There isn’t a single position in professional sports that carries as much pressure with it than the quarterback position, and, unfortunately, because of the sky-high expectations associated with playing quarterback, most players will, naturally, fall short of those expectations.
Last season, there were five quarterbacks, in particular, who fell well short of any reasonable expectations of them under center. So from players still trying to prove themselves in the NFL to a future Hall of Famer, here are the five most disappointing NFL quarterbacks of the 2025 season.
Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
Jayden Daniels had the NFL in his fingertips as a rookie, leading a fairly mediocre Washington Commanders offense to victory after victory with perfect game management and near flawless execution in the clutch of games.
Uncannily cool under center for a first-year signal-caller, Daniels won 12 games en route to the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, with a third of those victories coming from fourth quarter comebacks.
But with Terry McLaurin struggling in 2025, injuries taking their toll, and an even worse supporting cast than before, Daniels was legitimately one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL regular season and easily one of the biggest disappointments of the season at any position.
Daniels went 2-5 under center as a sophomore with a QB rating of 88.1. He got worse as the season went on, too, holding the ball and almost seeming like he was seeing those proverbial ghosts as he struggled to move the Commanders offense forward.
Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins
Tua Tagovailoa is at his best when he is in a rhythm, quickly getting rid of the ball accurately and to the right playmakers in open space. When Tua is dealing, it is a beauty to watch, and the Dolphins are among the very best offenses in the NFL.
Unfortunately, those glimpses of positivity were few and far between in the 2025 season for Tua and the Dolphins offense, and the ugly habits of Tua forcing reads and completely missing defenders seemed to happen more frequently.
It got so bad for Miami that they were forced to bench Tua by the end of the season for Quinn Ewers, of all people, and that has left both Tua’s Dolphins career and even his NFL career as a whole at a crossroads.
The numbers were not pretty. Tagovailoa may have completed 67.7 percent of his passes, but he also threw a whopping 15 interceptions in comparison to just 20 touchdowns, barely beating out Daniels with an equally sub-standard 88.5 QB Rating.
Tagovailoa remained accurate in numbers, but after leading the league in completion percentage, a mark more than a full five percentage points lower still represents regression, particularly when many of those incomplete passes were really just completions to the other team – and at the absolute worst possible times.
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
Not only is Patrick Mahomes one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation, but the man who has reached the rarified air of three Super Bowl MVPs is also one of the best players of all time.
You wouldn’t think that, though, if you only watched the 2025 NFL regular season, because with Travis Kelce fully declining into a below-average starting tight end, Mahomes failed to elevate any of the new pieces in his supporting cast and was often one of the culprits of the Chiefs disappointing displays as a team.
After being embarrassed by the Philadelphia Eagles defense in last year’s Super Bowl, Mahomes offered pretty much more of the same to the Chiefs in 2025, and it was shocking to watch Kansas City fail to make the postseason, with Mahomes suffering more losses than wins for the first time in his career.
At the age of 30, you would expect Mahomes to be playing the best football of his life, but as Tom Brady and others have pointed out, this new generation of quarterbacks seems to struggle with structure and diagnosing plays.
Mahomes has to prove he still has the magic in 2026, and blaming his supporting cast isn’t the copium Chiefs fans should be reaching for. He is too great of a quarterback to be posting a QB Rating of 89.6 that is below the league average.
CJ Stroud, Houston Texans
Like Patrick Mahomes, CJ Stroud is a gifted quarterback and leader who was regarded as one of the top players at the position coming into the 2025 season, but without the years of credibility that the Chiefs signal-caller has built up by being a repeated Super Bowl champion, Stroud enters 2026 with his reputation in serious trouble.
There are analysts legitimately wondering if Stroud is even an average NFL quarterback, and if he struggles in the 2026 season, the unthinkable may happen and people will start to truly question if Stroud belongs as Houston’s franchise quarterback.
Although the Texans made the playoffs yet again with the Ohio State grad under center, Stroud was significantly more prone to mistakes, suffering from a Tua-esque disease of turning the ball over at the worst possible times.
Stroud finished the 2025 season with just 19 touchdowns and a QB Rating hovering in the low 90s. Even though he actually threw fewer interceptions with a higher completion percentage, QB Rating, and passing yards per attempt in 2025 compared to 2024.
But in this case, the numbers are both underwhelming and yet also not fully indicative of the issues seen on the eye test. Like Mahomes and Daniels, Stroud was hurt by a bad supporting cast, but he needs to do a better job of taking care of the football and has to start making big-time throws more consistently.
Justin Fields, New York Jets
There is a strong case to be made that outside of the unqualified quarterbacks who lined up under center for the disgraceful Cleveland Browns franchise last season, Justin Fields was the worst quarterback in the league in 2025.
Sure, there were quarterbacks with more interceptions and worse numbers, but Fields committed the biggest cardinal sin that not even the alluded to Shedeur Sanders did.
Fields just could not move the ball for the Jets. Watching the Jets futility while in possession was beyond pathetic. Even Fields’s scrambling was underwhelming. Any difficult throw or any time when he was tasked to elevate the team or sustain a drive, Fields would simply wither and die.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears are both miles better without Fields as their quarterback, and as talented as the Ohio State product is on paper, we have yet to see anything resembling competent quarterback play from a young man who has had his hand held – and has held back some talented offensive players.
Fields won just two games last season, and the fact that he threw only one interception yet still had a QB Rating under 90.0 speaks volumes. Because his inability to make tough throws, his unwillingness to take risks, and his sheer cowardice under center are all indications that, after five years in the league, Fields just might not have what it takes to be a starting quarterback in this league.
While Fields had fewer expectations than Mahomes, Stroud, or the others on this list, there was an expectation that he’d at least be somewhere near mediocrity. In 2025, Fields was not even close to the Mendoza line of NFL quarterbacks and is in the conversation for being THE worst.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.