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10 best quarterback plays from Wild-Card Weekend

2S5EX93 Tampa Bay, Florida, USA, January 12, 2025, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels makes a pass at Raymond James Stadium. (Photo Credit: Marty Jean-Louis/Alamy Live News

By Nick Akridge

• Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen go head to head after wild-card dominance: Jackson and Allen each made incredible throws in the wild-card round. Now, they face one another in the divisional round.

• Bo Nix flashes potential despite an offensive dud: He hit Troy Franklin on a pinpoint deep ball to open the scoring against the Bills.

• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.

Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

There was some great quarterback play throughout Wild-Card Weekend, from Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen efficiently carving through defenses to Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels proving they belong with great rookie performances. However, these individual plays stood out the most, featuring either impressive arm talent, processing ability and anticipation, or playmaking ability.

It took a while for CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans‘ offense to get going, but when they did, it involved a heavy dose of Nico Collins. On this play, the Texans come out in a two-tight end set with a quick play-action fake and a dagger concept between the two wide receivers. On a dagger concept, one receiver runs a deep route to help clear out the safeties and the other receiver runs an in-breaking route underneath it. Stroud knows that the backside safety will run with the deep route due to how his body is turned, and the linebacker bailing won’t be able to turn his hips to make a play on the in route from Collins. He releases this ball right as Collins breaks on his route, giving the linebacker zero chance to make a play on it. It results in a huge first down.

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens‘ offense were dialed in from the beginning of the game, scoring a touchdown on their opening drive. On third-and-13, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a chance to force the Ravens to kick a field goal, but Jackson and his offensive line have other ideas. The Ravens decide to run deep crossing routes against a Steelers defense that plays some of the most man coverage in the NFL. Pittsburgh deploys man coverage again on this play, but with two safeties bracketing the first two crossing routes. That should give the Steelers enough time to pressure Jackson, but the Ravens' offensive line does an incredible job of holding up, allowing Jackson to get to the deep crossing route from Rashod Bateman. He knows with the leverage of the cornerback that he’ll have Bateman open and is able to fit the ball into a tight window for the first touchdown of the game.

It was a slow start from the Steelers' offense, but they started to get going in the second half. On this play, the Ravens run a zone pressure and drop into a Quarters coverage. This route really shouldn’t be an option, with both the safety and cornerback essentially bracketing it, but a slight turn of the head moves safety Kyle Hamilton just enough to give Wilson a window. A great route from Van Jefferson beats the cornerback, and Wilson throws one of his patented moon balls for the Steelers' first touchdown of the game.

Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos came out as heavy underdogs against the Buffalo Bills, but that didn’t stop them from attacking. On second-and-4, Nix decides to take a deep shot. The Bills are playing a Quarters coverage, where the deep safeties are sometimes responsible for driving on intermediate routes, as you see from the safety at the top of the screen. Because of that, the quarterback can take advantage of safeties who aren’t respecting the deep route. Nix sees that the safety is initially flat-footed when backpedaling and is too late to turn his hips to run with Troy Franklin. He knows that Franklin’s speed will be too much for the defender. Nix just needs to get enough air on the ball to let Franklin run under it, and he does just that — even while taking a huge hit — for a big first touchdown of the game.

A benefit of attacking that Quarters safety early in the game is that it forces them to sit deeper and opens up some intermediate in-breaking routes. Nix looked to take advantage of that. You can see how much deeper both safeties are on this play, which gives Nix two options. He has two in-breaking routes coming from his right with neither safety in a position to drive on them, putting the linebacker in an impossible position. Nix sees that linebacker turn his hips and start to carry with the first in-breaking route, so he flips to the one that’s behind it. The linebacker actually plays this about as well as one can, but Nix’s arm strength beats him. It’s ultimately dropped by the receiver, though.

Josh Allen is known for extending plays and turning nothing into something incredible. On a fourth-and-1 late in the third quarter, he does just that. Ideally, the Bills would like to hit one of the whip routes from Khalil Shakir at the bottom or Curtis Samuel at the top, but Allen opts against those and looks like he wants to scramble to get the first down. The Broncos do a great job of containing him, but they aren’t ever able to actually put pressure on him. Not many quarterbacks are going to attempt this throw or even think it’s reasonable, but Allen has one of the strongest arms in the NFL and the ultimate faith in it. Ty Johnson ends up coming all the way from the bottom left of the field to make this play, and Allen leads him perfectly in the back of the end zone, where Johnson makes an incredible catch for a touchdown.

Jayden Daniels’ rookie year has been historic, and he came out firing in his first career playoff game. Todd Bowles’ Tampa Bay defense is known for its exotic blitz packages, and the Commanders‘ offense knows that to be successful, it has to identify and pick up those blitzes. The Buccaneers do that here by sliding the offensive line to the right to pick up the blitz from Lavonte David. David does end up blitzing, and the line gets it picked up, but the running back is now in a one-on-one situation with a blitzing Antoine Winfield Jr. The back does just enough to give Daniels time to throw a deep fade to Terry McLaurin. It’s a perfect ball but an even better contested catch for a huge third-down conversion early in the game.

This is another great Jayden Daniels play, this time on a fourth down late in the game to take the lead. Daniels begins by reading the concept to the right side. If the defense is playing man coverage, he would look to throw the slant from Dyami Brown working up to the corner route from Zach Ertz. The Buccaneers end up playing zone coverage, meaning neither of those routes is available, so Daniels quickly moves off it and gets to the backside of his progression. He sees that with two underneath defenders, Terry McLaurin will need to win on an in-breaking route against a cornerback playing outside leverage. He trusts him to win and knows the underneath defenders will step up on the check-down to the running back. Daniels proceeds to throw an accurate ball for a go-ahead touchdown.

The Rams were dominant from the start, led by an impressive defensive performance, but Matthew Stafford still had his fair share of great plays. Stafford is known for attacking tight windows and being able to throw accurately from any arm angle. After a play-action fake, he quickly recognizes that the Vikings are sending a zero-blitz — meaning everyone in coverage is playing man-to-man and the rest of the defense is blitzing. Because of that, he knows the safety will have too far to go to pick up the crossing route from Hunter Long. With a free rusher in his face, Stafford drops his arm angle slightly to prevent him from batting it down and throws a perfect ball, hitting the receiver in stride.

Overall, it was a rough game for Sam Darnold and the Vikings' offense. But this throw highlights Darnold's talent. The Rams rotate into a Cover-3 look, and with the middle-of-the-field safety turning his hips away from the deep post, Darnold knows he has a chance to make this throw to Jordan Addison. You need some special arm talent to attempt this throw from such a tight pocket. He ends up throwing this more than 50 yards in the air right on the money to Addison, who isn’t able to haul it in.

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