We're heading for a strange offseason as far as quarterbacks go. Free agency lacks many game changers at the moment and the draft has just one player who is ready to go as a starter from Day 1 — Fernando Mendoza, who will be the Raiders' Week 1 starter — but established mid-tier players like Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa will likely be available, either via trade or, if no trades materialize, free agency.
There are good landing spots for each player, but there are also very, very bad landing spots, places where the player will immediately be doomed to failure in a way that completely derails his NFL career. (Okay, that might be a bit extreme, but these landing spots are the worst-case scenario for these available quarterbacks.
Malik Willis: Cleveland Browns
There is one quarterback available in free agency who might have the upside to be a long-term starter for a new team. Let's hope he doesn't end up with the Cleveland Browns.
Not that, like, the Browns would do something dumb like have Willis compete against Shedeur Sanders for the starting job or anything. I imagine he wouldn't sign there without a guarantee that he's the guy, considering he'll have plenty of other suitors.
But the Browns remain...well, they remain the Browns. The team fired Kevin Stefanski only to eventually hire Todd Monken as his replacement, a guy who wasn't really in high demand and whose head coaching record in college was 13-25 with Southern Miss.
This just isn't a franchise you can trust as far as QB development goes. If the Browns ever do find their solution, it probably involves lucking into a generational talent with the No. 1 overall pick who is so good that they can't mess him up too bad.
Aaron Rodgers: Arizona Cardinals
It sounds like Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers are heading for a separation after one season. With that, Rodgers is set to hit free agency and will likely find he's not in very high demand.
There might be teams out there with playoff hopes who could use Rodgers — imagine him completing the Brett Favre journey and joining the Vikings — but Rodgers might look around and find only bad teams actually want him, in which case...yikes.
Arizona has been rumored as a landing spot for Rodgers, but, like...why? Jacoby Brissett played decently well down the stretch for Arizona, but the defense ranked 29th in the NFL in points allowed per game, so it didn't matter as the team fell to 3-14. Is Rodgers fixing the defense? Is he making the offense that much better than Brissett did?
At this point in his career, Rodgers needs to be somewhere where the pressure isn't on him, but rather he just has to slide into the lineup and be, like, the 15th-best quarterback in the league. That was enough to make the playoffs in Pittsburgh. It would probably be enough in 2026 in Minnesota or, if Daniel Jones leaves, Indianapolis. It would not be enough in Arizona.
Daniel Jones: Anywhere but Indianapolis
![daniel jones]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_3155,h_1774/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/229/01kj9cbxx1fmgvzxn09b.jpg "daniel jones]")
This one's easy. With Daniel Jones recovering from a torn Achilles, the best thing for him to do is to stick with the team that he just had immense success with. And considering how poor the quarterback play was in Indianapolis after Jones went down, the Indianapolis Colts should be motivated to bring Jones back, even if they have to overpay a bit.
Yes, it's risky, because Jones was pretty bad near the end of his stint with the Giants and while he was enjoying a career-best season with the Colts, it ended with a devastating injury that could cause major regression, but the Colts are kind of backed into a corner here.
This is a good roster, and Jones showed you can win with this roster if you provide good quarterback play. The Colts don't have another option unless they decide to get into the Willis sweepstakes, but with Jones, you at least have evidence of what he can do with this group of players around him, though Alec Pierce will likely land elsewhere in free agency.
And if you're Jones, do you really want to change teams while coming off the Achilles tear? Learning a new system while also recovering from the injury, which will likely keep him out of most offseason activities? It's much easier to just work out a deal to stay with the Colts.
Kyler Murray: Miami Dolphins
What if the Miami Dolphins replace Tua Tagovailoa with a slightly better, right-handed version of Tua Tagovailoa?
Okay, so that characterization isn't fair to Murray, who I'd take 10 times out of 10 over Tagovailoa if I needed a quarterback. However, Miami just feels like an awful landing spot for a guy who could probably help a contender like Minnesota or Pittsburgh.
Miami isn't close to contending, and Murray is probably not a guy who can elevate a team to contender status. I'd love to see him on a roster where he isn't asked to overextend himself, but the Dolphins need to be thinking about a rebuild, not about a quick answer under center.
Plus, there's the whole Bobby Slowik thing. The new Dolphins OC spent two seasons as the Texans offensive coordinator, but was let go after quarterback C.J. Stroud regressed in his second season. If I'm Murray, I'm not sure Slowik is the guy I want to play for, as his stock is low and it kind of feels like the Dolphins promoting him was a bit of a "well, we need someone to call plays" thing. I wouldn't be shocked if the Dolphins are targeted 2027 not just as a chance to draft a QB, but to hire a new OC to work with that future rookie.
Tua Tagovailoa: New York Jets
Of every suggestion in this article, this is the one that feels most likely to happen, IMO. Doesn't Tua to the Jets just make sense? Not from an on-field perspective, but from the perspective of it being a very Jets move.
Tagovailoa has had some big highs in his career, leading the NFL in passing yards in 2023 and completion percentage in 2023, but so much of that feels like it happened around Tagovailoa, not because of him. Like, he had a coach who, despite his shortcomings, is a bit of an offensive genius and was throwing to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
With Hill | Without Hill | |
|---|---|---|
Games | 45 | 33 |
Passing Yards Per Game | 264.1 | 190.4 |
Touchdown Passes Per 17 Games | 31 | 20 |
Maybe Garrett Wilson could be the prime Hill to Tua's, uhh, Tua, but there's no guarantee of that, and more than likely, acquiring Tagovailoa doesn't do anything to fundamentally fix this team.
In fact, Tagovailoa making the Jets slightly better but not too much better might be a big problem. The Jets don't need to get stuck in mediocrity purgatory, winning six games and taking themselves out of the running for a top quarterback in 2027. There's no point in trying to be good in 2026; Dante Moore can't return to school a second time instead of letting you draft him, right?
Ty Simpson: Cleveland Browns
I tried to not repeat teams here, but I'm breaking that rule for the one rookie I want to discuss, Alabama's Ty Simpson.
Viewed as a potential top 10 pick early in the 2025 college season, Simpson struggled down the stretch. Still viewed as the No. 2 quarterback in this class — though only because Moore is no longer in it — Simpson is now looking to be drafted outside the top 20.
The Steelers need a quarterback and pick 21st overall. It seems most people expect Simpson goes there, but what if a Steelers team that's already been recently burned by drafting a quarterback in the latter half of the first round decides to go a different direction there?
Well ... the next team after that with a need at quarterback picks at No. 24, and it's Cleveland, the same team that drafted two quarterbacks last year. The team that might be tempted to do what the Steelers probably would try to avoid: starting Simpson immediately.
Or, Simpson doesn't start immediately, but loses a competition to Sanders, a guy who really struggled as a rookie. That'd be rough for Simpson's psyche, right? Simpson needs time, and he needs structure, and if there's a team unwilling to provide those things, it's Cleveland.