Quarterback is the most important position in football. Most NFL teams feel pretty set with their starters right now with just weeks to go ahead of the start of the regular season, but that doesn't mean every team is set with its backups.
There are a number of teams that could really use another body in the quarterback room, as well as a number of teams that have players who are expendable whom they should be looking to deal. With that in mind, let's play a little game of quarterback matchmaker.
Below are four quarterbacks who should be traded before Week 1 and who should trade for them.
Dillon Gabriel, Cleveland Browns
Destination: Los Angeles Rams
The Browns can't go into the 2025 season with four quarterbacks on the active roster. It would be just a terrible allocation of roster spaces.
Maybe Kenny Pickett just winds up cut, but if I'm the Browns, I'm exploring trades for Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. I'd also rather keep Sanders, based on his preseason showing.
The Rams have this weird Matthew Stafford injury situation hanging over their heads, and even if Stafford winds up good to go once the season is here, the team still has to think about the future. Stafford doesn't have many years left in the NFL, backup Jimmy Garoppolo isn't the long-term answer and third-stringer Stetson Bennett has shown pretty much nothing as a pro to date.
If either Browns rookie is on the market, the Rams should go after them, and Cleveland should answer the phone, because one or both of these guys will see a drop in value after this season once the league has a better sense of which one is the future Browns quarterback and which one isn't.
Jake Browning, Cincinnati Bengals
Destination: New York Jets
I've always been a Justin Fields apologist, but the chances that he's the long-term answer for the Jets feel low.
Jake Browning is just sitting there on the Bengals roster right now. It's true that he's arguably the most important backup quarterback in the league based on how he played in 2023, but it's also true that he's an impending free agent who should be looking for a starting opportunity next year.
Trading for Browning now allows New York to bypass the free agency thing. Get him in the door, see what he can do, lock him down for a few years and see if he can be a decent starting quarterback.
Davis Mills, Houston Texans
Destination: Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are Super Bowl contenders with Jared Goff under center, but the team lacks a viable backup plan if Goff goes down. Hendon Hooker is the current QB2 and has attempted a total of nine passes in the NFL since being drafted in 2023.
What the Lions need is an experienced backup who can come in and perform if Goff goes down. Enter Davis Mills. This is Mills' final season under contract with Houston, and the fact that the team traded up in this year's draft to take former Florida quarterback Graham Mertz suggests that Houston is looking for a backup beyond this season.
Of course, trading Mills would create the same issue in Houston that the Lions currently have, but Houston feels a bit farther from being a Super Bowl contender than Detroit does. A veteran backup quarterback makes more sense for the Lions and might lead to them offering Houston some decent value for Mills.
Jameis Winston, New York Giants
Destination: New Orleans Saints
The Saints have a mess at quarterback. They drafted Tyler Shough a little too high in 2025 and have Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener, both mid-round picks, just kind of wasting roster spots. Rattler might be something. Haener ... not so much.
Meanwhile, Jameis Winston doesn't make sense on the Giants roster. Russell Wilson is the starter. Jaxson Dart is a first-round pick who has shown enough to be the No. 2 guy. What's the point of having Winston there?
The Saints, for whom Winston played for four seasons, could bring the veteran quarterback in for essentially nothing, and he'd provide the team with some much-needed experience. New Orleans isn't a very good team and doesn't need Winston as a starter, but having him as the backup to Shough would just make more sense than whatever the Saints have going on right now.