- Philip Rivers has made a remarkable return, but where does he rank among the top QBs of the 21st century?
- Our top 25 ranking features 12 passers who are still active, including Rivers.
- Tom Brady reigns atop the list, but there are several other Hall of Fame-caliber players not far behind.
Philip Rivers’ return to the NFL this season is undoubtedly one of the wildest, most unexpected turns the league’s, ahem, script has taken in years. Now, the entire country will get a chance to watch him play Monday night, his second start of the 2025 campaign after a hiatus of nearly five years, as his Indianapolis Colts host the San Francisco 49ers in a game with playoff implications for both squads.
Yet the stage is also a perfect time to take stock of the stellar career Rivers had already had – he was a semifinalist to join the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class − until his return forced a HOF clock rest until at least 2031.
But where does Philly Riv rank in the bigger picture? We thought the best context was to slot him among the NFL quarterbacks who have played in the 21st century. (So while former MVPs like Kurt Warner and Steve McNair were eligible, for example, they might not have made the list based on their excluded accomplishments from the 1990s.)
With that in mind, here are your top 25 passers from the past 25 years – and, dadgummit, we know you won’t disagree with a single aspect of this ranking!
25. Andrew Luck
There’s a tinge of football tragedy to his story – the can’t-miss guy from Stanford charged with the impossible task of replacing Peyton Manning in Indianapolis and without a sufficient level of support around him. Yet Luck seemed on his way to doing exactly that before he made the equally courageous and controversial decision to retire amid injuries and his own mental health demons in 2019 after just seven seasons. Named the Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 – shoulder issues cost Luck all of 2017 – he threw 39 TD passes in his last hurrah and notched a playoff victory. The Colts haven’t won one since.
24. Matt Hasselbeck
A three-time Pro Bowler with a solid game and some awesome one-liners, he probably didn’t get his just due while spending the bulk of his career in Seattle. But while quarterbacking the precursors to the Legion of Boom years, Hasselbeck led the Seahawks to the playoffs six times, including their first Super Sunday appearance – and those ‘Hawks might have been the franchise’s first champions had the officials not assisted the Steelers in Super Bowl 40.
23. Dak Prescott
He hasn’t managed to end the Dallas Cowboys’ three-decade championship drought … but he probably doesn’t deserve all that much blame, either. Prescott broke the all-time passing yardage record for “America’s Team” earlier this season and needs eight more TD passes to take the club record (248) currently held by Tony Romo. And say this for Prescott: He’s been a classy ambassador for an organization that always has a sideshow element.
22. Joe Burrow
He took the Cincinnati Bengals to a Super Bowl and pair of AFC title games … meaning Burrow’s probably ranked too low. But, in all seriousness, he’s been MVP-caliber pretty much since coming back from the knee injury that prematurely ended his rookie season in 2020.
21. Carson Palmer
He took the Bengals to the playoffs twice – not quite Burrow but not bad, either. (And it will always be a shame that Palmer’s first career postseason pass, a 66-yard completion, ended with him crumpled in the pocket, knee torn up. That 2005 Bengals team seemed like one that could have made a Lombardi run of its own.) Not only that, Palmer’s 38-21-1 regular-season mark with the Cardinals is easily the best in the century-old club’s history among QBs who started at least 15 games.
20. Kirk Cousins
Granted, maybe he’s a better businessman than quarterback – but that’s mostly a nod to his negotiating chops. While postseason and prime-time success eluded Cousins while he was in Washington and with the Minnesota Vikings, his 44,394 career passing yards and 296 TDs both rank within the top 20 in league history.
19. Jared Goff
The No. 1 pick of the 2016 draft has had two distinct career chapters with the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions. You almost forget the four-time Pro Bowler led LA to Super Bowl 53 – maybe because that loss to the New England Patriots was so forgettable and foretold Goff’s trade to Detroit. But while he seemed like a consolation prize – at best – in the Matthew Stafford swap, Goff has quarterbacked the best Lions teams of the Super Bowl era (since 1966), even if he hasn’t yet gotten them to their first Super Sunday. By the time this season wraps, he should have four straight with at least 29 TD passes and 4,400 yards in Motown.
18. Cam Newton
At 6-5, 245 pounds, he was a unicorn among dual-threat quarterbacks. He accounted for 45 touchdowns during his 2015 MVP season, which culminated in a Super Bowl 50 berth for Newton’s Carolina Panthers following a 15-1 regular season. He still holds most of the franchise’s career passing records.
17. Donovan McNabb
He had a love-hate relationship with the locals – some of the critiques self-inflicted – but he remains the Philadelphia Eagles’ all-time leader in passing yards (32,873) and TDs (216). And while McNabb wasn’t the guy who finally got Philly its first Lombardi Trophy, he did take the Eagles to five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl appearance.
16. Michael Vick
He never played in a Super Bowl nor earned a league MVP trophy – or even All-Pro honors. But there’s no denying Vick’s cultural impact or his electric play – perhaps the most incomparable dual-threat talent ever given his breakaway speed and cuts, plus a left arm that could rifle a ball to any part of the field. Let’s also give Vick a tip of the cap for being unfailingly accountable for the mistakes he made off the field following his two-season suspension for dogfighting – and his good-faith efforts on that front have continued even though he knows some will never forgive him.
15. Joe Flacco
You’ll never meet a more down-to-earth quarterback … to the degree you meet quarterbacks … and to the degree that matters. But this guy’s a real one. He’ll be 41 next month yet can still effortlessly launch a beautiful spiral 50 yards downrange. And while Flacco might seem like a vagabond at this point, let’s not forget he went 10-5 in the playoffs with the Baltimore Ravens – including that sublime four-game run in 2012 that concluded with Super Bowl 47 MVP honors. If Flacco can find one more temporary QB1 gig before he quits, he should get to 50,000 career passing yards … maybe even 300 TDs.
14. Brett Favre
His trifecta of MVP awards and good guy image are residuals from the 1990s. But Favre remained a captivating player in his final 11 seasons, retiring after the 2010 campaign with most of the league’s major passing marks and in possession of his signature Ironman streak (321 consecutive starts, truly Gehrig-esque). And Favre was splendid – on the field anyway – right to the end, reaching the NFC championship game twice in his final four seasons, once with the Green Bay Packers and also with the Vikings.
13. Russell Wilson
Hard to say if any player has ever had more shifting narratives around him. Did Wilson drive the Seahawks to all that success they had during the 2010s, or was he mostly a passenger? And there’s no doubt his post-Seattle years have been even less kind to his legacy, wherever it lands. But there’s no denying his numbers (121 career wins, nearly 47,000 passing yards, and almost 400 combined passing/rushing TDs). And no one can take away Wilson’s Super Bowl 48 ring, still the only one in Seahawks history … even if he probably should have a Super Bowl 49 ring, too.
12. Philip Rivers
So what if he was the third-best quarterback of the 2004 draft after Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger? So what if Rivers never played in a Super Bowl? So what if he’s spent nearly his entire career playing in ideal passing conditions with teams built to score … and Hall of Famers like LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates helping him? You don’t throw for more than 63,000 yards and 422 TDs because you’re a spoke and not a hub – also a durable one (241 career starts). And the Rivers era was one of the few times the Chargers remained consistently relevant. Physically, he was never impressive. His ability to spew an endless stream of clean trash talk? So impressive.
11. Josh Allen
10. Lamar Jackson
He’s a two-time NFL MVP … and arguably should have three. Jackson broke Vick’s record for career rushing yards by a quarterback and now has 6,513 – and he’s the only one to accrue 1,000 in a season twice. Yet Jackson is probably underrated as a passer – he’s a far better one than Vick ever was – and he seemed to improve annually prior to his frustrating 2025. He’ll likely continue to climb this list – let’s just hope he’s able to fully certify his career at some point with the Lombardi Trophy that’s proven so elusive in the Patrick Mahomes era.
9. Matt Ryan
You probably forgot that he was the league MVP in 2016 … mostly because you remember his Atlanta Falcons fell apart in Super Bowl 51, really through no fault of Ryan’s. Given the contrasts in their games and personalities, following Vick in Atlanta wasn’t an enviable role for Ryan, either. But in many ways, his career mimics Rivers’ – nice guys with very similar career numbers but a close-but-no-cigar asterisk attached to their championship quests. (But Matty Ice’s in-game verbiage was definitely more colorful than Rivers’.)
8. Eli Manning
His 117-117 record in the regular season probably prevented him from being a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But two Super Bowl MVPs, 57,000 passing yards and the ability to successfully navigate the New York market for 16 seasons should land him in Canton eventually.
7. Matthew Stafford
Underrated and undervalued during his 12 years in Detroit – and Stafford was most definitely elite with the Lions, despite a shortfall of help on the roster and in management – his belated renaissance with the Rams is making up for those dark days. At this point, it would be a shock if Stafford doesn’t cap this season with his first MVP trophy. It wouldn’t be surprising either if he wins his second Super Bowl with the Rams. And if his 37-year-old body holds up for just another two or three good seasons, he should be the rare player with 70,000 career passing yards and 500 TDs by the time he’s done.
6. Ben Roethlisberger
“Big Ben” was awesome between the lines from Day 1, a mountain of a man who could shed tacklers with ease while slinging the rock to all parts of the gridiron. He earned two rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers – and probably should have been Super 43’s MVP given his legendary, title-winning throw to Santonio Holmes through triple coverage and into the back corner of the end zone as time wound down. Roethlisberger’s 64,000+ passing yards and 418 career TD passes are all the more impressive given so much of it was done in the Steel City’s often unforgiving conditions. He never played for a team with a losing record, his final ledger 165-81-1.
5. Drew Brees
His 80,358 passing yards and 571 TD passes rank second only to Tom Brady in NFL annals. But perhaps the most important part of Brees’ legacy was helping to save pro football in New Orleans following the wrath of Hurricane Katrina while leading the Saints to their first – and still only – Super Bowl win in the 2009 season (Lombardi Gras). GPS-level accurate – Brees completed at least 70% of his passes in seven different seasons – the league has rarely seen as good a leader, either.
4. Aaron Rodgers
During his prime, his combination of accuracy, mobility, moxie, arm strength, competitiveness and extreme football intelligence made him something of a template for the modern quarterback – and maybe no one has ever had the ability to make the pinpoint throws he could, whether from the pocket or on the move. Only one player has more MVP trophies than Rodgers’ four, though his detractors (and Brees’) will say one Super Bowl is insufficient. Rodgers’ 102.4 career passer rating is currently the highest in NFL history.
3. Peyton Manning
A record five league MVP awards. Four Super Bowl trips and two wins. Holder of most of the league’s major passing standards when he retired following the 2015 season. But perhaps the defining part of the Manning legend was his will and ability to manipulate games with his mind – the most important component for a player with an above-average arm but no wheels.
2. Patrick Mahomes
We’re not even 10 years into his career, and he’s already got three Super Bowl MVPs – only Brady has more – two league MVPs and had started seven consecutive AFC championship games, a streak that will end in an unfortunate 2025 season that hasn’t been kind to Mahomes or his Kansas City Chiefs. But there are more chapters to be written in what’s already the sterling career of a player who relentlessly wins and has provided some of the most impressive individuals plays and efforts on his team’s dynastic road. Still a legit shot Mahomes could be regarded as the best to ever do it by the time he retires …
1. Tom Brady
… But, for now, GOAT status most definitely remains with TB12, whose seven Super Bowl rings are still more than any NFL franchise possesses on its own. He’s got the jewelry, nearly all of the league’s notable passing marks and a record five Super Bowl MVPs. There’s so much more to an unparalleled NFL journey that began as an unheralded sixth-round pick of the Patriots. But you know the story. And you know there’s no debate here. At least not yet.
