NFC North QB power rankings, Week 10: Kirk Cousins returns, Jordan Love ascends

It's now official: The NFC North has the best collection of quarterbacks of any division in the NFL.

Kirk Cousins, the former face of the Minnesota Vikings franchise who was cast away for JJ McCarthy, is officially back in Minneapolis after the NFL trade deadline. Jordan Love is playing the best football of his career.

With Jared Goff and Caleb Williams having slightly down weeks, we have more to unpack entering Week 10 than any other time this season, it seems. Let's jump into the latest NFC North QB rankings, with the best QB in the division taking his rightful place at the top and the Vikings finally making the move they so desperately needed.

NFC North quarterback power rankings: Jordan Love vaults to top spot

The Minnesota Vikings bring in a familiar face, but they still find themselves in a familiar place on these QB rankings.

Still, being fourth on this list with Kirk Cousins in the QB1 spot is much better than being fourth on this list with either Kyler Murray or Carson Wentz in the QB1 spot.

The Vikings -- as a team -- have lost each of their last two games. They got beat by the Detroit Lions two weeks ago and then lost at home to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills on Monday. And with even remotely competent QB play, they might have been able to pass that litmus test with flying colors.

But they haven't had that all season. The Vikings, quite frankly, were gifted Kirk Cousins, who has done a solid job this season with the Las Vegas Raiders. And maybe saying he's done a "solid job" is selling him a little short. He's actually wildly exceeded anyone's expectations.

He did throw three interceptions in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers this past week, but he also has 20 touchdown passes this season (seven multi-touchdown games) and four games with three-plus touchdown passes. Even if he never rises above fourth on this list, he might be able to give the Vikings the type of QB play that could make that team championship-caliber.

And guess who gets to face him first?

Heading into Sunday Night Football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it truly felt like the Chicago Bears were untouchable.

After going into Seattle and completely dismantling the Seahawks' elite defense – on their home field – it seemed like Caleb Williams and the Chicago offense were a runaway freight train that not even the best defenses in the NFL could truly contain.

The Bucs entered the matchup on Sunday as the NFL's leader in team interceptions, and they showed just how good they are at taking the ball away with how they defended Williams.

The young star in the making threw four interceptions to the Bucs' defense, uncharacteristically being reckless with the football and getting taken to school a little bit by Todd Bowles. The only other interception Williams had thrown this whole season was in the Bears' weather-impacted matchup against the Minnesota Vikings.

All that game against the Bucs did was solidify Williams' spot on these rankings. He's still fantastic, and we're expecting him to bounce back after that rough performance.

After playing like a league MVP through the month of October, Jared Goff has hit a couple of speed bumps in the month of November.

The first one was expected. Anyone who has gone up against the Vikings' defense has hit understandable bumps in the road, but Goff and the Lions were able to come away with a gritty win last week.

Then we saw the Lions kind of struggling with the Miami Dolphins, and eyebrows start to get raised.

Suddenly, Goff has just one touchdown pass over the past two games, and he hasn't even hit 200 passing yards since the Lions' win over the Packers on October 25.

The nice thing for the Lions is that Goff has set a high floor for himself. He's still one of the most accurate and efficient passers in the NFL, but the last couple of games have proven that he's human. He's thrown an interception in back-to-back games and has taken seven sacks as well. He was only sacked five times through three games in October.

Setting aside any sort of bias for the moment, Jordan Love is playing some of the most inspired football we've ever witnessed.

I've asked before and I'll ask again: Did Toyotathon start early this year?

Love was an absolute madman in the Packers' dominating victory over the New England Patriots, making throws most quarterbacks around the NFL wouldn't even dare to attempt on a regular basis.

That's not just hyperbole, either:

The unbridled confidence with which Jordan Love is playing right now has him firmly in the mix for NFL MVP, and if pressed to give that award today, he'd win it (if it were up to me, at least).

In the most competitive division in the league, the Packers have the best quarterback. And while it may have always been true, Love has really proven it with his play in recent weeks.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow