There is no singular right way to be an elite quarterback in the NFL. Never has that been more evident than right now. There is a ton of great talent at the position across the league, and many of them excel at and win in different ways. There are a number of traits that a successful quarterback needs to have, and all of the top quarterbacks have them to varying degrees. That’s what makes discussions surrounding who’s better fun!
Recently, ESPN’s NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky posted his top 10 quarterbacks in the league broken down by a number of different traits. Prior to his work with ESPN, Orlovsky spent 12 seasons in the NFL, primarily as a backup quarterback, after being drafted by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He’s more than qualified to speak on the traits that make quarterbacks successful.
Orlovsky gave his thoughts on the top 10 quarterbacks in a number of traits, including: Arm strength, ball placement, mechanics, decision-making with the football, pocket presence, rushing ability, and second-reaction ability. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was at or near the top in several different categories.
The talented Bengals quarterback was Orlovsky’s top choice for both ball placement and mechanics. He is quick to point out that there’s a difference between a quarterback being “accurate” and one having good ball placement. As he puts it: “An accurate quarterback gets the pass to a spot where his receiver can make the catch. A quarterback with strong ball placement gets the pass to a spot where only his receiver can make the catch. Trajectory, touch, anticipation and field vision all play a role.”
For Orlovsky, Burrow is the best in the league in this facet of the game, but Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa “is really close”. Both Burrow and Tagovailoa rank in the top 5 in completion percentage since 2020, their rookie seasons. When it comes to mechanics, Burrow again tops the list for Orlovsky, thanks in large part to the fact that he’s “always ready to throw and can smoothly repeat the motion rep after rep”.
In addition to ball placement and mechanics, Orlovsky has Burrow in the top 3 in both the decision-making with the football and pocket presence categories. It's clear that Orlovsky views Burrow as one of the truly elite quarterbacks in the league.
