Once again, ESPN has put together a ranking of NFL quarterbacks, separated into tiers and once again, a San Francisco 49ers quarterback is not high on that ranking. They say a total of 50 league insiders have ranked 36 quarterbacks into tiers and within those tiers.
Unsurprisingly, Brian Hoyer doesn’t come out well. He’s in Tier 4, the last tier, and he’s right near the bottom of it, ranked 31st overall.
“Voters see Hoyer as a good backup who should be in position to play decently under new head coach Kyle Shanahan, although the talent around Hoyer will be a limiting factor,” Hoyer’s section reads. It’s fairly accurate and I can’t argue with that too much, but there is some interesting positioning among the quarterbacks.
For instance, the unsigned Colin Kaepernick is ranked 28th overall, a couple spots above Hoyer. Right above Kaepernick, hilariously, is Mike Glennon, who is terrible. Under Kaepernick and tied at 29th are Paxton Lynch and Blake Bortles.
The quarterbacks below Hoyer include Jared Goff, Tom Savage, Josh McCown, Brock Osweiler and Cody Kessler.
Kirk Cousins of Washington ended up ranked in the second tier of quarterbacks, though he was the last one in said tier. He is reportedly a favorite 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and there was plenty of speculation about him potentially joining the team prior to his franchise tag. Overall, he was ranked 13th among all quarterbacks.
One odd placement unrelated to the 49ers was Jay Cutler of the Miami Dolphins at No. 24, above Tyrod Taylor.