Mac Jones, Justin Fields and the grossest QBs of Week 6

Week 6 saw some wonderfully efficient quarterback performances. Drake Maye threw three deep ball touchdowns and would have had a fourth if not for some iffy pass interference flags. Jordan Love shook off some early rust and kept the Cincinnati Bengals at bay. Joe Flacco showed off his gratitude for being freed from Cleveland and proved he's no dummy by throwing 20 passes to Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase.

This column is not to celebrate the good, however. We're here to better understand the bad. And though there weren't a ton of regrettable performances, there were still four quarterbacks who sank to the bottom of this week's ranks.

To get a better idea of who performed best relative to expectations in Week 6, I've compared every starting quarterback's expected points added (EPA, found here in real time thanks to some exceptional work from The Athletic's Ben Baldwin) to their 2025 average through four games. The players who sunk below their own standard the hardest? They're the ones who get written about. Bo Nix, who kinda stunk in London but has kinda stunk for a good chunk of his season season as a pro? He's off the hook. Same with Cam Ward, who burrowed back in his hole with the rest of the Tennessee Titans after last week's unlikely comeback win.

But before we dig into the passing schadenfreude, let's talk about the quarterbacks who exceeded their standard in Week 6. This Sunday, we're led by Flacco, King of Low Expectations.

Drake Maye, New England Patriots

• 2025 EPA/game: 8.7
• Week 6 EPA: 20.9
• Difference: 12.2 points better

Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers

• 2025 EPA/game: -8.2
• Week 6 EPA: 5.3
• Difference: 13.5 points better

Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers

• 2025 EPA/game: 0.7
• Week 6 EPA: 14.9
• Difference: 14.2 points better

Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys

• 2025 EPA/game: 6.2
• Week 6 EPA: 21.4
• Difference: 15.2 points better

Joe Flacco, Cincinnati Bengals

• 2025 EPA/game: -17.6
• Week 6 EPA: 7.6
• Difference: 25.2 points better

Now let's look at the guys who couldn't live up to even the slightest expectations.

4. Cooper Rush, Baltimore Ravens

• 2025 EPA/game: -8.4
• Week 6 EPA: -12.6
• Difference: 4.2 points worse

"That was a worse Cooper Rush game than we expected" is an absolutely haunting sentiment, yet here we are. Rush was bad enough to get replaced by Tyler Huntley in a 17-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. In years past that may have made sense; Huntley was being groomed as a potential longterm Lamar Jackson backup early in his pro career. But he'd been released by the Cleveland Browns this preseason and has spent the majority of his time this year on the team's practice squad.

Anyone could have plucked Huntley from Baltimore if they thought he deserved a main roster spot. No one did.

Huntley played one fewer snap than Rush. He only played two drives to Rush's seven. He finished with -1.4 EPA to Rush's -12.6.

Q with the interception! 😤

📺 @NFLonFox | #RamsHousepic.twitter.com/cgy8uXnU9h

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 12, 2025

Late in the second quarter Rush drove into the Rams' red zone on an eight-play drive. Head coach John Harbaugh's playcalling consisted of six Derrick Henry handoffs and two direct snaps to Mark Andrews. It ended, like two other Ravens drives, with a turnover on downs.

Rush has never been especially good, but he's been not-bad enough to keep the Dallas Cowboys from completely immolating in certain years. This fall, however, he's averaging -9.8 EPA per game, making him more than twice as disastrous on a weekly basis than he'd been in his previous nadir in 2024. And, thus, Baltimore sits at 1-5 waiting for Lamar Jackson's return.

3. Dillon Gabriel, Cleveland Browns

• 2025 EPA/game: -1.6
• Week 6 EPA: -9.7
• Difference: 8.1 points worse

Picking on Gabriel feels like cheating. Week 6 was only his second start. Though he was coming off a two-touchdown, zero interception Week 5, it still came with -6.9 EPA. But we're low on truly disappointing performances this Sunday. And Gabriel did stuff like this.

There's a lot of "rookie NFL quarterback" in Gabriel's game. Occasionally he blanks coverage. Sometimes he progresses through his reads too quickly and doesn't give a guy like Jerry Jeudy time to create space that could create big gains. He defaults too often to his tight ends, especially on a day when he had to face T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig and, uh, Jalen Ramsey (two sacks!) without either of this starting tackles.

Gabriel dropped back 58 times in a game Cleveland trailed for nearly 56 minutes. He gained 183 net yards — roughly 3.2 yards per play. That would be a brutal number for a tailback, let alone the man tasked with sparking an offense looking for any reason for optimism this fall.

But Gabriel was also dealt a bad hand. Those aforementioned offensive line injuries gave him one of Week 6's shortest average times between snap and throw. Jeudy and Harold Fannin Jr. both had key drops that could have sustained drives. The Cleveland run game tallied only 65 yards.

Still, Gabriel attempted 16 passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield. He completed four. There's still time to stake his claim as a building block in northeast Ohio. Week 6's game tape, however, will not be evidence at that trial.

2. Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers

• 2025 EPA/game: 4.7
• Week 6 EPA: -5.6
• Difference: 10.3 points worse

On one hand, you have to appreciate the confidence. Jones, facing fourth-and-five, tried to thread the needle to the top returning member of a depleted receiving corps. He believed in himself hard enough to take his shot late in an eight-point game.

On the other, ooooooof.

DON'T MAKE A SCENE. IT'S JUST DEAN.

📺: #SFvsTB on CBS pic.twitter.com/kjc796w9vr

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 12, 2025

A look at Jones' passing chart showcases his inability to create plays toward his non-throwing hand. That includes the interception above, but just look at these splits!

• to the left: six completions in 15 attempts, 83 yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, 30.7 passer rating
• to the right/middle: 21 completions in 24 attempts, 264 yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, 95.1 passer rating

Jones did his damnedest to throw the Niners back into this game. But his attack was predictable and, with the cards on the table, Todd Bowles' Buccaneers defense knew where to be to ensure his 343 passing yards were empty calories. The arm strength and touch downfield were inconsistent and frustrating. With the game on the line, here's how he performed in the fourth quarter of what was then a one-possession game.

Nine completions, 13 attempts, 88 yards. One interception, three sacks taken, one intentional grounding penalty and one throw that traveled more than 15 yards downfield (the interception). Oh, and on fourth-and-six, a throw to a covered Marquez Valdes-Scantling three yards short of the sticks.

The silver lining is Brock Purdy is now in less danger of getting Wally Pipp'ed by a Kyle Shanahan draft crush who predates him. The bad news is the 49ers dropped a winnable game and now fall into a three-way tie for first in the NFC West.

1. Justin Fields, New York Jets

• 2025 EPA/game: 2.7
• Week 6 EPA: -20.1
• Difference: 22.8 points worse

Why did we do this to the people of Great Britain, historically one of the U.S.'s greatest allies?

Fields threw a single pass that traveled more than nine yards downfield (it was incomplete). Breece Hall, who led all Jets regulars with a 58.3 percent success rate when targeted this fall, had zero targets. That may not have mattered. Garrett Wilson had eight targets and finished with 13 yards because only one of the passes thrown his way came more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Why? Because the Denver Broncos absolutely battered Fields. Nine sacks gave way to 55 lost yards, leaving New York with the lowest net passing yardage in the NFL since 1998 (per the always outstanding Rodger Sherman). Fields dropped back to pass 26 times and was sacked or hit 24 times. That includes a game-losing fourth down sack at the Broncos' 44-yard-line with a minute to play. You guys want to see the definition of insanity, NFL's version?

This defense. 😤

All 9️⃣ sacks from #DENvsNYJ: pic.twitter.com/dlCQQPXxHW

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 12, 2025

The Jets are 0-6. Fields has exhausted his string as a potential franchise quarterback after failing reinvention tests in both 2024 and 2025.

The negative plays are too much. The downfield throws aren't there. He is, once again, a ball of potential and warm, familiar vibes that go nowhere on the field. Now, the best thing he can do is sink New York all the way to the top of the 2026 NFL Draft order.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Mac Jones, Justin Fields and the grossest QBs of Week 6