Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, Kirk Cousins and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 7

Week 7 was a rough one for some of the league's most successful quarterbacks, young and old.

Brock Purdy couldn't lug a depleted core of playmakers to victory in a rematch of Super Bowl 58. Kirk Cousins went through his worst day as an Atlanta Falcon. C.J. Stroud lent credence to the idea of the sophomore slump in the NFL.

This all led to a frustrating week in which only a single quarterback, Josh Allen, threw for at least 300 passing yards through the course of Sunday's games. So who was Week 7’s most disappointing quarterback? We’ve got a metric that can help with that.

Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player. By comparing each passer’s Week 7 EPA against their 2024 average to date we get a better picture of just how frustrating their performances were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com.

This is a metric that gauges disappointment based on what we’d typically expect. So while, hypothetically, if Will Levis were hot garbage on a given Sunday he’s pretty much always hot garbage, so being slightly worse than usual wouldn't be enough to qualify him for this list. Who was the worst? There were several candidates but only one man can truly call himself the grossest quarterback of Week 7.

Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front this week. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself.

7. Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 6.5

Week 7 EPA: -4.2

Difference: 10.7 points worse

We're beginning to see what Purdy would look like outside of an electric 49ers offense. On Sunday, he was forced to play the bulk of the game without Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk or Jauan Jennings. This meant ditching the quick, short-range passes San Francisco's playmakers could turn into big gains and forced Purdy to process longer in the pocket behind an unbalanced offensive line to find unheralded players downfield.

Sometimes, this worked out!

Others, it did not.

Purdy threw three interceptions in his Super Bowl 58 rematch, all of which came inside Kansas City Chiefs territory. While he was a useful scrambler, he couldn't elevate the mishmash of targets beyond George Kittle into something more. Now his 49ers are 3-4 and Aiyuk could miss extended time thanks to what trainers fear is a torn ACL. With a potential contract extension looming, this is terrible timing for the young quarterback.

6. Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -0.9

Week 7 EPA: -11.9

Difference: 11 points worse

Richardson is a conundrum. He's not throwing the ball like an NFL starting quarterback. But his legs are the most dangerous weapon the Colts have when he's in the lineup and Jonathan Taylor is not, which leaves head coach Shane Steichen a dangerous question. How many times can he run his young quarterback without getting him hurt?

On Sunday, it was 13 times for 57 yards (and one kneeldown). While that was enough to lead Indianapolis in rushing, it was also good for nearly -1 EPA per carry thanks to a lost fumble in the red zone on a botched snap/handoff combination. That helps take some of the focus off Richardson's passing but, uh, maybe it should not.

5. C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 2.2

Week 7 EPA: -9.1

Difference: 11.3 points worse

Stroud is one of the league's most exciting young quarterbacks but there have been growing pains in his second season as a pro. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers generated consistent pressure -- 50 percent of his dropbacks! -- to keep him from getting comfortable in the pocket and finding his range downfield.

Stroud finished his day with only 10 completions, tying a career low. His 86 passing yards were the worst single-game output of his career. With Nico Collins hurt, Stefon Diggs unable to play up to the level of his trash talk and Joe Mixon limited to under three yards per carry in the second half, Stroud was tasked with engineering a comeback win on his own. Green Bay's pressure ensured he could not.

4. Andy Dalton, Carolina Panthers

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -3.8

Week 7 EPA: -16.5

Difference: 12.7 points worse

Dalton and Bryce Young combined to throw three passes that traveled more than seven yards downfield Sunday. The Panthers trailed by 17 points less than 20 minutes into this game. You know what? Let's move on. We don't need to keep putting fists to this badly decomposed horse.

3. Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 3.5

Week 7 EPA: -9.3

Difference: 12.8 points worse

Cousins had built some real momentum in Atlanta's three-game win streak, spiking with a +22 EPA performance while throwing for 500 yards to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime. Then he faced the league's 18th-best passing defense at home and lost it all.

Both Cousins's interceptions came in overthrown balls to the middle of the field -- the worst possible place to overthrow an intended receiver. He added another giveaway on a strip sack the Seattle Seahawks returned 64 yards for a touchdown that effectively ended this game.

While Cousins was able to keep his playmakers churning -- Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson combined for 271 total yards and both the team's touchdowns -- his mistakes meant there was no comeback to be had in Atlanta.

2. Daniel Jones, New York Giants

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -2.7

Week 7 EPA: -16.7

Difference: 14 points worse

Jones had been performing... well, not admirably, but better than expected the first five weeks of the season. Whatever minor momentum was stirred up in that first month has since been vacated -- first by a brutal performance against the Cincinnati Bengals last week and now by an utterly toothless one in Week 7.

Jones dropped back to pass 28 times. After seven sacks, he gained 43 net yards. The average Giants passing play against the Philadelphia Eagles -- the league's 26th-ranked passing defense through six weeks -- went for 1.5 yards. While Jones completed two-thirds of his passes, he added almost no value in the process.

Jones was replaced by Drew Lock in the fourth quarter of a 28-3 game. While head coach Brian Daboll says the former first round pick will remain the team's QB1 in Week 8, his hold on the position gets a little more tenuous each week.

1. Gardner Minshew II, Las Vegas Raiders

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -5.9

Week 7 EPA: -21.2

Difference: 15.3 points worse

Since Minshew was starting at a negative touchdown of passing value per game, he needed a truly awful performance to stand above this week's underachievers. Well, well well:

Minshew was a mess. He threw seven passes that traveled at least nine yards downfield. Only one was caught, and it was by Los Angeles safety Jaylen McCollough. His other two interceptions each came on short passes no more than seven yards beyond the line of scrimmage. You can lay a slice of the blame on pressure, but Minshew ultimately doomed himself with bad decisions and poorly thrown balls.

When head coach Antonio Pierce needed him to generate first downs, Minshew shrank from the spotlight in arguably the most disastrous game of his career to date. How bad was it?

Yeesh.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, Kirk Cousins and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 7