NFL Playoffs: 10 best quarterback plays from the divisional round

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• C.J. Stroud fell short in one of the best games of his career: His ball placement and anticipation caused fits for the Chiefs’ defensive backs in the Texans’ loss.

• Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes will battle it out in the AFC Conference Championship game: Both elite quarterbacks played clean football, with a few big throws, to propel their teams forward in the divisional round.

• 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

We have only four NFL divisional-round games to break down, but that didn’t make finding the 10 best plays any easier. There was plenty of high-level quarterback play during the third-to-last weekend of NFL playoff football, including from those who have been here before to a rookie lighting another defense on fire.

These 10 plays stood out the most, featuring impressive arm talent, processing ability and anticipation, and play-making ability.

This pass falls incomplete, but it wasn’t Patrick Mahomes‘ fault.

After the slight rollout, Mahomes’ read is the deep crosser. This play has a built-in “alert,” though — meaning, if you have the matchup or coverage you want, you turn to the alert. The alert on this play is Hollywood Brown running a fade, and Mahomes correctly targets it. The deep crosser is open, but the safety is flat-footed and is late to run with Brown. Mahomes knows Brown will outrun him and throws a perfect ball that is eventually knocked loose.

C.J. Stroud had one of his best games of the season in the divisional round, thanks to throws like this.

The Chiefs show a heavy-pressure look with some clues that they’re playing man coverage behind it, despite the two safeties. They end up playing man coverage with one safety rotating down and only one player dropping out of the pressure look at the line of scrimmage. The Texans’ offensive line does a fantastic job of protecting Stroud on a passing concept that requires time to execute. Stroud steps up in the pocket and sees that John Metchie has won on his route and stacked the defensive back. The deep safety is still in a position to make a play on the ball, but Stroud puts enough velocity on the pass and places it low to protect his receiver from taking a big hit.

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Patrick Mahomes often produces magic. He can throw the ball from any arm angle and, in this case, while falling.

The initial concept isn’t open, and with the pocket starting to collapse, Mahomes is forced to step up. He can’t quite get away from the defender, though. Most quarterbacks should never attempt a throw like this, especially in a tight window, but Mahomes always has his eyes up. He sees Travis Kelce work into a window — a player with whom he always seems to be on the same page. Even with one leg being tackled while he is falling to the ground, Mahomes connects with Kelce again.

C.J. Stroud has an innate ability to anticipate throws. On this play, he has no other option with pressure in his face.

The Chiefs send a blitz with a hybrid zone/man coverage behind it. Chris Jones does what he does best — wins quickly — to speed up Stroud’s process. The Texans deploy a dagger concept on offense, with one receiver running a deep clear-out route and the second receiver running an in-breaking route behind it. Stroud sees that the bailing defensive back is forced to match with the deep go route in the slot, so he knows the in-breaker from Nico Collins should be open. He doesn’t have time to see it open because of the pressure, though, and throws the ball well before Collins is out of his route. The pass connects with the star wideout for a huge gain.

Jayden Daniels put up another dominant performance, this time against the No. 1-seeded Lions in the divisional round. This throw is one of the best of his young career.

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The pre-snap motion shows the Lions are playing man coverage, which they run at the highest rate in the NFL. The Commanders‘ offensive line mostly picks up the blitz, but slight pressure gets to Daniels off the edge. Daniels feels it, though, and slightly drifts to give himself enough time to get off the throw. He sees Dyami Brown win on his route and stack the defensive back; he just needs to lead him away from the safety. Daniels throws a perfect ball more than 50 yards in the air, never forcing his receiver to break stride.

Matthew Stafford has made no-look throws seem casual for his entire career. Not only did he make another in the divisional round, but he did so three times. The first came early in the game. The Eagles play a lot of zone coverage, so quarterbacks need to move zone defenders with their eyes and anticipate when windows will open against them. Very few are better at that than Stafford.

The Rams run a levels concept, looking to attack the underneath zone defender. The defensive backs are playing outside leverage, so Stafford knows he needs to hold the underneath defender. He does that by simply staring directly at him and throwing it behind him, hitting Puka Nacua perfectly in stride. These throws have become second nature for Stafford but shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles‘ passing game hasn’t been fully firing as of late, but they have to take advantage of these plays. The Eagles run four verticals against the Rams, who play man coverage. The answer for Hurts is pretty simple: Target A.J. Brown one-on-one. The safety starts on the other side of the field, so Hurts knows he needs to slightly look him off. With pressure in his face, he can’t truly step into the throw, but he gets enough on it and Brown does a great job of flashing late hands to prevent the defender from batting it away, despite not reeling it in.

Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills needed to keep up with the Baltimore Ravens‘ high-powered offense, and while they ran the ball effectively, Allen still needed to make some big throws.

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The Bills‘ pre-snap motion shows that the Ravens might be playing man coverage, but Baltimore ends up playing a Tampa 2 zone coverage. Tampa 2 is a Cover 2 zone with the middle hole player getting depth and running up the seam. Allen recognizes that and knows he can lay the ball over the top, due to the two deep safeties being forced to play over the top of the two widest receivers. The pressure inhibits him from stepping into the throw, but his arm strength makes it a piece of cake. Allen makes a great throw for a big third-down conversion.

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens got off to a great start against the Bills before two bad turnovers. Jackson then returned to his MVP form.

The Ravens run a similar concept to the first Mahomes pass mentioned above. Jackson has an alert for the deep post — if the deep safety is too shallow, he should throw the post, despite the deep crosser being open. The Bills bite on the strange pump fake and what looks like a play-action draw, and the deep safety is forced to come up and help on the deep crosser. That frees up the deep post behind him, and Jackson finds Rashod Bateman in stride for a huge gain.

Despite the turnovers, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens put themselves in a position to tie the game against the Bills.

This play starts as a disaster, with one receiver falling and the check-down option also getting tripped up. Jackson is forced to create and buy time. The Bills send only three pass-rushers, though, so he has all the time in the world. Now, it just turns into backyard football. The Bills’ defense is forced to “plaster” — essentially, find the nearest receiver and play man coverage. Isaiah Likely picks up on Jackson scrambling to his right and starts to break free, and Jackson makes a great throw for the touchdown. It sets up a potential game-tying two-point conversion that Ravens fans will want to forget.

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