Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, Geno Smith and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 9

Week 9 continued 2024's trend of declining passing offenses. Only a single quarterback threw for more than 300 yards Sunday -- and he had to overcome three interceptions to get there.

Geno Smith's end zone pick-six helped sink the Seattle Seahawks against a vintage performance from Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams and landed him on this week's lineup of gross passers. But was he Week 9’s most disappointing quarterback? Fortunately, we’ve got a metric that can help figure that one.

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 9 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. Dak Prescott had a negative EPA in Week 9 before leaving with a hamstring injury, but his -2.7 was still better than his season-long average of -4.5 EPA per game, so he missed the list. Who was the worst? There were several candidates but only one man can truly call himself the grossest quarterback of Week 9.

Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past few weeks. 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.

6. Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 0.4

Week 9 EPA: -4.6

Difference: 5.0 points worse

Love's game Sunday looked simultaneously better and worse than it did on paper. Rainy conditions at Lambeau Field led to a slew of drops. One gorgeous deep ball to Christian Watson fell to the turf as the wideout misplayed it.

This, though?

No, I don't have an excuse for that.

5. Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -0.5

Week 9 EPA: -6.6

Difference: 6.1 points worse

The bad news: Geno Smith effectively threw the Seahawks into a loss Sunday.

The good news: he also put them in position to rally for a win.

That rally came up short thanks in part to Seattle's shoddy run blocking, but Smith counterbalanced an uncharacteristically sloppy day (three interceptions) with a solid showing when it came to his deep touch. Even with DK Metcalf in the lineup, the veteran completed six of eight deep balls -- including all three of his touchdown passes.

4. Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 2.4

Week 9 EPA: -4

Difference: 6.4 points worse

Murray's the only player on this list to come away with a win Sunday, so he probably doesn't care about a below average showing. All but four of his completions came within five yards of the line of scrimmage. He only attempted two deep throws and failed to complete either. His most targeted wideout topped out at 34 yards. His highest performing receiver, period, had three catches for 35 yards.

This all led to a low impact performance in a game where Arizona did not need its quarterback to make much of an impact. That works.

3. Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -3.9

Week 9 EPA: -15

Difference: 11.1 points worse

Williams was trending upward, then head coach Matt Eberflus used his Week 7 bye to painstakingly eat all the season's game tape so there would be no chance in hell this team could build off its strengths. After dialing the Bears' pressure allowed rates to reasonable levels in wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, Chicago promptly forgot how to keep its rookie quarterback out of danger. Williams was pressured on 53 percent of his dropbacks in Week 8 and 48 percent in Week 9 despite two non-intimidating defenses in the Washington Commanders and Arizona Cardinals.

This has led to expected results. Williams has completed just 32 of 65 passes in the Bears' last two losses. He's averaging 5.4 yards per attempt. These are the numbers that will get Eberflus fired but, hey, at least he's proven he didn't learn a dang thing along the way.

2. Joe Flacco, Indianapolis Colts

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 4.2

Week 9 EPA: -16.3

Difference: 20.5 points worse

The Colts swapped out Anthony Richardson for Flacco because Richardson was a mess who couldn't complete passes or keep himself on the field. There was logic to that. Flacco was bottled lightning last year with the Cleveland Browns. He'd acquitted himself well in his first two games in Indianapolis, throwing five touchdowns and zero interceptions in relief of an injured Richardson.

But cracks began to show in a too-close win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 6, where Flacco led only two touchdown scoring drives and had a 30 percent bad throw rate. On Sunday, the Colts' only touchdown came on a fumble return. Flacco completed less than 60 percent of his passes and got sacked one in 10 dropbacks. He had a single deep completion and needed an absurd Adonai Mitchell toe tap to get there.

This was all roughly what you'd expect from 38-year-old Joe Flacco. Last year's explosion with the Browns was a nice story, but it was an outlier in a career that's winding down with diminishing returns. Flacco didn't doom Indianapolis with mistakes Sunday night. He also didn't put the Colts in position to win.

1. Jameis Winston, Cleveland Browns

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 6.4

Week 9 EPA: -17

Difference: 23.4 points worse

This was bound to happen. Winston's only meaningful extended action this season came in a comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens. That pumped his EPA/game up to an unsustainable level. The Los Angeles Chargers brought it crashing back down again.

Three interceptions pushed Winston to a 35.0 passer rating before a garbage time touchdown drive pushed him above the 39.6 threshold you'd get if you simply fired every pass into the turf. He completed only 56 percent of his passes Sunday. This was because he threw the majority of his passes more than 10 yards downfield. And because he wasn't very good when it came to these throws.

This is the duality of Jameis Winston. Dizzying highs and lows so deep you'll hit the water table if you watch long enough. But hey, at least Cleveland gets its first round pick back this year after dealing the last three to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson, who was accused of more than 20 counts of sexual misconduct and what the NFL deemed "predatory behavior" before moving to Ohio to be the NFL's 37th-best quarterback.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, Geno Smith and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 9