What Is Your Quarterback Doing With His Non-Throwing Hand?
Presenting the newest and most important metric in QB analysisWhat Is Your Quarterback Doing With His Non-Throwing Hand?
Presenting the newest and most important metric in QB analysis
What’s the old phrase? That the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? Football quarterbacking seems to embody the notion more than anything else. There’s obviously a learned aspect to it. Nobody’s arm is dangling by their side like in the old days. It’s clear that every NFL quarterback learned at the knee of a guru somewhere. But their off hands are seemingly left to their own devices.
What’s that other old phrase? Idle hands are the devil’s playground? There’s certainly an element of parapraxical actualization in the way that a quarterback’s non-throwing hand, well, handles itself when a throw is being made. It’s 2026. We’ve got stats that cover almost every imaginable aspect of a quarterback performance. But there’s no stat for the subliminal confession of an overlooked off hand.
So we decided to take matters into our own hands. Below is an extremely important investigation into quarterbacks’ non-throwing hands—and an assessment of what they tell us about each thrower’s psyche.
Josh Allen
Allen might be the best quarterback in the league, but he’s got a lot of the old gunslinger still left in him. His efficiency has dramatically improved over the course of his career, but he hasn’t forgotten what got him here. And he won’t let us forget either, as every pass is accentuated with the pew pew of his little off-hand pop gun.
Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes is not scared of anyone, least of all your weak-ass defensive line. Which is why, when he’s flinging the ball, he’s also taunting the opposition with Razor Ramon–inspired spooky fingers. More importantly, maybe the Chiefs star is finally ready to embrace the role of the Bad Guy.
Matthew Stafford
Stafford completed 65 percent of his throws last season and posted a passer rating north of 109. He earned every bit of the league MVP. To achieve that as a 38-year-old, you have to hold yourself to exacting standards … which explains why every time he cocks back to pass, he preemptively apologizes for whatever comes next. While his right hand is tossing a precision pass, his left hand is shrugging like he's on an ’80s comedy movie poster. Did I do that? Stafford seems to ask, just in case the pass sails wide of his target. That’s rigor.
Kyler Murray
Let’s get this out of the way up front: As far as we can tell, there is no correlation between the Vikings quarterback and Pepe the Frog or the alt-right movement. Instead, Murray’s unmissable “OK” hand gesture signals that, despite your concerns—that he’s too short to see his receivers, that he’s no longer nimble enough to scramble reliably, that his old team paid him $36 million to get out of town, that he can’t focus on his job when a new Call of Duty title is released—everything’s going to be just fine. He promises. Trust him.
Jacoby Brissett
Brissett, an on-again, off-again backup who has somehow emerged as the Cardinals’ 2026 starter, is plainly raising his hand like a reticent third grader who wants to ask a question in class. You know, like, “How did I get here?” Or, “Are you sure you want me to throw the ball, Mr. LaFleur?” Or, “If I overthrow this pass by 20 yards, will you give me $36 million to go away, too?”
Malik Willis
Within the span of a year, Willis went from mostly anonymous backup to cause célèbre free-agent signing. This will be a big season for the new Dolphins QB, and he’s certainly feeling some nerves. During every throw, he clinches his fist near his face in a universally recognizable gesture of self-soothing. Oh my God, I hope this works, he appears to think, as the shock, anxiety, and fear of what he’s about to do surface every single time he tosses the ball.
Drake Maye
Maye has a fiery competitiveness, but it lies beneath a sometimes unnervingly calm demeanor. One might even say he’s stoic. Of course, he’s still working on his craft. He had a stellar sophomore season, but he’s still got a long way to go if his left hand is any indication. He’s almost got the Vulcan hand gesture down, but he can’t quite nail it. “Live long and prosper” is a fine NFL motto—Maye just needs to get his fingers in the right place before he reaches the final frontier.
Jayden Daniels
Every time Daniels throws the ball, he looks like he’s politely asking for the check. He’s ready to head home … just like most Commanders fans.
Caleb Williams
Williams danced his way to a few stellar highlights at the end of last season, with moves that would have made Bob Fosse proud. And while he’s launching a pass and tap-dancing with his lower torso, Williams’s left hand is doing jazz hands with a Broadway flair. He’ll have some real, ahem, magic to do if he’s going to dance with this team deep into the playoffs.
Geno Smith
A journeyman whose career has had plenty of highs and lows, Smith is now back with the Jets, the team that drafted him in 2013. His first stint in New York is perhaps best remembered for the time that Smith got sucker punched—which you must take into account when you ask why he’s clearly waving at someone every time he throws the ball. Is it “Hey, folks, it’s good to be back”? Or “Hey, Woody, remember me?” Maybe he’s just waving to his family in the crowd, in case they’re not sure which player he is.
Lamar Jackson
This, obviously, is the traditional “poof, be gone” gesture. What’s unclear is whether Jackson is celebrating the way he made former coach John Harbaugh vanish or subconsciously referencing his own annual postseason disappearing act.
Joe Burrow
Burrow might claim to be a Bengal for life, and he certainly seems to have the front office wrapped around his extended little finger. But with every toss he’s subconsciously already on the phone with his agent, saying, “Brian, get me the hell out of here before one of these pass rushers kills me.”
Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers’s form is distinct in the NFL, maybe because he comes from an earlier generation of quarterback schooling, and maybe because he’s still more gunslinger than pocket passer. Either way, he uses his off hand to work on his “old man yells at clouds” fist shake. “Get off my lawn”? Dude, nobody wants to be on your lawn.
Deshaun Watson
That’s the universal symbol for “Help,” which is the first reaction of everyone who has ever met Deshaun Watson.
C.J. Stroud
Stroud may be from California, but he’s made Texas his home, and he was clearly built for it. Every time he cocks back to throw, he signals for the Von Erich Iron Claw with his other hand. Let’s just hope he gets another big babyface run.
Fritz Von Erich
Daniel Jones
After finally finding his footing as a starter in Indianapolis, Jones promptly tore his Achilles midway through last season. He’s back for 2026, but with his left hand he wants to be perfectly clear: Let’s set our expectations reasonably. Like here? Eh, maybe a little lower. Yeah, just a little more. That’s about right.
Cam Ward
Ward appears to be blowing on the dice and ready to roll ’em. As any Titans fan will tell you, this is a perfect encapsulation of the Cam Ward experience.
Trevor Lawrence
Despite posting career-best production in 2025, Lawrence was sacked a whopping 41 times. So it’s little wonder that while he’s sailing deep balls, his off hand is perpetually up, palm out, to block the inevitable blitz that’s bearing down on him.
Bo Nix
Here we find Nix mid–Hail Mary. (And, in the second photo, trying to remember the sequence of the gesture.) Enough said.
Kirk Cousins
Ever the team player, Cousins can’t throw the ball without giving a cutesy wave toward the sideline, where Fernando Mendoza—the no. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, whom he beat out for the starting job—is standing in wait.
Fernando Mendoza
It’s OK, Raiders fans. Mendoza is still stuck in “toddler counting to four” mode. He’ll get there eventually.
Justin Herbert
Herbert is a Eugene, Oregon, native who plays pro ball in Los Angeles; both cities are a long way from Houston. But raising the roof has transcended locale since it was invented by The Ringer’s own Joel Anderson in the early ’90s, and it's obviously infected the subconscious of the Chargers starter. Herbert is a fun-loving guy just trying to get hype, right? Or is he signaling that he’s carrying the weight of the football analytics world on his shoulders? No matter the explanation, if Herbert doesn’t get the postseason party started this season, he won’t have a lot to celebrate.
Jaxson Dart
Dart thinks he’s smart. Psst, he whispers, his hand covering his mouth slyly. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m about to run the ball. It’s not a secret, Jaxson. Everybody already knows.
Jalen Hurts
As much as we would like to assign some significance to what at first glance appears to be a “Hook ’em Horns” gesture, Hurts was 1-0 against the Texas Longhorns during his college career, so there are probably no deep memories flickering in his left hand. A better explanation is that he’s doing the ILY (I love you) hand gesture as a heartfelt message to Philly fans, although the utter lack of heart and feelings within the average Philly fan makes this unlikely as well.
But take a deeper look, not to the gesture but to the man who made it famous: Richard Dawson, the original host of Family Feud. The internal dynamics of the Eagles offense have supposedly been smoothed out with the departure of receiver A.J. Brown, but Hurts’s hand tells a different story. Get ready for another season of team dysfunction.
Dak Prescott
Prescott’s stats are unassailable, even if his postseason record isn’t. Perhaps his most impressive skill, though, is being able to simultaneously tell owner Jerry Jones to sit down and shut up at the exact same time that he’s passing the ball.
Jared Goff
After falling on his face in another season with high expectations, Goff is just trying to figure out who did this.
Jordan Love
Love is clearly waving away the stench of either cheese or the middling reputation he has among his peers, even if the stats suggest he’s elite.
Bryce Young
Young is just busy making sure the ball doesn’t fall out of his teeny, tiny hand.
Tyler Shough
Holding up your pinkies is actually considered a faux pas these days, but don’t tell Shough, the Emily Post of quarterbacks. He keeps his pinkie elevated just to make sure everybody knows he has good manners, even in the gritty milieu of football, ma’am.
Baker Mayfield
Mayfield is something of a wizard on the field, so it makes sense that with every pass he casts a spell with his non-throwing hand. Maybe he’s trying to wish his throw into a completion. Or maybe he’s trying to magically make Mike Evans reappear.
Brock Purdy
This isn’t form; Purdy is counting how many Niners starters are out with season-ending injuries.
Sam Darnold
Plainly, Darnold is using the Force to try to move defenders out of the way. Don’t be fooled by his aw-shucks demeanor—Darnold is a real Sith lord. How else could he use the Force choke on Drake Maye all the way from the locker room?
Tua Tagovailoa
Tagovailoa is undeniably committed to his craft, insisting on playing years after anyone else’s career would have been derailed by concussions. And this is reflected in his throwing posture: It’s not just his off hand that’s curling up into the phalangeal equivalent of the fetal position; it's a full-body immersive experience. He looks like he’s getting leveled by a defender every time he releases the ball. Muscle memory and all that.
