It has not been a very good year for the 2021 rookie class of quarterbacks. And that's probably underselling it.
While Mac Jones has done a phenomenal job of managing Josh McDaniels' system, virtually every other rookie has floundered. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Justin Fields all have a passer rating below 73.0 and have averaged below 6.9 yards per attempt. As for Trey Lance, well he can't hardly even get on the field when Jimmy Garoppolo is healthy.
How you process this information probably says as much about how you viewed these quarterbacks in the first place. I came in with concerns about Wilson, Jones, and Lance but high expectations for Lawrence and Fields. The latter two have been plagued by poor coaching in their rookie year, but I've seen enough flashes, particularly from Fields, that I haven't really changed my opinion on either. And Jones has earned being one of the biggest Dynasty risers with his quality of play.
That leaves Wilson and Lance, and as you'll see below they are both fallers for me since the start of the season. The explanation for Wilson is more simple, he's been quite awful when he's played and we saw Mike White, Joe Flacco, and Josh Johnson all look better in the same circumstances. The Jets aren't using Wilson as a runner at all and as a passer he's been one of the worst in the league.
I'm less comfortable with calling Lance a faller, it's more that he has been passed by a couple of guys. He was always viewed as the most raw at the position, I just don't know how much watching Garoppolo is changing that. He's only thrown 78 passes since 2019, and has just 366 pass attempts since the start of his college career. 318 of those came against competition that does not compare to the NFL, or even what most NFL starters see in college. So I do worry that we're just prolonging his bad year in the NFL by waiting to start him next year. Hopefully, if the 49ers fall out of contention, we'll get to see more at the end of 2021.
Now before we get to the actual rankings I do want to add a caveat. While Wilson and Lance have fallen a little in the rankings below, I think it's more likely they've fallen further in the minds of your Dynasty league mates. In other words, even as fallers, the rookie quarterbacks are much better buys than sells right now, especially Lance. His value was never based around his floor anyway.
