Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Has Caleb Williams risen to a higher tier among NFL quarterbacks?

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ standing among his counterparts in the NFL.

We're both really excited about it. We're going to be so much further ahead from our communication standpoint than what we were a year ago. Having gone through it, there is no learning quite like doing it. I can show him as much tape as I possibly can, and yet he's got to go through it and make some mistakes to truly learn from it. And so I think we're going to be so much further ahead just from a passing game standpoint. I'm really encouraged by it. I was really impressed by how much better he.

He got over the course of the season. I look forward to being able to capitalize on that coming back and continue to forge ahead. Bears head coach Ben Johnson with Fox 32's Cassie Carlson at the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis, as we welcome you back to Rahimi Harris and Grody. If you may recall, if you were listening on Friday to Rahimi Harris and Grody, we had Mike Sando on from the Athletic, one of our great football writers. And he does a – he has a tradition. every single year where he puts together the quarterback tiers.

There are five different tiers, one through five, as you could say, like one being the best, five being the least desirable quarterbacks. And that has inspired us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie to take a look, Marshall, at what was last year relative to what we think this year. And I want to make sure people understand the amount of work that goes into Mike Sando doing this, because here's directly from his article for The Athletic. The quarterback tiers, when they were in for 2025, they had 50 NFL coaches and executives coronating a couple of first-time Tier 1 QBs.

There's five tiers. The panel combined to confer 46 top-tier votes to Lamar Jackson, which was twice his total from 2024. that told people that the two-time MVP had proven his ability as a passer, including the playoffs, although not as much as you know his playoff history. But just understanding how much Jackson jumped from 2024 to 2025 to become a tier one quarterback, and so there's five tiers. And here's what they say about tier number one. A tier one quarterback can carry his team each week.

The team wins because of him. He expertly handles pure passing situations. He has no real holes in his game. That's what Tier 1 is. So an understanding, I'm so glad that you gave the qualifications for this list, it's not power rankings. This is not Mike Sandoz's random list. No.

This is an educated guess on the best quarterbacks in the league. So here we're, this is 2025. This is what it was. These are the Tier 1 quarterbacks, as Marshall Harris just described. Number one was Patrick Mahomes. Tied for Tier 1 was Joe Burrow. Number three on that list. Josh Allen.

Number four, as you mentioned, Lamar Jackson, and the last elite Tier 1 quarterback on the list was Matthew Stafford. Good old Matt Stafford. Matt's. And you can't argue with a single one of them. I wouldn't even take any of them off of the list at this point. We move to Tier 2. What are the qualifications for Tier 2, dear Mr. Harris?

So a Tier 2 quarterback can carry his team sometimes, but not as consistently as those Tier 1 guys, you just mentioned, Mark. He can handle pure passing situations in doses and or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a whole or two in his game. Here are the Tier 2 quarterbacks from 2025. Jaden Daniel 6, Justin Herbert, 7, Jared Goff, 8, tied for 9th, C.J. Stroud and Jalen Hertz.

11th, Baker Mayfield, 12th, Dak Prescott, 13, Jordan Love. 14th, Brock Purdy. So it's interesting understanding going from 2024 to 2025, you notice who's at the top of that tier and looking to press into tier one. Jared, Jaden Daniels. What a difference of your makes. Well, and we're to talk about him right now. I give him a pass for last year. He was injured.

He played in six, seven games at the most last year. Just looking at my sheet here. I had it. Oh, here it is. Seven games last year. But in 2024, 3,568 yards. We know how good he was. So I think it's still possible that he could get into that.

But I would keep Jaden Daniels in tier. two for now. Tier three. What is tier three? So here's where it gets, I mean, there's five tiers. This is tier three. You can do some averaging out and understand what this is going to look like. A tier three quarterback is a legitimate starter,

but needs a heavier running game and or defensive component to win. A lower volume dropback passing offense suits him best. Got that? They are, yes. They are at number four. 15. Kailer Murray, 16, your guy. Aaron Rogers. Oh, wow.

17. Two, it took of a below. Veloa. Trevor Lawrence at 18 in tier three. Gino Smith, 19. Tide for 20, Bo Nix and Sam Darnold. It will be rising. You ready for this?

At number 22. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. Number 22 in tier three, Drake May and Caleb Williams. Bryce Young, right on their Heels at number 24 and number 25, Kirk Cousins appropriately placed in that tier three. And we'll get to, we'll get to Caleb, we'll get to it. The final two tiers, tier four, what do they say about tier four?

A tier four quarterback could be an unproven player, as in not enough information for voters to classify, because remember these are real life NFL coaches and executives who made the determination here, or a veteran who ideally would not start all-sacetting. 17 games. And this is where it gets kind of, well, you know. Ugly. And Will, these first three names. Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Michael Pennix Jr., J.J. McCarthy. Oops. Daniel Jones at number 30. Joe Flacco, 31. Anthony Richardson, where are you now? Anthony Richardson, number 32. Spencer Rattler at number 33. And then there is one quarterback in the five tier. What do they even say for the fifth? It's a very simple definition here, Mark. A tier five quarterback is best suited as a backup. That's very nicely put.

Kenny Pickett, the lone quarterback in that category. All right. Yes. The answer is yes. Of course. Caleb Williams should probably, yes, he should move up from 23 to something. Now, the question is, is Caleb Williams at the top half of the third tier. or does he, because of what he did last year,

is he a tier two quarterback this year? Or if you're really bullish, you think he is in the elite category. I don't think he is in the, I'm with you, Marshall. I see the look. He is not in the elite category. But could he be Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hertz, C.J. Stroud, Dak Prescott. The answer is yes.

He is definitely, by these definitions, a tier two. quarterback, and I expect him to be voted as such when the new rankings come out this offseason, because again, a tier two quarterback can carry his team sometimes, but not as consistently. He can handle peer passing situations in doses and or possesses other dimensions. How about ducking out of sacks that are special enough to elevate him above tier three? He has a hole or two in his game. The hole would be the simple place, the pedestrian passing place. That is the hole in his game.

17 games, man, the durability is real for Caleb. Two straight years of 17 games last year, 3,942 yards, 27 touchdowns to seven interceptions. And yes, the 58.1 completion percentage for which there are reasons. And we could all look into that and delve into because of the risk taking that has gone on with Caleb Williams, which we ultimately like. I guess the question is, is like, do we, did. Did he leapfrog Jaden Daniels? Do you think that he is now ahead of

somebody like, man, I'm tempted to put him in just behind Jade and Daniels still. And I know it was a rough year last year because of injuries and when he played he wasn't great. Like just in that Justin Herbert

territory, Justin Herbert was seven last year. And this could all change. And the new list, the 2026 list, will come out after the draft for Mike from whom we'll hear in a second as well. I'm also tempted to, like, has Jared Goff earned a spot in the top tier of quarterbacks? You want to take him from tier two to tier one. I say he stays in tier two, mainly because he doesn't have the actual...

The word I'm looking for here is... The penash that the win because of? No, no, no, it's more about the elusivity. It's all timing base, and if he has to scramble, it's over for july. Jared Goff. He has no mobility in the pocket. Yeah. 17 games last year for golf, 4,564 yards, 34 touchdowns,

eight interceptions. I feel like he's very easy to overlook because of all the talent on Detroit. I'm not overlooking him. I'm just saying he's at the top of T-2. But I mean as a potentially elite quarterback. Like, he's not as good as Matthew

Stafford. He's not as good as Josh Allen. Not as good. Like, not in that same class. That's why he's at the top of tier two. He's just right there. Just hovering right around it. But I would put him above Justin Herbert. And some of these other guys have fallen off, whether it's C.J. Stroud or, I mean,

CJ Stroud might be a tier three quarterback straight up next year, right? Like the next time they do this. I think Dag Prescott is at the top of tier two as well. Better question for you, is Caleb Williams above or below Jordan Love the next time tiers are revealed? Ooh, that is... Jordan Love is 13. He's smack in the middle of Tier 2. So here's...

Or at the bottom of Tier 2. Here's Jordan Love, like his numbers last year. 15 games, 3,381 yards. And I'm just simplifying this, 23 touchdowns to six interceptions. Again, Caleb Williams, 17 games, 3,942 yards, 27 TDs to 7 picks. Now, I don't know. Like, that's a better year, I think. I think he had won the playoffs.

off game against Green Bay. It's a better year for Caleb, but does having one better year than Jordan Love, considering the resume of Jordan Love, which hurts to say, is pretty good, pretty good, not great. Yeah, I would put Caleb

over, like, if it's year to year, yeah. Yeah, I put Caleb over Jordan Love. I might have them in that tied category. Okay. Hey, the ties are all over the place. And so, understanding how it works with the voting mark, those executives,

they put a number next to, they say you are a tier one quarterback or not. And then they average all that out. So the lower the number, the better, right? And so you look at the top of this thing with Tier 1. Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow, every single executive and coach that they polled had them as Tier 1 quarterback. Because their average vote is just one, straight up. Yeah. No point behind it.

Whereas Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are each 1.1. Right. So they had, you know, 1.1, which means some people put them as a tier 2 quarterback. And if you look at Caleb Williams and really Drake, Sam Darnold, they're all there together. Like, Darnold's a straight up three. That means he averaged out. Everyone could have possibly just said you're a tier three quarterback and that's why he's a three. Or some would have had him two, some would have had him four, and it averaged out to a perfect three.

Drake May and Caleb Williams right next to each other. Drake May, 3.1, Caleb Williams, 3.2. and Bryce Young right behind him at 3.4. So it'll be interesting to see how many people lift Caleb Williams up to 2. And I expect him to have like a 2.1 score where somebody might think he's still a tier 3 quarterback. But the majority of people, based on the definitions, as they are presented to the pollsters, it's going to be a 2 or a 2.1. Yeah.

Yeah. How can it not be? And again, yes, to be very clear, we are going off of the 2025. list of quarterback tiers. Mike Sandoz, 2026 will come out after the draft. That said, on Friday, Sando was on when Laila and I were here

on the score, and I did ask him if Caleb Williams will, if he thinks, in his opinion, will Caleb Williams indeed move up his quarterback tiers? He's definitely going up. So I think Caleb Williams was, people were excited about him coming out, you know, some reservations,

and then the first year was kind of disappointing. And we saw the, you know, I mean, there was basically he got savage in that story that came out before the season. Yeah. And it was just kind of like, you know, but I think he played pretty well this last year. I think he showed a lot. I think he looked like he was more of a team guy than, you know, than was criticized or advertised.

So he was, I think he was in Tier 3, which is, you know, solid starter, but you probably need a lot around him to really win. I think he's going to go high into Tier 3 with some Tier 2 votes, maybe that 2-3 line. We've kind of seen in recent years like Brock Purdy sort of moved from the 3 to the 2, a little different because he was such a late pick that people were late to want to push him up. I think Caleb, that people know the talent. And so does he make a bigger jump as a result of that? If you're in the middle of Tier 2, you're kind of a top, on the fringes of the top 10. And I haven't started quarterback tiers.

We do it after the draft. So I don't really know what people are, you know, I'll pull them as we get closer and see the quarterback situations take shape around the league. But I've got to think he's got to move not into the top 10, but don't you think he's going to move into the top halfish? Because he's certainly going to go past the twas and those guys, Kyler Murray's. Those guys are going to come down. I think he's going to go up.

Mike Sando of the Athletic, who, as he said, he's being conservative and he doesn't know yet, so he's guessing because I asked him the question, but he started with at least moving up to, or like he figured tier three, I guess that's the question. Is Caleb Williams a top 10 quarterback? Is he as good as Jared Gough? Is he as good as Justin Herbert? Is he as good as Baker Mayfield? Dak Prescott, Jalen Hertz, guys like that, has he, with one really, really good year, has Caleb Williams become a top 10 quarterback? If he's, not top 10. He's right outside of that window. Here's why he won't be a top 10 quarterback when the tiers come out.

Because of the guys you just mentioned, he's not going to jump any of them. He's also not jumping the guy directly ahead of him who might be a tier one quarterback when this thing comes out because of how it's done. And that's Drake May. Yeah, he might make it. He was the runner up to MVP. He led the league in countless categories. And did it legitimately.

You know what I mean? Like it looked real. From the same draft class. Until the Super Bowl. Well, they've been addressing those problems. Yeah, finally made a couple of nice passes towards the end of that. But this is certainly to be continued. I can't wait until Mike Sando comes out with the quarterback tiers to see where everything lands.

Obviously, we're going to see some guys falling off of this list. Some guys that will make the jump in the list like Sam Darnold, as you just said, Drake May as well. Trevor Lawrence, does he, at number 18 overall, does he pop to? at least tier two, or does he get to that tier three area after one really good year under their new head coach? See him as the bottom of tier two. The biggest fall, I think, is going to be C.J. Stroud and the biggest jump, I think, is going to be Drake May. So something to pay attention to, again, he doesn't do it until after the draft. So we got some time, but always good fodder. We have some more fodder coming up. It's always a pleasure to have Bruce Levine on, our baseball insider, who was already on once today. So I feel like we are honored and privileged to have Bruce Levine joining us next to talk about the breaking news that say a Suzuki officially placed on the injured list.

We'll talk all things Cubs coming up next with Bruce Levine on Rahimi Harrison Grotia on 104.3, the score.