Surprising QB drew the most penalties in the NFL last season

The persistent narrative among football fans is that the Kansas City Chiefs — and quarterback Patrick Mahomes — benefit the most from favorable calls from the officials. While the Chiefs and Mahomes do benefit plenty from calls made by the officials, there was one specific quarterback who got the most roughing the passer/unnecessary roughness calls in the NFL last season, and it wasn’t the KC QB. It was actually Tua Tagovailoa, according to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo.

The NFL reviewed the fouls drawn by quarterbacks during the 2024 season to see if anyone is receiving preferential treatment. The results showed that Tagovailoa drew the most roughing the passer/unnecessary roughness fouls per 100 hits at 7.32. Mahomes was further down the list at No. 8.

Here is a look at the top 10:

1. Tua Tagovailoa 7.32
2. Josh Allen: 6.73
3. Bryce Young: 5.45
4. Cooper Rush: 4.88
5. Kyler Murray: 4.0
6. Jared Goff: 3.81
7. Baker Mayfield: 3.6
8. Patrick Mahomes: 3.53
9. Daniel Jones: 3.41
10. Aaron Rodgers: 3.41

Interestingly, Derek Carr, Bo Nix, CJ Stroud and Jalen Hurts all did not receive any such calls, so their rate was 0.0.

The stats are fairly telling, and it seems like maybe there was a slight effort to protect Tagovailoa given his concussion history.

Also, the stats focused on penalties drawn by quarterbacks for roughing the passer. That specific study wouldn’t capture the benefit of calls someone like Mahomes received as a runner. Once you factor in those calls, Mahomes would be close to the top of the list, if not at the top.