbilt

The same week Pavia sued the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility, he endured his worst game in a Vandy uniform, a 28-7 loss to South Carolina. Although he was only sacked twice, Pavia was pummeled by the Gamecocks’ pass rush, facing pressure on 20 of his 37 drop-backs with 7 hits, per PFF. Is he really sure he wants another year of this?
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Last week: 5⬇

8. Marcel Reed or Conner Weigman | Texas A&M

It’s still Reed or Weigman here, in keeping with Mike Elko’s promise earlier in the season that the call was going to be “a game-time decision the rest of the season.” The ball still seems to be in Reed’s court after he came off the bench to lead a come-from-behind win over LSU in Week 9 and went the distance in the Aggies’ Week 10 loss at South Carolina. On the other hand, the official depth chart for this weekend’s game against New Mexico State still lists Weigman on the top line with no “or” in sight, for what it’s worth. (Probably not much.) Against New Mexico State, whatever. For the closing stretch against Auburn and Texas, with a trip to the SEC Championship Game and the Playoff on the line, settling on the right guy could be the difference between a title shot and the Liberty Bowl.
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Last week: 8⬌

9. Taylen Green | Arkansas

Green remains the league’s biggest wild card, a title that lately includes his health: He has left multiple games with knee injuries, including Arkansas’ Week 10 loss to Ole Miss, where he was sacked 5 times in the first half. He practiced every day during the Razorbacks’ bye week and appears to be on track to play this weekend against Texas, a game that has “chaos” written all over it. The Hogs have yet to win or lose 2 consecutive games against Power 4 opponents, which if the pattern holds puts the Longhorns directly in the path of an upset.
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Last week: 9⬌

10. Brady Cook | Missouri

Eli Drinkwitz had a good time after Mizzou’s wild, come-from-behind win over Oklahoma reminding the SEC Network audience that the win “keeps us in the Playoff hunt.” That’s right, he said it. And technically, OK, fine: The Tigers have an 8% chance of making the CFP cut according to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor, a 7% chance according to the Football Power Index, and a less than 1% chance according to The Athletic. I’m not even going to try to untangle a path to to the SEC Championship Game if they’re among a pack of teams caught up in tiebreaker scenarios with 2 conference losses. Before they start doing the math, though, priority one is getting Cook back in the lineup for this weekend’s must-win trip to South Carolina after sitting out against the Sooners with ankle and hand injuries. His status is still up in the air, and despite the result against OU backup Drew Pyne has hardly inspired sustained “keeping our Playoff hopes alive” confidence in relief.
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Last week: 10⬌

11. LaNorris Sellers | South Carolina

The Gamecocks are surging, boasting 3 consecutive wins by 20+ points apiece, and Sellers’ stock is rising along with his team’s. The past 2 games against Texas A&M and Vanderbilt are his best to date, due in part to a couple of conspicuous zeroes: Zero interceptions, zero sacks. Over his first 6 starts, he threw as many picks (4) as touchdowns and was sacked 25 times.
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Last week: 11⬌

12. DJ Lagway | Florida

Lagway was “not quite ready” to return to the lineup last week despite going through warmups on his injured hamstring ahead of a blowout loss at Texas; in his absence, backup Aidan Warner looked like you’d expect a 3rd-string walk-on making his first career start on the road against the nation’s best defense to look. Early reports this week are optimistic that Lagway is on track to start against LSU after he returned to practice on Monday. But when “fingers crossed for the true freshman to start against LSU” is the optimistic scenario, yeah, it’s that kinda year.
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Last week: 12⬌

13. Payton Thorne | Auburn

Even on their Saturday off, the Tigers had to deal with QB drama: The 5-star gem of their 2025 recruiting class, Deuce Knight, was spotted on the sideline at Ole Miss and took part in storming the field after the Rebels’ win over Georgia. Knight, a Mississippi native, has already flipped his commitment once since the start of the season, from Notre Dame to Auburn. If he makes it to campus, he immediately becomes the Tigers’ presumptive starter next year as a true freshman. (Thorne is out of eligibility, for the record.) But the day when they can change that if to when can’t arrive soon enough.
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Last week: 14⬆

14. Michael Van Buren Jr. | Mississippi State

Van Buren had a long night at Tennessee, setting season-lows for completion percentage (38.5), yards per attempt (3.1), passer rating (60.5), QBR (27.6) and overall PFF grade (41.3) — the first really bad game of his young career. Still, his presence along with a pair of young wideouts, Kevin Coleman Jr. and Mario Craver, remains the best thing the Bulldogs have going for them as they begin looking ahead to 2025 … assuming they can keep them all in the fold.
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Last week: 13⬇

15. Jackson Arnold | Oklahoma

Arnold went the distance in Oklahoma’s loss at Missouri, but the Sooners’ 2 longest completions of the night were both by non-quarterbacks on trick plays. The first came courtesy of punter Luke Elzinga, who converted a fake punt by completing a short jump pass that went for a 43-yard gain in the first half; the second came via freshman RB Taylor Tatum, who took a handoff, pulled up, and threw back to Arnold for an 18-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter. For his part, Arnold averaged just 3.1 yards per attempt with a long gain of 14, and ended the night by coughing up the ball on a decisive scoop-and-score in the final minute.
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Last week: 15⬌

16. Brock Vandagriff | Kentucky

Vandagriff’s status is uncertain as he recovers from a concussion, and there’s no urgency to rush him back for this weekend’s game against Murray State. The question if Vandagriff remains on the shelf is who’s next in line: Gavin Wimsatt, who has struggled off the bench (to put it mildly) in the Wildcats’ past 2 games, or true freshman Cutter Boley, who is no longer in danger of burning his redshirt? Boley looked overmatched in his only appearance to date, going 0-for-6 with an interception in garbage time of a blowout loss at Florida; he’s also considered the heir apparent after Vandagriff (a redshirt junior with 1 more year of eligibility) moves on. If it were up for a vote, Kentucky fans would send in the freshman — if only to begin to gauge whether he looks the part of a future starter, or they’re going to be on the hook for pursuing yet another transfer.
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Last week: 16⬌


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