Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen closed out the best season of his career with six consecutive weeks at No. 1 in The Athletic’s QB stock report, maintaining his lead over Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson after his own six-week run up top.

As we entered the season with a maiden voyage in this quarterback project, the most daunting question was obvious while the answer remained wildly unclear: How was anyone going to leapfrog Patrick Mahomes?

Every week, these rankings focused on a confluence of primary factors — current performance, career résumé, future potential and the situations around the QBs. So with Mahomes winning three of the last four Super Bowls, it was going to take something extraordinary for his demotion.

Of course, some extraordinary things happened. Mahomes and the Chiefs kept winning despite their uncharacteristic struggles, while Allen and Jackson duked it out in the MVP race for the final three months of the season. And while Joe Burrow played at a higher level than Mahomes, the Bengals missed the playoffs, thereby invoking the situational parameter within his ranking.

On the flip side, Aaron Rodgers is a Super Bowl champion and four-time MVP. Mahomes is the only active QB with a superior résumé, but Rodgers finished in the bottom-10 of the rankings and has been in the 20’s since Week 11. His individual performances, with a few exceptions, were to blame along with the Jets’ circumstances and a cap on the 41-year-old’s potential.

Along the way, we dove deeper into certain quarterbacks, tapping into valued insight from a host of coaches and executives around the league. Their viewpoints also carried weight in the rankings. Among the topics hit this season: We examined Allen’s MVP surge, Rodgers’ downfall with the Jets, Bryce Young’s midseason revival, Jordan Love’s contract validation, Caleb Williams’ resurfacing flaws and C.J. Stroud’s regression.

We hope you enjoyed the first season of rankings as much as we enjoyed putting them together. Let’s close it out by recognizing some of the biggest trends of the year.

Biggest preseason riser

Sam Darnold, on his fourth team in five years, opened training camp as the likely backup to rookie J.J. McCarthy, so expectations ranged from nonexistent to minimal.

Sure, Darnold’s pedigree as the No. 3 pick out of USC couldn’t be ignored, nor could coach Kevin O’Connell’s QB-friendly system. But no one could’ve predicted this.

Darnold finished fifth in the league in both passing yards (4,319) and touchdowns (35) and finished sixth among qualified QBs with a 102.5 passer rating.

Darnold opened the season as the 28th-ranked quarterback, and he rose 19 spots. He’s been a mostly steadying presence for the team that was tied for the third-most wins in the NFL. Star receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison never missed a beat.

Despite the meteoric rise, Darnold did dip for a bit, going No. 11 in Week 10 to No. 18 in Week 12. He still finished the season with his only three weeks in the top 10. Darnold will enter the offseason with the potential to become the crown jewel of the free agent market.

Biggest preseason faller

Aaron Rodgers was still viewed by many around the league as one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks at the start of the season, even coming off the torn Achilles, so the New York Jets QB debuted at No. 5.

He remained in the top six for the first five weeks of the season before the evidence became too great to ignore, and he plummeted to No. 15 in Week 6. Rodgers fell to No. 20 in Week 11 and never improved his standing. He finished the season ranked ahead of only two quarterbacks who were expected to open the season as their team’s starter.

Rodgers’ 63.0 completion percentage was his lowest since 2019, but he actually finished with more yards (3,897) and touchdowns (28) and fewer interceptions (11) than in his final season with the Packers.

Rodgers’ future is very much up in the air. Whether he wants to continue playing and if the Jets would want him back remain open questions. He may still be an asset for a veteran team that believes it’s a QB shy of the playoffs, but Rodgers will have to play much better than he did amid the Jets’ chaos.

Biggest midseason riser

Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young’s turnaround was one of the most spectacularly unexpected stories of the season.

The 2023 No. 1 pick was benched after coach Dave Canales’ second game. And although Young’s performance justified the demotion, it raised significant questions about Young’s future with an organization that has made more than its recent share of impulse decisions.

It’s not like the Panthers benched Young with a definitive timeline for his return to the field, either. Young only got his job back after Andy Dalton injured his hand in a car accident.

And yet, Young played well down the stretch with 15 touchdown passes, five touchdown runs and six interceptions over his final 10 starts. They were also 4-6 during that stretch, which is no small feat for a team that had lost 22 of its previous 25 games.

Canales has had a nice history with his quarterbacks, so it was surprising to see it start so poorly. But now that Young is entering the offseason playing his best football, the Panthers will be an intriguing team entering 2025.

Biggest midseason faller

It was supposed to be C.J. Stroud’s year. It never played out that way.

The Houston Texans QB debuted at No. 7 and soared to No. 3 just a week later. That’s where he remained for most of the first half, including as late as Week 9, but Stroud steadily fell the rest of the way. His ranking worsened in eight of the final 10 weeks, all the way down to No. 15.

Stroud’s numbers were down across the board. He completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 3,727 yards, 20 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an 87.0 passer rating. His rookie numbers were superior in every category, which is even more noteworthy considering he played two fewer games in 2023.

The Texans need to build a better offensive line because the pressure was the main deterrent to Stroud’s success. The injuries didn’t help, either.

And yet, Stroud and the Texans are back in the playoffs. There are plenty of reasons to remain bullish on Stroud.

Best rookie

This wasn’t difficult.

Jayden Daniels opened the season at No. 22, jumped to No. 13 by Week 6 and into the top 10 in Week 9. The Washington Commanders QB closed the season with three consecutive weeks at No. 8.

Daniels completed 69 percent of his passes for 3,568 yards, 25 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 100.1 passer rating; he added 891 rushing yards and six touchdowns.

He was so composed in tense moments, highlighted by four game-winning drives. Daniels’ Hail Mary against the Bears was an all-time moment, but the late drives against the Eagles and Falcons were more meaningful and should provide optimism the rookie is capable of repeating the feat in the playoffs.

Caleb Williams had a rocky season, but the Chicago Bears QB still put up some numbers for a team that went through a ton of adversity. Bo Nix wasn’t asked to carry the Denver Broncos, but he carried his weight to end their playoff drought. Drake Maye was often lost in the chaos in New England, but the young Patriots QB showed evidence of being a special player. Finally, Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. created momentum for next season with his solid play in three starts.

It’s shaping up to be a great draft class.

Incomplete …

And then there was one.

J.J. McCarthy missed his rookie season with a torn meniscus, leading to teams around the league wondering what the Vikings plan to do at quarterback. Conventional thinking suggests they’ll let Darnold hit free agency and turn toward their first-round pick in 2025. It’s just practical asset management.

But what if Darnold leads the Vikings to the Super Bowl or even the NFC Championship Game? The Vikings will have $75 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap, so they can pay Darnold to keep everything intact.

There’s an even bigger factor at play, though. McCarthy would rank as the No. 1 quarterback if he were in the 2025 draft class, according to several executives and coaches who have evaluated Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. The Vikings would certainly have a market if they decided to move McCarthy.

Who’s next?

On a related note, there was a major shakeup in the draft order over the final two weeks, and that should have a significant impact on the quarterback class.

For so long, the QB draft discussion focused on the Giants and Raiders. After all, they were viewed as the two most quarterback-desperate teams in the league, and they built what seemed to be an indestructible residence atop the draft order.

So much for that. The Giants will pick third after a Week 17 victory against the Colts, while the Raiders’ late wins against the Jaguars and Saints dropped them to No. 6.

Even until Sunday, when the Patriots had a temporary hold of No. 1 until they beat the Bills, QB-needy teams knew the pick was likely up for auction. Anyone willing to pay could get their guy.

Then the Titans and Browns entered the chat.

The Titans, who hold the top pick, aren’t going to build around Will Levis if this season was any indication. And the Browns know they have to get younger to find Deshaun Watson’s successor, whether that’s in Week 1 of 2025 or sometime thereafter. Watson’s setback from his Achilles injury could accelerate his to-be-determined successor’s timeline.

The Titans are in a great spot if they love Ward or Sanders — or McCarthy, which could open up a new range of options. As for the Browns, they’ve made moves in the past to ensure Watson would have an unobstructed path to the starting job, so they’re slightly more of a wild card. Maybe the star attraction of Colorado’s Travis Hunter shifts their focus to a QB in a later round.

Any way you look at it, the draft just got a lot more interesting.

Dropped out: Mason Rudolph (No. 31 last week), Dorian Thompson-Robinson (No. 32 last week).

(Photo of Josh Allen: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)