We're officially halfway through the 2025 regular season. NFL teams have just over a week to survey the landscape of the league and pull the trigger on any moves ahead of the trade deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 4. And while most of the best players available lie at other positions, well, there's no need quite like the need for a quarterback.
It's a singular position of singular importance, and if you've got a hole there, it doesn't really matter how good you are everywhere else. Plenty of teams that have designs on making a playoff run down the stretch this year could use an upgrade under center. Whether there are enough viable options to go around, however, is another matter. Finding yourself in the position to have to trade for a quarterback midseason reeks of desperation no matter what.
Not all desperation is created equally, though, so we've gone ahead and ranked the plausibly available passers in ascending order of just how desperate a team would have to be to consider acquiring them.
6. Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers
It remains to be seen whether the 49ers would be willing to part with Jones, with uncertainty surrounding the health of Brock Purdy and the fact that he's under contract through 2026 as well. If they do want to get something of value while Jones' stock is at its highest, though, there'd figure to be quite the market for his services given how well he's filled in this year — and how sketchy the rest of the QB market is. (More on that in a bit.)
Despite a loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, Jones has led San Francisco to a 4-2 record across six starts in relief of Purdy this season. He's completed over two-thirds of his passes at over seven yards per attempt, often with a depleted set of pass-catchers around him. We know that he comes with a strictly defined ceiling at this point in his career, but as a gutsy point guard who can at least run a functional offense and keep you afloat, you could do a lot worse.
5. and 4. Russell Wilson/Jameis Winston, New York Giants
Either one of Jaxson Dart's backups might be on the move now that he's fully taken over as QB1 in New York. As for which one you choose, well, that largely depends on what sort of offense you run, what your personnel looks like and what you're looking for.
If you're a defense-first, run-heavy team that wants someone who can take care of the ball and hit the occasional big play, Wilson is your man, even if that's pretty much all he can do at this point in his career. Winston, on the other hand, is all gas and no brakes, someone who's going to come with more than his fair share of negative plays but who can also win you games on the right day and get the most out of a star wide receiver. Neither of them bring Jones' floor, but both are reasonably known quantities that don't immediately represent a white flag if you put enough around them.
3. Shedeur Sanders, Cleveland Browns
OK, OK, hear us out. Yes, it would be flatly insane for the Browns to move on from Sanders just months after drafting him, especially given how shaky Dillon Gabriel has looked in his audition as QB1 and the history of quarterback dysfunction that has followed Cleveland for decades now. Say what you will about all the nonsense surrounding him, but his tape at Colorado speaks for itself and points to someone who deserves a shot at some point.
That being said ... man, the nonsense does seem to grow by the day, doesn't it? The Browns clearly aren't that smitten with Shedeur — they drafted Gabriel before him and didn't pull the trigger until the fifth round, after all — and something has to give in this overcrowded QB room. A trade isn't totally out of the question, and becomes more and more likely with each passing Instagram post.
Which brings us to the question: Is he actually worth trading for? If you're looking to compete in 2025, almost certainly not; Sanders has certain strengths, but he's also a total unknown, and he doesn't bring the physical tools to suggest immediate stardom. If you find yourself in this position, you might as well save your draft capital and pack it up. If you're looking to make a low-stakes bet on the future, though, there's enough here to talk yourself into at least giving him a chance and seeing how it goes for a little while.
2. Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts
We've officially arrived at the portion of the list I like to call "the bottom of the barrel". If you want to watch a four-minute cut-up of Richardson's best throws in the NFL, bite down hard and pray, be my guest. But Daniel Jones' success in Shane Steichen's offense should tell you all you need to know about just how far away Richardson is from being a functional starting quarterback.
Sure, the arm and the physical ability are both impressive. They also don't matter much if you can't do the basic things necessary to keep an offense on schedule, and Richardson hasn't exactly shown an aptitude for putting in the work to get better. At this point, a bet on Richardson is little more than responding to a pink slip by going to buy a Powerball ticket.
1. Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons
In case there somehow existed anyone out there still at least a little curious about Cousins a year further removed from that Achilles injury, let Sunday's spot start against the Miami Dolphins serve as the last word. Facing a defense that ranked among the league's worst, Cousins couldn't get the Atlanta offense out of neutral all day, producing 10 points on 21-of-31 passing for 173 yards — numbers that only reached respectability after a fourth quarter's worth of garbage time.
Cousins is a complete statue in the pocket, too limited to access huge chunks of the playbook at this point in his career, and his arm has fallen off a cliff with age. He can't do the things he used to, and he doesn't have anything else to fall back on; he also has failed to adjust to who he is now, which leads to the ball being put in harm's way far more often than you'd like. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?