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.

1. Bryce Young, Alabama

Young had his best game of the early season against Vanderbilt, bombing the ‘Dores for 385 yards and 4 touchdowns (all in the first half) in a 55-3 massacre. More encouragingly, he inflicted a fair share of that damage throwing downfield: He connected on 4-of-8 attempts of 20+ yards, including 2 TDs to sophomore WR Ja’Corey Brooks, after going just 1-for-7 in the first 3 games.

There’s still no certifiable home-run threat on the order of Jameson Williams last year — or De’Vonta Smith, or Jaylen Waddle, or Jerry Jeudy, or … well, let’s go ahead and end the list there. Even for Bama that’s a difficult lineage to sustain. But between Brooks, who set career highs for catches (6) and yards (117) vs. Vandy, and Georgia transfer Jermaine Burton (4 catches for 94 yards), Young is slowly but surely building a rapport with the new group. This weekend’s trip to Arkansas will be a much bigger test, especially given the offense’s well-documented inconsistency on the road.
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(Last week: 1⬌)

2. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee

Hooker is the man of the hour after his 461-yard, 3-touchdown breakthrough against Florida, the kind of performance that can serve as a launching pad for a special season. The Vols’ win was the most-watched game of Week 4, and the national response reflected it: By Sunday, Hooker was squarely in the Heisman mix and Tennessee was enjoying its highest ranking in the AP poll (8th) since 2006.

As it stands, he’ll end September with the nation’s highest-graded QB according to Pro Football Focus, and ranked in the top 5 in total offense and Total QBR. He’s 7th nationally in pass efficiency after finishing 3rd in 2021. His draft stock is trending up. As a passer, Hooker is low-risk (211 consecutive passes without a pick dating to last year) and high-reward (8 completions of 40+ yards this year, most in the nation). As a runner, he just turned in his most productive game as a Vol, confirming the presence of a big-play gear in the process.

The more we see, the more the former Virginia Tech transfer looks like a complete package. And the more pressing the question: What the heck happened at Virginia Tech? Virginia Tech fans would certainly like to know.

Hooker had his moments as a Hokie, accounting for 37 career touchdowns and posting a 6-2 record as a starter in 2019, but never seemed to fully earn his coaches’ trust. He lost the job to open the 2020 season, and struggled after regaining it, losing 4-of-5 starts before being benched again at the end of the year. In his last appearance, a blowout loss vs. Clemson on a freezing night in December, he came off the bench for just a few snaps before being sent to the locker room following a big hit; in between, cameras caught him shaking uncontrollably on the sideline, which then-head coach Justin Fuente told reporters was Hooker “obviously having some issues with the temperature.” He didn’t play in Tech’s last game and hit the portal a week later.

Remember, it wasn’t obvious that Hooker would ever have a chance to start in Knoxville, either. He enrolled at Tennessee during the prolonged limbo phase when Jeremy Pruitt’s status as head coach remained up in the air, and after Josh Heupel’s arrival, he made it a priority to add another transfer, Joe Milton, following spring practice. The initial vision for the rebuild revolved around Milton’s rainmaker of a right arm. But to Heupel’s credit, once Hooker managed to get on the field last September there was never a question of him coming off. A year later, the vision is on the verge of coming to fruition more quickly than almost anyone imagined.
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(Last week: 4⬆)

3. Stetson Bennett IV, Georgia

Bennett contributed to all-around sluggishness of UGA’s 39-22 win over Kent State with his first interception of the season, a hanging throw from a clean pocket in the first quarter that will go on the reel detailing why he’s not going to be a high draft pick. Otherwise: Par for the course, including his 4th rushing touchdown in as many games.
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(Last week: 2⬇)

4. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

It’s a well-established fact that tackling the 6-3, 242-pound Jefferson is like trying to tackle a refrigerator on wheels, which only makes his decision to leave his feet rather than lower his immense shoulders on his game-changing, potentially season-altering goal-line fumble against Texas A&M that much more inexplicable.

As noted here before, ball security has been a recurring issue for Jefferson, who functions as a de facto running back much of the time but has struggled with putting the ball on the ground. Per PFF, the fumble against A&M was his 5th of the season and 15th of his career.

For the record, Jefferson’s counterpart, A&M’s Max Johnson, also fumbled at a crucial moment in the third quarter. Yet he still managed to get out of the building with his reputation as a safe, steady game manager intact due to the fact the Aggies recovered that one, too, and ultimately kicked a field goal on the drive. When the margin for error is as narrow as it was Saturday night, better to be lucky than good.
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(Last week: 3⬇)

5. Will Levis, Kentucky

Northern Illinois turned up the heat on Levis, generating pressure on 19 of his 32 dropbacks and recording 5 sacks. But the Huskies paid dearly for them: Per PFF, 3 of his four touchdown passes came against blitzes, covering 69, 70, and 40 yards, respectively, in a 31-23 Kentucky win. For the season, Levis is averaging 10.4 yards per attempt on pressured throws, 2nd-best nationally among Power 5 quarterbacks.
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(Last week: 5⬌)

6. Jayden Daniels, LSU

Daniels absorbed way too much punishment Saturday for a routine, 38-0 rout of New Mexico. Besides taking 4 sacks, he also got hit hard on a late hit out of bounds and slammed down at the end of a 4th-down scramble in the third quarter, ending his night early with a sore back. Brian Kelly said Monday he expects Daniels to practice this week and to be available for this weekend’s trip to Auburn, but assuming he does play it’s doubtful it will be at 100 percent.
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(Last week: 6⬌)

7. Will Rogers, Mississippi State

It’s a testament to the conference’s depth at the position right now that Rogers remains stuck in the middle of the pack, especially coming off a monster day in a 45-14 win over Bowling Green. The Falcons opted for a slow-roast death, blitzing on just nine of Rogers’ 52 dropbacks; he obliged, finishing with 409 yards, 6 touchdowns, and the best passer rating of his career (186.3) vs. an FBS opponent.

Of course, as FBS opponents go, Bowling Green is easily among the worst against the pass, and in most other respects. That won’t be the case the rest of the way, as the Bulldogs embark on a gauntlet featuring five ranked opponents in the next 6 games.
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(Last week: 7⬌)

8. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss

Dart hasn’t been asked to throw that often during the Rebels’ 4-0 start, averaging just 20.5 attempts per game. When he has put it in the air, though, he’s made it count: 24.4% of his attempts have traveled 20+ yards, the 3rd-highest rate nationally, with an average depth of target of 13.7 yards, which ranks 2nd. (The only name ahead of him: Liberty’s Kaidon Salter, under the direction of former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze.) Now, if Dart can just start hitting the YOLO throws with a little more consistency in conference play, the Rebels will really have something.
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(Last week: 8⬌)

9. Anthony Richardson, Florida

After a couple of alarming outings against Utah and USF, Richardson looked mostly great at Tennessee, accounting for 515 total yards and 4 TDs (2 passing, 2 rushing) in a losing effort. His first touchdown pass, in particular, was a perfect example of why the Gators are willing to be patient with him through the growing pains:

The list of guys in the college game who can elude traffic that adeptly and still have the wherewithal, balance and arm strength to wing it on target 25 yards downfield is very, very short. Again, Richardson was responsible for 2 turnovers in the fourth quarter, the first of which, a fumble that killed a long drive inside the Tennessee 15-yard line, was especially costly. (The second, a fluttering Hail Mary attempt under pressure that was picked off on the last play of the game, can be chalked up to the desperate circumstances.) Still, on the list of reasons the Gators left with an L, on a day the defense gave up 576 yards and the offense only punted once, Richardson’s performance didn’t rate. He was the only reason they managed to stay in it. That doesn’t mean the growing pains are finished, but it was nice to get a reminder of what potentially lies on the other side.
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(Last week: 9⬌)

10. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

We’re not ready to declare Rattler a bust just yet, but we’re not throwing the word out there for nothing, either. It was a grim September: He ends the month ranked 60th out of 61 Power 5 quarterbacks in QBR and overall PFF grade, reflecting serious issues on paper and on film in equal measure. PFF has marked 6.7% of his passes as “turnover-worthy plays,” the highest number in the country. No one has ever doubted his 5-star arm, which on the few occasions it all comes together has been as good as advertised. So far, though, they’ve been much too few. Whatever solace there is in the reminder that it’s a long year, at the moment it’s shaping up as a long year.
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(Last week: 10⬌)

11. Max Johnson, Texas A&M

Johnson isn’t known for his mobility, to say the least, but he made an impact with his legs in the Aggies’ 23-21 win over Arkansas, running 10 times for 60 yards (excluding sacks) and flashing some surprising elusiveness for a 6-5, 220-pounder. His best play of the night, rushing or passing, was a 33-yard scramble in the third quarter on which he spun out of a sack, outran a pursuing tackler to the second level, and made another Razorback miss in the open field on an epic journey to the sideline. (The gain went in the books as 18 yards due to a clipping penalty on the back end.) Besides offering a glimpse into a previously untapped dimension of Johnson’s game, that run also moved the chains on 3rd-and-7, extending a drive that resulted in a field goal to push A&M’s lead to 23-14 — the eventual winning points.

The fact is, at the rate it’s going, Johnson needs to be able to draw on some escapability just to continue to survive. By PFF’s accounting, he’s faced pressure on 46.7% of his 60 dropbacks this season, the highest rate of any FBS passer.
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(Last week: 11⬌)

12. Robby Ashford or TJ Finley, Auburn

Finley is expected to practice this week after missing last week’s overtime win over Missouri with a shoulder injury, and although he’s officially listed as a backup against LSU, the stakes are too high for Bryan Harsin to commit to the one-dimensional Ashford. Harsin is coaching for his job on a weekly basis. If Finley is cleared to play, his arm should be on call against his former team early and often.
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(Last week: 12⬌)

13. AJ Swann, Vanderbilt

Swann, a true freshman, survived his SEC initiation in Tuscaloosa, where he was sacked 5 times and Vandy’s offense crossed midfield just twice. More important, he didn’t commit a turnover and he didn’t get hurt. Sounds like a keeper.
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(Last week: 13⬌)

14. Brady Cook, Missouri

Cook isn’t responsible for the late sequence of events that ultimately cost Missouri a game it should have won at Auburn — in fact, he set up the would-be game-winning field goal at the end of regulation on his best throw of the day. Up to that point, the offense was woeful, going 3-and-out 7 times, and helped set up an early Auburn touchdown on a tip-drill interception. Auburn didn’t score again until overtime, but opposite Mizzou’s offense, it was enough.
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(Last week: 14⬌)