Seahawks' Sam Donald drops, Russell Wilson plummets in new NFL QB rankings

He wasn't as good as Geno Smith. But he was better than Russell Wilson.

In the end, new Seattle Seahawks' quarterback Sam Darnold is sandwiched somewhere between his two predecessors. According to The Athletic's weekly NFL quarterback rankings he's still a middle-of-the-pack performer.

In his Seahawks' debut, Darnold had a chance to make quite the favorable impression. With completions of 11 and 40 yards to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, he drove Seattle inside San Francisco's 10-yard line in the final minute down only 17-13 at a deafening Lumen Field.

But instead of a game-winning play, Darnold produced, well, a Darnold. Bumped into my right tackle Abe Lucas - who was shoved into his lap by 49ers' rusher Joey Bosa - Darnold fumbled and that was it.

He threw for only 150 yards, but had his team in position to win. Until he didn't.

For his crunch-time turnover, Darnold dropped from No. 14 to 17 in The Athletic's rankings. For guiding his Las Vegas Raiders to a road win over the Patriots, Geno Smith jumped from 17 to 15. And Wilson, who led the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl, was the week's biggest dropper - from 25 to 30 - after failing to lead the New York Giants to a touchdown in their loss at Washington.

The Top 5 remained the same although with a bit of shuffing: 1. Josh Allen, 2. Lamar Jackson, 3. Patrick Mahomes, 4. Joe Burrow, 5. Jayden Daniels. The biggest jump of the week was by the Chargers' Justin Herbert, who moved into the Top 10 at No. 9 after upsetting the Chiefs in Brazil.