Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye lead historic week for rookie QBs

With so much coverage of this year’s promising class of rookie quarterbacks, it’s easy to overlook the historical aspect of this past weekend. Five rookie starters — Chicago’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Jayden Daniels, New England’s Drake Maye, Denver’s Bo Nix and New Orleans’ Spencer Rattler — combined for 12 touchdown passes.

That’s as many as they’d thrown in the first five weeks of this season combined, and it’s also the most touchdown passes ever thrown by rookie quarterbacks in one NFL weekend. The old record was 11, set in Week 16 of 2019 when Daniel Jones had five for the Giants, Dwayne Haskins had two for Washington, and four others — Arizona’s Kyler Murray, Detroit’s David Blough, Denver’s Drew Lock and Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew — added one each.

This past weekend, Williams had four, Maye had three, Daniels and Nix threw two each and Rattler had one. It’s only the second time four rookies have thrown multiple touchdown passes in the same weekend. The other time came in 2011 when Carolina’s Cam Newton, Jacksonville’s Blaine Gabbert, Minnesota’s Christian Ponder and Houston’s T.J. Yates accomplished the feat.

The individual success of this year’s rookie QBs is magnified by their team success. Daniels’ Commanders are 4-2 and surprise leaders atop the NFC East, and Williams’ Bears have the same 4-2 mark to much the same shock. Nix’s Broncos are 3-3, and the rest of the class is still searching for consistent wins.

Will this be a historic class of rookie quarterbacks? They’re on course for 68 touchdown passes, which would be one fewer than last year’s rookies, led by Houston’s C.J. Stroud (23 TD passes). The record for one rookie class of quarterbacks is 101 touchdowns, set in 2012 by a group led by Seattle’s Russell Wilson, Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck and Washington’s Robert Griffin III. And success as rookies doesn’t mean they’ll end up legends: The 2019 class had 90 touchdowns as rookies, with Jones and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence…

Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/caleb-williams-jayden-daniels-drake-maye-lead-historic-week-rookie-qbs

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Publish date : 2024-10-16 12:59:04

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