These are the golf handicaps of some notable NFL QBs heading into the season
David Calvert
Are you ready for some football?! The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots kicked off the 2026-2027 NFL season on Wednesday night in what was a rematch of Super Bowl LX. But did you know it was also a matchup of two of the league's best golfers?
New England's Drake Maye currently boasts a 5.7 Handicap Index (which couldn't be much lower than his QB rating during that brutal fourth quarter) while Sam Darnold is a 7.8. Although, sadly for Sam, he might be taking some time off from both sports after injuring his hip on Seattle's opening possession and not returning to the game.
Anyway, as the rest of the league begins its schedule tonight and on Sunday, the USGA passed along the Handicap Indexes and golf courses of a bunch of notable playcallers. Have a look:
Josh Allen 3.8 El Niguel Country Club (California)
Matthew Stafford 4.3 Bel-Air Country Club (California)
Patrick Mahomes 4.7 Wolf Creek Golf Links (Kansas)
Drake Maye 5.7 Grandfather Golf & Country Club (North Carolina)
Justin Herbert 6.5 Oak Creek Golf Club (California)
Jared Goff 7.1 Bel-Air Country Club (California)
Sam Darnold 7.8 El Niguel Country Club (California)
Jacoby Brissett 9.5 Turtle Creek Club - Tequesta (Florida)
Trevor Lawrence 10.2 USGA/Florida GC (Florida)
Baker Mayfield 11.8 Pelican Golf Club (Florida)
Kirk Cousins 13.1 USGA/Michigan GC (Michigan)
Tua Tagovailoa 13.2 Shell Bay Club (Florida)
Of particular note is Patrick Mahomes, who will start for Kansas City in Thursday night's game against the Rams. The three-time Super Bowl champ will be returning from tearing his ACL in December so we'll have to see if he's fully recovered. In the meantime, he seemed fine on the golf course, posting 11 scores during the offseason.
Then there's Aaron Rodgers, who is a big golfer, but not on the list. Currently, he doesn't seem to have an official Handicap Index—which won't do much to make the sandbagging accusations go away.
And if the favorites from the AFC (Buffalo Bills) and the NFC (Los Angeles Rams) wind up making it to Super Bowl LXI in February, it will be a meeting of the league's two best golfing QBs.
At least, for now. It will be interesting to see how much any of these guys play golf during football season—and how much their handicaps would fluctuate.