Top Five Quarterbacks Under Pressure This Season

As the heat turns up on and off the field during training camps, the pressure rises for certain QB’s to have an impactful season.

Rising stars like Baker Mayfield goes into his second season with high expectations while a journeyman QB like Ryan Fitzpatrick is possibly on his last shot as a starter in the league. Whatever the case, this season will be telling for the future of the landscape of the NFL. These are the top five QB’s under the most pressure this upcoming season:

5. Carson Wentz

The Philadelphia Eagles have made their choice at QB for the foreseeable future signing Wentz to a four-year, $128 million contract extension with $107 million guaranteed. This keeps this young star under center till the 2024 season. Extending Wentz meant letting go of SB winning QB, Nick Foles, who left to sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars. During their dual tenure in Philly, speculations came from the locker room that some players preferred Foles over Wentz, citing Foles as better as sharing the ball with the talented receiver core and Wentz as ‘egotistical’ and ‘selfish.’

Much can be made from these stories and reports but the truth is Wentz, while not playing bad, was 5-6 under center last season, a season that ended short for him yet again due to a back injury. From the sidelines, Wentz had to watch as Foles led the Eagles on another playoff run and quite possibly an NFC Championship appearance if it wasn’t for the drop of Alshon Jeffery versus the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round. Fast forward this upcoming season, Wentz will be unchallenged for the starting position but doubts remain if letting Foles go was the right decision.

The pressure is on from this standpoint that multiple scenarios could impact the future of this team. If Wentz goes down to injury yet again, the Eagles could be in trouble without a solid backup plan in place. But if he does remain healthy but misses the playoffs the city of Philly could turn on the young star, wishing they had Foles back. Wentz has the talent surrounding him to make another run at MVP and a championship but it is all on his health and performance. Watch closely for the chemistry between the QB and his receivers not named Zach Ertz.

4. Ben Roethlisberger

Big Ben is a pivotal junction in his career. Coming off a season where his team didn’t make the playoffs, there was a lot of problems seeping out from the locker room that circled back to him. Whether it was intentional or not the media circus created by the QB actions led to so much dysfunction in the organization that people were questioning head coach Mike Tomlin’s job. Among the chaos, the Steelers lost both former Pro Bowlers Brown and Bell, and each has pointed at or questioned Roethlisberger's leadership.

This season, the new-look Steelers will be looking at Ben to get them over the hump in a tougher conference than years past. The re-vamped Browns are legit Super Bowl contenders and the Ravens finished on top of the AFC North, not to mention the Bengals could be a sleeper playoff team with a new direction under new head coach, pending A.J Green gets back healthy. Now the pressure falls on Ben to repeat his excellent season last year without Brown and Bell. Juju hasn’t been a No. 1 receiver for a full season which has people questioning his effectiveness and Conner, though had a good season, isn’t Bell.

Not to mention, this will be the season for Roethlisberger to clear his name, after some strong criticism from Brown and former players. Many have to wonder if this is this window closing on Steelers and Ben's chances to reach another Super Bowl for the foreseeable future. This is not the ideal situation to be playing under if you’re Ben.

3. Derek Carr

The lights and camera are on Raiders’ QB Carr literally as the Raiders are featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks. From what the first episode showed us, Carr is excited about this season especially with the opportunity to play a with future HOF in Antonio Brown. But don’t let the cameras fool you from what is really going on in Oakland, this QB is on the hot seat, and the clock is ticking.

As we all know head coach Jon Gruden loves his QB’s, but it doesn’t seem he is as fond of his own as others. Gruden has been in the media before the draft possibly eyeing other QB’s to lead the Raiders in the coming future. And to his credit, that would be fair giving the way Carr performed last season. Under center, Carr led the Raiders to a poor 4-12 record and often looked shell shook as he was taking some big hits last season and horrid throws. Then there was the whole ordeal where he was questioned as a man and football player during the dreadful season. Gruden can not like what he saw and could be looking at the next NFL draft for a new QB to transition to Vegas.

With his second year in the Gruden offense, Carr is going to need to be great to keep his starting job. That means going back to his MVP caliber year before tearing his ACL. And with Brown in the offense, that makes the seat that much hotter for the QB to succeed and play well much like the Dallas Cowboys did with Dak Prescott adding Amari Cooper to test Prescott potential.

2. Philipp Rivers

This name might come as a shock to some of you, but this pressure is different from the rest. Rivers career is winding down as he enters year 14 as starting QB for the Chargers and he has yet to win a Super Bowl, let alone reach one. He is coming off of one of his better seasons as he had a 68.3 completion percentage (highest it’s been in five years) and a career-high passer rating at 105.5. This is one of the best teams he has played with as they are sound all-around on offense, defense, and special teams, and again Rivers came up short when they were an SB favorite.

This season Rivers comes in with his team intact except for RB Melvin Gordon who is currently holding out for a new contract. Still, the Chargers team looks poised to be serious contenders again. And this is why Rivers is under pressure, with this team being as stacked as it is, this might be Rivers' last shot at a Lombardi trophy, much-needed hardware for a QB legacy. Rivers has incredible numbers and stats throughout his career and is no doubt a great QB, but if he wants to be remembered as elite he needs to win an SB. That championship win could be the only thing holding Rivers back from a future Hall of Fame candidacy.

Another nugget to this equation, Rivers is the only QB out the top three in the 2004 NFL Draft which included Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger to not win an SB. Both his peers have two SB championship rings. As I said, Rivers will always be known as a great QB that was competitive, resilient, and has a lot of kids. But if he wants to be at that elite status, he needs to win a ring and this might be his last chance to do it.

1. Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston

Here we find both the No. 1 and No. 2 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft together as the top QBs under the most pressure this season. Both QBs have had underwhelming starts to their young NFL career that seemingly has their respective organizations hesitant to resign them. Mariota, while having made the playoffs two seasons ago, has been plagued by injuries just about every season that has kept him off the field. Winston, on the other hand, has the most potential out of the two but hasn’t been able to piece it together to get the Bucs to the playoffs coupled along with his off-the-field issues. As their journeys took them on separate routes they both ended up here together on the top of this list.

Mariota seems like the safest bet out of the two QBs to get resigned. He’s had previous playoff experience in the 2017 season where he won a Wild Card game against the Kansas City Chiefs. However, his play hasn’t been anything to clap at. With him as the starting QB for this franchise, they have had three consecutive 9-7 seasons. His last season, which was riddled with injuries yet again, Mariota posted a career-low 11 touchdowns to eight interceptions with a career-low in passing yards with 2,528. We have yet to see the talent and accuracy that made him such a high pick in the draft.

Winston, in this case, is a wild card, you don’t know exactly where to put him and the Bucs this season. He has the talent to be a great QB in this league which he showed in his rookie season. The next season he almost got the Bucs into the playoffs, but since then his play trailed off and his off-the-field issues kept resurfacing. This past season, he served a three-game suspension for an incident with a female Uber driver that had the Bucs thinking about moving on from this troubled QB. He enters this season with QB whisper Bruce Arians and a solid roster. Many looks at this as Winston's final shot, if he can’t get it done with Coach Arians then he could very well be out of there.

Both these QBs must produce wins this season, or at least show their teams they are worth keeping. They both have the odds against them in tough divisions in the NFC and AFC South. Pressure break pipes, let’s see if they break these two.

These are the top QBs under the most pressure this season. The clock starts on September 5th.