Football is back, baby, which means so is mediocre quarterback play! It's only Week 1 of the NFL season, so we should probably avoid sweeping takeaways and blatant overreactions. That said, for some fans, it's never too early to start dreaming about what's next at quarterback.
We know not all 32 Week 1 starting quarterbacks will finish the season as starting quarterbacks. In fact, some won't make it to midseason — and we aren't just talking about injuries. The outcomes of a few controversial preseason QB battles were put to the test on Sunday afternoon. It's safe to say the results varied.
In the case of Joe Flacco and the Cleveland Browns, it's hard to argue with Flacco lining up under center again in Week 2. Cleveland lost 17-16 in a surprisingly defense-oriented battle with Cincinnati, but the veteran QB did what he does best. He stood tall in the pocket, uncorked a few middle-middle fastballs, and kept the Browns competitive.
The same can be said for Daniel Jones and the Indianapolis Colts. I would've been the first to tell you that starting Jones over Anthony Richardson was a mistake, but Indy took care of business against a lousy Dolphins defense. Jones was responsible for three total touchdowns and he didn't commit a single turnover. He wins the week.
On the other hand, these quarterbacks underperformed to such an extent that the phrase "QB competition" may be reentering the fan lexicon just a week into the season.
Spencer Rattler, New Orleans Saints
In all fairness, I'm not sure what the New Orleans Saints can do about this. It's hard to complain too much about a 20-13 loss to a competitive Arizona Cardinals team. Rattler threw for 214 yards and added another 29 on the ground, all without a turnover. But he also completed 27-of-46 passes — a 58 percent completion rate for an offense that struggled to consistently move the chains.
We all knew Rattler was probably overmatched as a starting quarterback, but the Saints don't have any categorically "better" options. Tyler Shough was the worst second-round pick in recent memory and Rattler thoroughly outperformed him in preseason. Jake Haener is a known commodity. Rattler beat him out last season in the most depressing QB battle of all time, and we don't need to go down that road again.
The real answer for an ideal Spencer Rattler replacement is probably Garrett Nussmeier or LaNorris Sellers. But that won't come until 2026, after the Saints have stacked 14 or 15 losses and plummeted to the bottom of the NFL standings.
In the meantime, we'll see how long Rattler's leash is. He's not untalented. He's a former top recruit who excelled against SEC competition at South Carolina. He has a big arm and he can move around in the pocket. Odds are he didn't do enough to lose the job against Arizona. Just know he's on the watch list.
Soon enough, it will reach the point where the Saints feel like starting Rattler is a futile effort and thus invest full-stop in Shough, a prospect that the front office and coaching staff clearly believed in, despite all the evidence against him.
Saints' replacement QB: Tyler Shough
Russell Wilson, New York Giants
Russell Wilson completed 17-of-37 passes (45.9 percent) for 169 yards in the New York Giants' 21-6 loss to the Washington Commanders. He added 43 yards on eight runs, but it was nowhere close to enough. This was probably the single worst QB performance of the afternoon slate and it sent Giants fans into an immediate spiral.
What are we doing here? I think we all knew, deep down, that Russ was not a quality starting quarterback at this point in his career. Denver basically paid him to get the heck out of dodge. The Steelers chased him out of town after a single season, in which he lost his last five games. The Giants needed stability, a proven quarterback to pull this team out of the bottom of the standings. There was zero evidence that Wilson could deliver on those expectations.
Jaxson Dart lit up the Giants preseason, to the point where New York has already been devising a package of plays to get their rookie quarterback on the field in non-starts. So, let's speed it up and get it over with. We don't need another six weeks of mediocrity from Wilson to convince us that Dart is the superior option. The Giants are a young, rebuilding team that needs to take the longest view in the room. Might as well get Dart his reps early and let him work through any warts in a low-stakes environment.
There is a case for bringing rookie quarterbacks along slowly, but straight up, the Giants are a much more compelling team with Dart under center. He's a major athlete with the mobility and arm strength of Josh Allen-lite. It's why Brian Daboll was such a fan. He will need to improve his decision-making and adjust to the speed of NFL defenses, but Russ is too small and too slow to operate under pressure at this point in his career.
Jameis Winston is in the Giants' QB room, too, and he'd give the Giants a veteran alternative to whatever Russ is doing out there, but Jaxson Dart is the future. New York should embrace the inevitable and install Dart for Week 2. There is genuinely no reason to keep up the Russ experiment. I promise the Commanders aren't some juggernaut defense.
Giants' replacement QB: Jaxson Dart
Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins
LOL. LMAO, even. The Miami Dolphins heard the noise all summer and responded with a 33-8 drubbing at the hands of (checks notes) the Daniel Jones-led Colts. It takes a special kind of dysfunctional to make Danny Dimes look like a team's long-awaited savior at quarterback. Miami's defense is an embarrassment, and somehow the offense might be worse.
Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa were once the most vaunted QB-coach duo in the NFL. Those days are over. McDaniel's not a bad coach, but he has lost the locker room. The Dolphins look completely disjointed out there. Nobody is on the same page. We know that Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill don't really like each other anymore. That was on full display Sunday afternoon.
It's only Week 1, but it feels like the Dolphins' offense is beyond saving at this point. Here's the thing about Tagovailoa: he was never elite. The Dolphins were elite, but Tagovailoa was a product of excellent personnel and a killer scheme. He was able to execute McDaniel's innovative play calls. He was able to get the football to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle out in space. But never, at any point, was Tagovailoa generating advantages with his arm.
There might not be a less useful individual quarterback starting in the NFL right now. Strip away the wide open, rapid-fire targets and what exactly does Tagovailoa bring to the table? He can't put velocity on a pass to save his life and he certainly isn't escaping the pocket to create with his legs.
The Alabama product finished Sunday's abysmal loss completing 14-of-23 passes for 114 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. That touchdown didn't come until the game was well out of hand in the fourth quarter.
Miami desperately needs a shakeup. Tagovailoa's exorbitant contract probably keeps him pegged as QB1 for a while longer, but the Dolphins should at least see what Zach Wilson can do out there. Unlike Tagovailoa, Wilson is a dynamic athlete with a huge arm and the ability to improvise on the move. He became infamous for terrible decision-making with the Jets, but I'd rather let Cam Thomas run my offense than Ben Simmons. You need a quarterback that can make things happen. Tagovailoa isn't even that efficient; he underthrows screen passes and lobs meatballs into traffic like a generous Italian restaurant owner.
Wilson is going to make dumb passes and commit fumbles of the most absurd variety, but he's also going to let it rip and give the Dolphins' offense a bit of dynamism that is presently lacking. I say this with 100 percent sincerity: Zach Wilson is exactly what the Miami Dolphins need.