{"id":290318,"date":"2026-07-03T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=290318"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T07:24:27","slug":"nfc-west-quarterbacks-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/07\/03\/nfc-west-quarterbacks-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Starting NFC West Quarterbacks for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFC West quarterbacks<\/a> are one of the most talented groups of quarterbacks of any division in the NFL heading into next season, so\u00a0let’s rank the highly talented NFC West quarterbacks for the 2026 NFL season.<\/p>\n

The Best NFC West Quarterbacks for 2026<\/h2>\n

4. Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals<\/h3>\n

Brissett is a solid quarterback who had good production last season despite only winning one game as a starter for the Cardinals. He threw the ball a lot during the 2025 season, averaging 40.3 pass attempts per game as a starter, but also averaging 280 passing yards per game as a starter. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brissett has good arm strength and is a smart decision maker who does a good job at limiting turnovers. He finished last season with a 1.6% interception percentage, and has a remarkable 1.4% career interception percentage. While Brissett is not the most impactful quarterback in the league, he is a solid game manager who can run the offense well.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers<\/h3>\n

Purdy manages the Kyle Shanahan offense well, playing with excellent timing and anticipation. He dealt with an injury last season, but played very well after returning from injury in the second half of the season. Purdy does not have elite arm strength, and he can put the ball in danger too often at times, but he is also a very accurate passer and finished third in the NFL with a 69.4% completion percentage last season. <\/span><\/p>\n

While Purdy does a good job of running the 49ers offense from the pocket, he is also a tremendous out-of-structure playmaker who does a good job of extending plays and throwing the ball on the run. With Purdy at the helm, San Francisco has had great success with a 30-15 record in the regular season and five playoff wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"49ers
Nov 24, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) reacts against the Carolina Panthers during the first half at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks<\/h3>\n

Not many quarterbacks have played better than Darnold over the last two seasons. Darnold was one of the most productive passers in the regular season for the Vikings<\/a> in 2024, finishing in tenth place in MVP voting and third place in Comeback Player of the Year voting. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Seattle last season, he replicated his regular-season success from 2024 and extended it into the playoffs, leading the Seahawks to the Super Bowl and becoming the first quarterback from the talented 2018 draft class to win the Super Bowl as a starter. Darnold makes some poor decisions with the football at times, but he is a very accurate passer and tremendous deep ball thrower who also has a good ability to make plays outside of the pocket. <\/span><\/p>\n

1. Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams<\/h3>\n

Stafford is one of the most prolific passers in NFL history and is now playing maybe the best football of his career. He was not only the best of the NFC West quarterbacks last season, but Stafford was arguably the best quarterback in the NFL last season, and had elite production, leading the league with 4,707 passing yards and 46 passing touchdowns to win the MVP award. <\/span><\/p>\n

Stafford also ranked in the top five in both passer rating and QBR<\/a>, helping lead the Rams to a 12-5 regular-season record and an NFC Championship Game appearance. He also played very well in the postseason, leading the playoffs with six passing touchdowns and just one interception. Stafford is a smart quarterback with great arm talent and accuracy as a passer on all levels of the field. He has had great success since joining the Rams in 2021, and with the additions of Myles Garrett<\/a>, Trent McDuffie, and Jaylen Watson to the team this offseason, Stafford has a good chance to potentially win his second Super Bowl during the 2026 season.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NFC West quarterbacks are one of the most talented groups of quarterbacks of any division in the NFL, so let’s rank the four starting quarterbacks in the NFC West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5467,"featured_media":261073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,34,6431,33916,31,32],"tags":[9212,1500,404,33781,31910,1535],"class_list":["post-290318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-cardinals","category-rams","category-nfl-teams","category-power-rankings","category-49ers","category-seahawks","tag-brock-purdy","tag-jacoby-brissett","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-nfl-power-rankings","tag-quarterback-rankings","tag-sam-darnold"],"modified_by":"Grant Potter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290318"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290405,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290318\/revisions\/290405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}