Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco (16) is sacked on third down in the first quarter of the NFL Week 12 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025.
Nov 23, 2025; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith (7) is sacked by Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) as defensive tackle Mason Graham (94) looks make a tackle on the play during the fourth quarter at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Green Bay Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie (58) and defensive tackle Warren Brinson (91) sack Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) on Sunday, November 23, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Packers defeated the Vikings 23-6. Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

J.J. McCarthy may one day be the franchise quarterback the Minnesota Vikings need. At the moment, however, he's unfit to finish the 2025 season as their starter.

McCarthy came in to Week 12 as the league's least efficient quarterback. Some late-game rallies helped him look better than his overall profile — and even net him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors in his first start, somehow. Ultimately, the second-year quarterback looked like a player who'd been carried by his run offense in stretches across his college career.

In Green Bay Sunday afternoon, McCarthy's running backs averaged nearly five yards per carry. This did nothing to buoy his game. The former 12th overall pick had his worst performance as a pro, struggling in every facet of the game in a 23-6 loss to the Packers.

Let's start with the good. This was an absolute dot in a second quarter two-minute drill:

And, well, that's pretty much it. McCarthy finished with 87 passing yards on 19 attempts. Subtract 35 yards lost to sacks — most of which happened deep in Minnesota territory:

And you get a net 52 passing yards. Some of that was thanks to relentless pressure led by Micah Parsons, leading to crowded pockets without blitzing and plenty of static in McCarthy's passing lanes. But that crowd downfield left a quarterback already slow at processing his reads to glitch out, taking entirely too long and marching his team backward in the process.

Head coach Kevin O'Connell tried to steady his young quarterback with a playbook that leaned on high percentage throws. After an in-breaking route to Justin Jefferson created a first down on Minnesota's opening drive, O'Connell's next three throws were all confidence-building screens. None of them were completed.

McCarthy frequently took more than three seconds from snap to throw on a day where his average target was only 5.8 yards downfield. Despite spending so much time in the pocket, his awareness there was... well, to put it diplomatically, suspect.

Furthermore, the downfield accuracy issues that plagued McCarthy the week before remained embedded in his game. Here he is, one snap after that impressive throw to an out-breaking Jefferson mentioned above:

His second interception of the day was an even worse misfire — a pass thrown somewhere only bad things could happen.

Through six games, McCarthy has been good for -0.45 expected points added (EPA) per snap and has never finished a game with a positive EPA. That's by far the worst in the NFL among qualified starting quarterbacks. Carson Wentz, the journeyman veteran who played when McCarthy was hurt this fall, clocks in at 0.055. The 2023 NCAA champion has one of the most dynamic receiving corps in the game with Jefferson and Jordan Addison at his disposal. He has a run attack whose 4.7 yards per carry rank eighth in the NFL.

He's been woefully unable to capitalize on either of those things. Now his Vikings, fresh off a 14-3 season that revitalized Sam Darnold's career, are 4-7 with what The Athletic pegs as a less than one percent chance to make it to the postseason. That would be a worthwhile pain if McCarthy showed he was capable of living up to his draft status and signs he can pilot a playoff-bound offense in years to come.

You might be able to dig an occasional gem from his game film based on what we've seen the last few weeks. However, watch McCarthy long enough and it's clear we're not in a diamond mine but a litter box.

It's bad. Like, Jamarcus Russell bad.

Despite all this, we still got a fairly standard J.J. McCarthy performance. Since he didn't slip too far below his weekly standard, he missed this Sunday's top-five when it came to Week 12's most disappointing quarterbacks. So who was truly the grossest when measured up against their own baseline?

To get a better idea of who performed best relative to expectations in Week 12, 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.

But before we dig into the passing schadenfreude, let's talk about the quarterbacks who exceeded their standard in Week 12.

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

  • 2025 EPA/game: 7.1
  • Week 12 EPA: 13.3
  • Difference: 6.2 points better

Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

  • 2025 EPA/game: 0.4
  • Week 12 EPA: 8.3
  • Difference: 7.9 points better

Hurts was good for 0.84 EPA every time he targeted A.J. Brown and was on pace for 20-plus EPA midway through the second quarter as his Eagles led the Dallas Cowboys 21-0. He finished with 8.3 EPA and Philly lost 24-21. Feels like those things are related!

Jameis Winston, New York Giants

  • 2025 EPA/game: 5.1
  • Week 12 EPA: 16.9
  • Difference: 11.8 points better

Winston continues to shine in a small sample size, though it was not enough to keep the Giants from being the first team eliminated from this winter's playoffs. The journeyman was even better than this when you factor in his 3.2 EPA as a receiver!

Shedeur Sanders, Cleveland Browns

  • 2025 EPA/game: -16.6
  • Week 12 EPA: 1.1
  • Difference: 17.7 points better

Sanders was always bound for this list, simply because it would be be nearly impossible to be worse than he was last week. He racked up -16.6 EPA in two quarters of football. He averaged one net yard per dropback. It was awful!

On Sunday, he was significantly less awful. That's all it takes to beat the Las Vegas Raiders (unless you're the Patriots, somehow).

Sure, Sanders' numbers were buoyed by a crazy catch-and-run from Dylan Sampson and some genuinely impressive yards after catch elsewhere:

But his most encouraging number may be this one: three. That's how many yards he lost via sack after being a negative play machine in Week 11 and in the preseason. Sanders took what the Las Vegas defense gave him and thrived against an overmatched opponent. There's still plenty of work to be done, but this was an encouraging recovery after arguably the least encouraging start in NFL history (non-Nathan Peterman division).

Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans

  • 2025 EPA/game: -10.7
  • Week 12 EPA: 8.7
  • Difference: 19.4 points better

We're finally getting the proof of concept the Titans so desperately needed from the young quarterback they've given almost no help. Sometimes it was after a smorgasbord of "things a quarterback absolutely should not do."

Sometimes it was a gutsy display on the ground.

His lone passing touchdown was a too-easy read in what was kinda-sorta garbage time. Still, Ward racked up nearly 300 total yards and two touchdowns against a top-three defense. He threw 13 passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield and completed seven of them, thriving particularly in the middle of the field. Those are all positive signs (the kind of positive signs the Vikings aren't getting from McCarthy). Ward has a long was to go, but Week 12 can be the tape that warms fans in Nashville through a cold winter.

Let's look at the guys who couldn't live up to meager standards Sunday (and Thursday, because losing to Davis Mills is usually a shortcut to these rankings).

5. Joe Flacco, Cincinnati Bengals

  • 2025 EPA/game: -6.4
  • Week 12 EPA: -12.3
  • Difference: 5.9 points worse

Flacco's EPA in his first four games as a Bengal: 32.5. His EPA in the last two? -32.3. He's very nearly found a way to erase all the goodwill he brought to Cincinnati and it only took eight days to do so.

At 3-8, there's little impetus to rush Joe Burrow back to the field for an offense that's getting pressured on a third of its dropbacks despite one of the league's shortest times to throw in 2025. The benefit, however, would be to avoid subjecting fans to plays like this.

That is an absolute babytown frolic. Flacco has been doing this for two decades. He still manages to lock on to his checkdown option, hold the ball entirely too long and completely blank a streaking Marcus Jones, who earns the easiest pick-six of his career.

Flacco continued to spread the ball all over the field. With only one elite wideout in his lineup instead of two — JaMarr Chase missed Sunday's game after spitting on Jalen Ramsey — it didn't matter much. Flacco barely completed half his passes (19 of 37) and completed only two of six deep balls. In fairness, this touchdown to Mitchell Tinsley was pretty sweet.

Even so, we were left with an extremely late-stage Joe Flacco game. He took calculated risks and pushed the ball downfield. He also suffered from devious brain farts and ultimately couldn't be the difference between a win and a loss against a playoff-bound team. He got hurt, missed a couple of snaps and then returned to the field like nothing happened to cap a touchdown drive.

The Patriots gave him an opportunity. Flacco's death knell this fall has been pressure, but New England has one of the league's least intimidating pass rushes, particularly with Milton Williams on the injured list. The veteran came into Week 12 with a 102.3 passer rating from a clean pocket and a 35.0 rating when pressured. The Pats only sacked Flacco once and hit him six times on 38 dropbacks. It didn't matter, because he made enough mistakes for Drake Maye and company to win sloppy on the road.

4. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills

  • 2025 EPA/game: 4.8
  • Week 12 EPA: -3.9
  • Difference: 8.7 points worse

Allen's career passer rating against the Houston Texans: 71.0. His passer rating against literally anyone else? 101.7. He was sacked as many times Thursday night as he'd been in his previous four games combined (eight).

Allen was willing to push the ball downfield on a night where his team trailed for the entirety of the second half. But the swarming Houston pass rush meant hurried throws into tight windows. The Texans were perpetually around the ball, bringing Allen's nightmare to life.

Allen's sacks alone contributed -12.6 EPA, making it impressive he was nearly able to dig himself to neutrality before a game-sealing interception on fourth down. This isn't a statement on Allen — though at times he's certainly thrown it back to his 2018 self a little harder than the Bills would probably like. It's a statement on how dang good the Houston defense can be.

That's the reigning MVP! One of the NFL's least-sackable players! And the Texans treated him like a tackling dummy!

3. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions

  • 2025 EPA/game: 4.4
  • Week 12 EPA: -5.7
  • Difference: 10.1 points worse

The Lions escaped with a win after falling behind 27-17 to the New York Giants in the fourth quarter at home. Goff's role in that, however, was limited. The MVP candidate was sacked twice on drive-killing third downs and threw a red zone interception that, briefly, put Detroit in real danger of falling two games behind the Chicago Bears in the NFC North standings. Granted, that turnover came on a tipped pass but was also on a third down throw well short of the sticks.

Fourteen of his 28 completions came at or behind the line of scrimmage, including both his touchdown throws. He also completed three of his four deep attempts, so it's not like that litany of short tosses failed to set up bigger plays downfield.

Still, Sunday's win wasn't a function of a veteran quarterback dealing. The Lions won largely because of 219 Jahmyr Gibbs rushing yards, including touchdowns from 49 and 69 yards. Gibbs was, in terms of EPA, more than 20 points more valuable than his quarterback Sunday afternoon. That covered for a quietly underwhelming quarterback who gave up ground in the MVP race.

2. Tyler Shough, New Orleans Saints

  • 2025 EPA/game: -2.1
  • Week 12 EPA: -12.5
  • Difference: 10.4 points worse

New Orleans was coming off a bye. Shough was coming off his best game as a pro. The foundering Atlanta Falcons were coming to town. Optimism... well, it didn't abound in Louisiana, but it existed.

And, then...

Shough simply didn't do much of anything Sunday afternoon. That lone interception came in garbage time on a ball forced into double coverage because, sure, why not? His most impactful play, in terms of EPA lost, was a miscommunication on an RPO with Alvin Kamara that led to three early Atlanta points.

He completed 30 passes, but each were within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage. He threw six deep balls and didn't complete a single one. Four of the six were to Chris Olave, who's basically been left to fend for himself against double coverage now that Rashid Shaheed is a Seattle Seahawk.

Shough isn't being put in a place to succeed. He's also not rising above his station. That led to a tremendously forgettable performance at home against a hated rival.

1. Geno Smith, Las Vegas Raiders

  • 2025 EPA/game: -5.6
  • Week 12 EPA: -18.5
  • Difference: 12.9 points worse

How did the Browns win on a day where Shedeur Sanders was merely slightly above average? Because Smith was, as he is wont to be in 2025, a disaster. Trailing all day, Smith threw 11 passes that traveled at least 15 yards downfield. He completed two. Taking all that time in the pocket against a Myles Garrett defense? It went about as well as you'd expect.

A Tre Tucker-led receiving corps struggled to get open in stretches, leaving Smith to hold the ball entirely too long en route to (deep breath) 10 SACKS FOR A NET LOSS OF 77 YARDS GOOD LORD. That was good for -20.7 EPA on its own. A player once defined by his downfield touch has devolved into one of the league's least accurate passers, overthrowing targets throughout Week 12. Smith had at least three misses on an open Tucker Sunday, even if he finished the day with a positive completion percentage over expected (CPOE).

Here's one of them from field level. Language is NSFW because it's of Raiders fans watching Geno Smith.

Here's another, again blanking an open Tucker who is, decidedly, not the problem.

This led to an earful from the homefield fans. Smith didn't quite appreciate those boos as he jogged off the turf.

So, that's where Las Vegas has landed. The steady veteran quarterback meant to raise the Raiders' floor has instead gone spelunking, losing the accuracy and touch that served him so well in his Seattle revival. It will only cost the team an extra $8 million to keep him around as a backup next season, which is reasonable. But at this point, Smith may not want to stay and the fans may not want to keep him around.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: J.J. McCarthy is a disaster and the 5 grossest QBs of Week 12

Reporting by Christian D'Andrea, For The Win / For The Win

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