Everybody has a quarterback, but not everybody really, truly loves their quarterback. There are 32 NFL teams, but there aren't 32 men walking the earth who can play this position and inspire total confidence in their coaches, their teammates and their fans.
With that in mind, we take a quarter-mark look at our QB Confidence Index -- ranking the NFL's teams according to how much confidence each has in its overall quarterback situation. That includes the starter and the backup plan, so please remember that before sending your angry tweets.
Here is how the QB Confidence Index looks through Week 4 of the 2016 season. I've also included each team's preseason rating so you can see how things have changed.
1. New England Patriots
QB Confidence Index: 9.9 | Previous rating: 9.6
The preseason rating accounted for Tom Brady's absence, which is a thing of the past. In the meantime, they found out Jimmy Garoppolo can keep things humming if something happens to Brady. The Patriots are my clear No. 1 with Brady back from suspension and Garoppolo on the mend.
2. Seattle Seahawks
QB Confidence Index: 9.6 | Previous rating: 9.1
Questions about Trevone Boykin as a backup have faded in importance as starter Russell Wilson has made it clear he cannot be defeated with conventional weapons. Wilson has played through ankle and knee sprains and should only get better as he heals.
3. Green Bay Packers
QB Confidence Index: 9.3 | Previous rating: 9.8
The teensiest little wobble here, as Aaron Rodgers has played only three games but ranks a puzzling 25th in the league in yards per pass attempt. He's still reliable -- seven touchdowns and only one interception -- but the vertical game is an issue for some reason, and that's cause for a dip.
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
QB Confidence Index: 9.1 | Previous rating: 9.1
Nothing has changed here since the preseason. Ben Roethlisberger is currently tied for the league lead with 11 touchdown passes even though he had one game in which he didn't throw any. He's exactly what the Steelers thought he was, though he's still (as always) a bit of a health risk.
5. New Orleans Saints
QB Confidence Index: 9.1 | Previous rating: 8.5
I'm still worried about the backup situation if something happens to Drew Brees. But as with Wilson, there's no reason to think anything ever will. Brees has missed just three starts due to injury since 2004. No quarterback has to do more week-to-week to overcome a soul-crushing defense. He deserves a little boost after his first win.
6. Atlanta Falcons
QB Confidence Index: 8.9 | Previous rating: 8.1
Matt Ryan is out of his mind right now, tied with Big Ben for that league-leading 11 touchdowns and more than 200 yards ahead of Brees for the top yardage mark. Ryan's issue last year was red zone interceptions, and those are under control so far as he has the Falcons off to yet another hot start.
7. Cincinnati Bengals
QB Confidence Index: 8.4 | Previous rating: 8.3
What? Confidence? In Andy Dalton? You betcha. Yes, I know he has only three touchdown passes so far, but this is an eye-test deal. Dalton looks just like he did last year minus red-zone buddy Tyler Eifert, who'll be back soon.
8. San Diego Chargers
QB Confidence Index: 8.2 | Previous rating: 8.2
Philip Rivers has lost Keenan Allen, Antonio Gates and Danny Woodhead since the season began. He's fifth in passer rating and seventh in QBR. He and Brees must call each other all the time to talk about the latest way their defense let a game get away.
9. New York Giants
QB Confidence Index: 7.9 | Previous rating: 8.2
The Giants have total confidence in Eli Manning's ability to answer the bell every week, just as the Chargers do with Rivers, the Falcons with Ryan, the Seahawks with Wilson, etc. But that late interception against Washington was an ugly reminder of what keeps Manning's confidence rating from jetting up into that top tier.
10. Carolina Panthers
QB Confidence Index: 7.8 | Previous rating: 9.3
Cam Newton is the reigning MVP and would be a fine bet to rebound from a rough start ... if he wasn't also the official piñata of the National Football League. The Panthers' faith in Newton's ability to last the season has to have waned over the past month. He's now in concussion protocol, and Derek Anderson showed why he's a backup with two late-game interceptions Sunday.
11. Indianapolis Colts
QB Confidence Index: 7.8 | Previous rating: 7.8
Literally nothing about the season Andrew Luck and the Colts are having is a surprise. His completion percentage is actually better than ever, even though he somehow has been sacked 15 times. If they could protect him, Luck would be an MVP candidate. But they can't, so here they sit.
12. Oakland Raiders
QB Confidence Index: 7.8 | Previous rating: 6.3
Now, Derek Carr ... Here's a young man who has given his team reason for improved confidence. Fourth in passer rating, sixth in QBR, 68.0 completion rate with nine touchdowns and one interception: brilliant stuff, worthy of his team's confidence. And they're returning the favor, as the Raiders' monster offensive line has allowed only two sacks so far. Carr is set up to succeed.
13. Arizona Cardinals
QB Confidence Index: 7.6 | Previous rating: 8.6
You can't lay all of Arizona's offensive struggles at the feet of Carson Palmer, but he didn't look like himself out there even before Sunday's concussion. Drew Stanton could get a nice chance Thursday against the pillowy 49ers to show why the Cardinals should be confident in their backup.
14. Baltimore Ravens
QB Confidence Index: 7.3 | Previous rating: 6.9
Yeah, old Joe Flacco just keeps Flaccoing along, chucking it like crazy to a cast-off group of wide receivers. Mike Wallace one week, Steve Smith the next. Only Brees and Jameis Winston have put more balls in the air this year, but each has thrown more than twice as many touchdowns as Flacco. Whether Flacco's career ends next month or 10 years from now, everybody is going to say, "Oh yeah. That guy."
15. Detroit Lions
QB Confidence Index: 6.4 | Previous rating: 6.4
We're getting exactly what we expected out of Matthew Stafford, too. Some of these dudes just are who they are. Stafford is humming along at 300 yards a game, throwing it to Marvin Jones and Theo Riddick and not winning games. He's squarely in the "Least of Their Problems" QB basket.
16. Minnesota Vikings
QB Confidence Index: 6.3 | Previous rating: 4.5
Volatility has been the name of the Vikings' QB game, with Teddy Bridgewater blowing out his knee right before the season, Sam Bradford coming over from Philly and Shaun Hill starting Week 1 because Bradford had just gotten there. But not only is Bradford delivering the way they'd hoped, they won the season opener with Hill. The Vikings have confidence it will be OK once everything settles down.
17. Philadelphia Eagles
QB Confidence Index: 6.3 | Previous rating: 3.8
On the preseason QB Confidence Index, some clown wrote, "Carson Wentz almost certainly isn't ready for this," and "the Eagles are clearly in rebuild, and they'd better be confident they won't wreck Wentz by playing him before he's ready." Who was that guy? Moron. Good thing he's not writing this column anymore. You guys are lucky I came along to clean things up. Wentz's three-game sample size is all kinds of promising, and Chase Daniel is still as good a backup as any in the league.
18. Dallas Cowboys
QB Confidence Index: 6.3 | Previous rating: 2.7
Dak Prescott was the 135th pick in this year's draft, and in no universe did the Cowboys expect him to be ready to win three NFL games this season. But he has. And while the Tony-Romo-as-Wally-Pipp talk is exclusively external and has no support within the Cowboys' building, Dallas is plum excited to have finally have a guy who can win games for them when Tony is hurt. Big confidence jump here.
19. Chicago Bears
QB Confidence Index: 6.1 | Previous rating: 7.8
The preseason rating was too high; sorry about that. But it was based on the idea of Brian Hoyer as the league's top backup, and Sunday's win with Hoyer at the helm seemed to bear that out somewhat. I'll buy the idea of Hoyer keeping the job once Jay Cutler is healthy before I'll buy Prescott keeping his once Romo is back.
20. Denver Broncos
QB Confidence Index: 6.0 | Previous rating: 3.3
Got to hand it to young Trevor Siemian. I thought he was a caretaker, placeholder, whatever, until he aired out the Bengals in Week 3 and showed why Denver had so much preseason confidence in him. He's hurt now, but the 4-0 defending champs don't seem to care much who's taking the snaps, do they?
21. Jacksonville Jaguars
QB Confidence Index: 5.3 | Previous rating: 6.1
The alarm bells aren't sounding for Blake Bortles yet, but the plastic cover is open and the Jaguars' thumb is hovering over the button. With six interceptions to go with seven touchdowns and a 1-3 record, Bortles doesn't seem to be taking the jump many expected of him in 2016, which could spell trouble for his coaches.
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
QB Confidence Index: 5.3 | Previous rating: 5.3
Confident enough to allow Jameis Winston to throw a league-leading 177 passes so far, the Bucs can't draw much confidence from the fact that he completed only 103 of them, or that eight have been caught by opponents. Long term, the Bucs have confidence in Winston as their franchise quarterback. But he's young and he looks it.
23. Washington
QB Confidence Index: 5.1 | Previous rating: 5.1
Had we done this update after two weeks, Kirk Cousins' performance would have sunk his rating toward the bottom. But he has rebounded, which means his evaluation hasn't changed since the preseason: He does enough to give Washington hope, but not yet enough to give it confidence.
24. Kansas City Chiefs
QB Confidence Index: 5.1 | Previous rating: 5.1
Alex Smith is actually playing about as well as can be expected. Which puts him right around this spot. He's fourth in the league in pass attempts, has completed 64.9 percent of them and, like a few others on this list, isn't among his team's biggest problems. He's just not going to elevate them very high.
25. Buffalo Bills
QB Confidence Index: 4.5 | Previous rating: 4.5
We didn't think the Bills would ask Tyrod Taylor to do much, and they haven't. He's 24th in pass attempts, 25th in yards and tied for 20th in touchdown passes. If they really had confidence in him, he'd throw more.
26. Tennessee Titans
QB Confidence Index: 4.4 | Previous rating: 4.4
Growing-pains year so far for young Marcus Mariota, who's tied for 25th in completion percentage and dead last in Total QBR. He carries his team's long-term confidence but hasn't done much to make the Titans think he can win them games in the short term.
27. Miami Dolphins
QB Confidence Index: 4.2 | Previous rating: 5.1
There are all kinds of excuses for Ryan Tannehill. His offensive line is a mess. His coach keeps benching all the running backs. It's like his 19th different offensive system in five years. At some point, though, this guy has to look like he's getting better. He doesn't.
28. Houston Texans
QB Confidence Index: 3.9 | Previous rating: 4.1
It's possible the Texans will never be more confident in Brock Osweiler than they were the day they signed him to a four-year, $72 million contract. Most of us would be pleased to receive that level of confidence at some point in our lives, and Houston's 3-1 start buys Osweiler time to show them he deserved it.
29. New York Jets
QB Confidence Index: 3.1 | Previous rating: 3.9
"See???" the Jets' front office is probably saying, to someone, even in their imagination. "We TOLD you we would have been better off just direct-snapping it to Matt Forte and Bilal Powell and spending that money on new cars for every employee. At least then we don't have six-interception games." Ryan Fitzpatrick is, now and forever, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
30. San Francisco 49ers
QB Confidence Index: 2.8 | Previous rating: 3.6
It's still Blaine Gabbert's job, mainly because Colin Kaepernick hasn't physically recovered enough from offseason surgeries to make the coaches believe he can play a whole game. In related news, Kaepernick isn't exactly Roger Staubach. Long year by the Bay.
31. Los Angeles Rams
QB Confidence Index: 2.5 | Previous rating: 1.9
Yeah, we'll bump them up a little bit for going 3-1 with Case Keenum while the No. 1 overall pick sits on the bench. But this isn't a results ranking; it's a confidence ranking. And the Rams' lack of confidence in their quarterback situation is palpable during every tense Jeff Fisher news conference.
32. Cleveland Browns
QB Confidence Index: 0.4 | Previous rating: 0.8
Hue Jackson was confident he could make something of Robert Griffin III. Griffin didn't last one game. The only good news here is that each week brings the Browns closer to picking any quarterback they want in the 2017 draft class.
