Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd is one of the more colorful personalities in sports media. While his shows and clips are widely viewed, it can be argued that many of his takes are meant to bait fans into engaging with his content.
One need not look much further than his commentary on Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love over the last few years. Before Love was drafted, Cowherd said he was going to be one of the best quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft. After Green Bay took him, he blasted the pick because Aaron Rodgers was still entrenched under center there.
When Love took over for Rodgers, Cowherd said it was a terrible decision and went so far as to say Love was so bad in preseason games, he should consider just quitting football. Now, as he released his top-10 NFL quarterbacks list for 2026, Cowherd is saying that Love is the “most underrated player in the league.”
And speaking of that list, his placement of Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is going to raise some eyebrows.
Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd says Bears star Caleb Williams is the third-best quarterback in the NFL
According to Cowherd, Williams is, without question, the third-best quarterback in the NFL. What is more, he is not sure why anyone would disagree with him, as he wrote:
“I don’t know why people will push back on this. … Folks, he made two plays in the playoffs last year — one against the Green Bay and one against the Rams — that broke football physics. It was early Mahomes. They just didn’t make any sense.
“The throw up the left sideline against Green Bay just made no damn sense. The throw in the back of the end zone against the Rams — what in God’s name is happening? That’s early Mahomes. By the way, lowest interception percentage of any quarterback in league history with 1,110 attempts.”
As one can see, Cowherd predicts that people will disagree with his take by saying “why people will push back.” He knows it’s a hot take.
For the record, those ahead of Williams on the list are Patrick Mahomes at number two, and Josh Allen at number one. The other quarterbacks that make up the top-ten list behind Williams, in order, are Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold, Jard Goff, Love, and Drake Maye.
It is worth mentioning that Williams had a worse completion percentage (58.1%) than every other quarterback on this list. He also had, by far, the lowest quarterback rating (90.1).
Perhaps that is why there will be push back on his ranking. Williams had a good enough season last year, but it is very questionable to say that, right now, he is better than the reigning NFL MVP, Super Bowl winning quarterback, and another who led his team to the Super Bowl.
