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Bryce Young's disintegration, Geno Smith's spelunking and the grossest NFL QBs of Week 10

November 10, 2025
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Tyler Shough had himself a nice little Sunday. His performance on throws at least 15 yards downfield vs. the Carolina Panthers? Eight attempts, five completions, 177 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 145.8 passer rating. There’s a long way to go to prove he’s a franchise quarterback, but that’s a solid start.

Thus, the rookie second round found the escape velocity to wriggle away from the gravity of Week 10’s worst quarterback performances. The third year quarterback he beat, however, wasn’t as lucky.

Bryce Young could have propped up Carolina’s playoff hopes. Instead, he shrank from the modest spotlight of an NFC South showdown. The Panthers limped off their home field a loser and the former No. 1 overall pick limped his way onto the gross QB directory.

What’s that, you ask?

To get a better idea of who performed best relative to expectations in Week 10, 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. The players who sunk below their own standard the hardest? They’re the ones who get written about. JJ McCarthy was a mess vs. the Baltimore Ravens, but he’s been an inconsistent jumble of skill and tragedy this season. He misses the cut.

But before we dig into the passing schadenfreude, let’s talk about the quarterbacks who exceeded their standard in Week 10.

Marcus Mariota, Washington Commanders

  • 2025 EPA/game: -3.2
  • Week 10 EPA: 11.6
  • Difference: 14.8 points better

Tyler Shough, New Orleans Saints

  • 2025 EPA/game: -5.8
  • Week 10 EPA: 10.4
  • Difference: 16.2 points better

Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams

  • 2025 EPA/game: 6.1
  • Week 10 EPA: 22.6
  • Difference: 16.5 points better

Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers

  • 2025 EPA/game: 1.4
  • Week 10 EPA: 18
  • Difference: 16.6 points better

Jared Goff, Detroit Lions

  • 2025 EPA/game: 4.9
  • Week 10 EPA: 25.9
  • Difference: 21 points better

Mac Jones was technically playing higher above his standard than Matthew Stafford. Did it matter? Nope!

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

5. Daniel Jones, Indianapolis Colts

  • 2025 EPA/game: 6.1
  • Week 10 EPA: 0.2
  • Difference: 5.9 points worse

Another week, another underwhelming performance from Jones. But since he didn’t turn the ball over five times, he was able to ride Jonathan Taylor to an upset win.

The former Giant was fairly average, though he did enough with his deep throws to be a net benefit on the day in Berlin.

He was hit often, either in the backfield or as a runner. An interception and three fumbles led to two Colts turnovers. He was sacked seven times. But before his trip to the ice bath came an 19-yard scramble on a must-have third-and-21 in the final two minutes of a 25-22 game.

He threaded the needle to convert the ensuing first down, took the game to overtime and allowed Taylor’s third rushing touchdown to do the rest.

Jones was occasionally a liability. He also put his team in position to win. We don’t need to dwell on him here.

4. Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 09: Bryce Young #9 of the Carolina Panthers attempts a pass against Alontae Taylor #1 of the New Orleans Saints during the second half in the game at Bank of America Stadium on November 09, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)

  • 2025 EPA/game: -4.7
  • Week 10 EPA: -10.7
  • Difference: 6.0 points worse

Young had a wonderful chance to secure Carolina’s place above .500 and gain ground in the NFC South race. His opponent, the New Orleans Saints, were 1-8 and playing in Charlotte. First year head coach Kellen Moore started a rookie second round quarterback buttressed by the league’s 26th-ranked passing defense. This was an opportunity to prove the Panthers belonged in the NFC playoff race.

Opportunity wasted.

Young turned 27 dropbacks into 102 net yards. He had twice as many turnovers as Carolina had touchdowns in a 17-7 loss. Though, to be fair, a botched end-around handoff was only partially the quarterback’s fault.

Any momentum from last week’s shocking upset in Green Bay was vacated as the last season adjustments that generated hope under head coach Dave Canales last winter were depressingly absent in a letdown game. What’s just as troubling is the simplicity of the mistakes Young made. Both his sacks saw his first steps under pressure drop straight backward, facilitating a scenario where he lost 11 yards per sack.

Young’s turnovers each had a negative EPA of at least five points. He also threw short of the sticks on fourth-and-2 to end another drive. His only positive appearance on the list of Week 10’s biggest plays? A 15 yard roughing the passer penalty. Ooof.

3. Bo Nix, Denver Broncos

  • 2025 EPA/game: 2
  • Week 10 EPA: -11
  • Difference: 13 points worse

Nix’s uneven sophomore season makes the Broncos difficult to take seriously as a contender. Through 10 starts he’s had three games with at least 8.0 EPA. He’s had three games with less than-6.0 EPA, including his last two weeks against the Houston Texans’ top-ranked passing defense (understandable) and the 20th-ranked Las Vegas Raiders (much less so).

On Thursday night, his downfield passing was, phew, a whole problem. He threw four passes that traveled at least 20 yards downfield. He completed twice as many to Raiders defenders as he did to his own receivers (one). One of those picks came on a deflection. The other, however, was the product of a hurried throw on the run into double coverage.

Per SIS, Nix completed 38.8 percent of his deep throws last season (26 of 67) as he shed some of the checkdown concerns that followed him from Oregon to the NFL. He’s down to 31.1 percent this fall (14 of 45), which means he’s throwing long more often and less effectively. While players like Troy Franklin and RJ Harvey have emerged as young, exciting playmakers, they’ve been similarly inconsistent for an offense that operates with the focus of an eighth grade daydream.

The good news is the Broncos are built to survive all this, Their three lowest scoring games of the year saw them put up 13, 18 and 10 points. All three of those games were Denver wins.

2. Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals

  • 2025 EPA/game: 3.3
  • Week 10 EPA: -10.2
  • Difference: 13.5 points worse

Brissett played well enough to convince Arizona to place Kyler Murray on injured reserve to nurse a foot injury back to health. Then he immediately showcased the risk behind that decision. The journeyman quarterback acquitted himself well across the first three quarters of his limited playing time this fall. Then Fourth Quarter Jacoby showed up early against the Seattle Seahawks and stuck around for 60 minutes in a game decided in 16.

Trailing throughout the afternoon gave Brissett an opportunity to throw the hell out of the ball. Despite 53 dropbacks, his wide receivers barely made an impact on the game. Michael Wilson’s 34 yards led the wideout group on a day where Brissett completed only five passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield. While he didn’t throw an interception, he did fumble twice to create 14 Seattle points on plays where he simply couldn’t get the ball out on time.

Well, at least Murray is eligible to return to the lineup in three weeks. At which point we can pivot to breaking down *his* poorly executed sacks here.

1. Geno Smith, Las Vegas Raiders

Nov 6, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith (7) is sacked for a loss against the Denver Broncos during the second half at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

  • 2025 EPA/game: -4.7
  • Week 10 EPA: -18.5
  • Difference: 13.8 points worse

Smith keeps spelunking in a season destined to find his (non-Jets) rock bottom. Week 9’s near-win against the Jacksonville Jaguars created false hope. A game against the NFL’s top defense did him no favors. Smith led his offense 64 yards in his first two drives to open up a 7-0 lead. That offense gained 122 total yards in its final 11 drives to lose 10-7.

Smith was, simply put, not trusted to hang in the pocket against the NFL’s top pass rush. His time to throw dipped from 2.86 seconds to 2.64. He attempted 26 passes and only threw four of those more than seven yards downfield. Six sacks left him to average a measly 3.6 yards per dropback. Four of those sacks came on third or fourth down. Three came on the brink of field goal range, leaving scoring opportunities behind in a game that featured 17 total points.

In fairness, Smith’s lone interception wasn’t his fault.

Still, this was grim. The Broncos gave Las Vegas several opportunities to steal a win. For a moment, it looked like Smith and former Seattle Seahawk teammate Tyler Lockett would rise up and take advantage of them. But the Raiders couldn’t repel the pressure and Smith couldn’t find any room to operate downfield. On a night where one big play could have swung the game, Smith’s quiver was all out of arrows.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bryce Young’s disintegration and the grossest NFL QBs of Week 10

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