5 depressing NFL teams that are bad enough to target Dylan Raiola years ahead of time

While we still need to see star college quarterbacks like Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers, Shedeur Sanders, Nico Iamaleava and Arch Manning drafted before him, it appears as though Dylan Raiola can really play. Sure, his Nebraska Cornhuskers may have lost at home to what looks to be a very strong Illinois Fighting Illini team, Raiola went toe-to-toe with Luke Altmyer all night long into overtime in Lincoln.

We are years away from Raiola even being draft-eligible (he is a true freshman after all), but we are seeing glimpses of why he was so sought-after coming out of high school. He is playing at his father's alma mater—and playing very well. Wearing the same Nebraska uniform his legendary father Dominic starred in for Frank Solich is nothing to sneeze at. Then again, we need to see this through.

So what I want to do today is take a look much further down the NFL pipeline, projecting which teams are going to be bad enough by the time they are on the clock in either the 2027 or 2028 NFL Draft to be picking Raiola. Admittedly, this is so hard because we need to see three football seasons unfold before our eyes, both at the college and professional levels. For now, here is where my head is at.

5. Indianapolis Colts

No, I don't trust Anthony Richardson to be the quarterback of the future for the Indianapolis Colts, and you shouldn't either. He was more of an idea of a quarterback playing for Florida. The Gators were painfully mediocre in his less-than-two-dozen starts for them. He played in like four games for the Colts last year. He is immensely talented, but he is a bit injury-prone. Plus, he said the NFL was easy...

I think by the time Raiola is able to turn pro, the Chris Ballard era of Colts football—one that has not resulted in a single division title to date—will be over with and done. While there is a lot to like about Shane Steichen as a head coach, keep in mind that Jim Irsay still owns this team. Incredibly impulsive, who knows where the Colts will be heading into the 2027 or 2028 NFL Drafts? Would Raiola go there?

I suspect the allure of what Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck did in Indianapolis will still be fresh in the Raiolas' minds. If the Colts go something like 4-13 or worse in the season leading up to Raiola being able to turn pro, I would not be the least bit shocked if Indianapolis moved heaven and earth to draft him. Again, this is all contingent on Richardson failing and Irsay finally parting ways with Ballard.

The Colts may be in a bad spot now, but I think there is still some hope regarding Richardson's game.

4. Tennessee Titans

The reason I have the AFC South rival Tennessee Titans over the Indianapolis Colts ever so slightly in the so-called race for Dylan Raiola is this: I have a sneaking suspicion that the Titans will be more inclined to aggressively attack the quarterback position between now and when Raiola comes out in the next few years than their division rival. Simply put, the Titans don't have an Anthony Richardson.

What Brian Callahan needs to do is figure out if Will Levis can really play this season. If he can, then that gives the Titans a bit more runway to truly evaluate him for the next two years beyond this one. But if he cannot, then Tennessee would have to be near the front of the line to draft either Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers or Shedeur Sanders inside of the top 10, right? Well, what if any of them bomb?

And that right there is why Raiola could still be in play even if the Titans take a quarterback inside of the top-10 next spring. It has become en vogue for NFL teams to pivot off their first-round quarterback after two, or three, seasons if he cannot make it work. Look no further than Josh Rosen, Kenny Pickett, Desmond Ridder, Mac Jones and even Justin Fields. No quarterback is bullet-proof.

I may really like Callahan's upside as an NFL head coach, but he has to get the right quarterback soon.

3. Carolina Panthers

Charlotte, North Carolina, is the saddest place on Earth when it comes to watching a football game. The Carolina Panthers have been various shades of catastrophic under David Tepper's ownership. They traded up from No. 9 to No. 1 to draft Bryce Young over C.J. Stroud two years ago. And 19 games into his NFL career, Young has been benched in favor of Andy Dalton. Playmakers on three!

Right now, I would not wish the Panthers upon anyone. While I can only hope that head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan can come up with a plan to build a successful team in spie to Tepper's never-ending tampering, I cannot say for certain they will even be employed by the time Dylan Raiola declares for a future NFL Draft. Then again, Carolina may still be at rock bottom in 2027.

It may be popular to kick a team while they are down, but weren't we doing this sort of thing with the Houston Texans not even two years ago? How big of a sad bag of crap where the Cincinnati Bengals before they drafted Joe Burrow? Sometimes, all it takes is one player to change the narrative. That player might be someone coming out this spring, but it might even be Raiola come 2027 or in 2028.

I can't for the life of me think of an NFL team that is in more of a hopeless situation than the Panthers.

2. Denver Broncos

Of all the teams that could conceivably draft Dylan Raiola near the top of the 2027 or 2028 NFL Draft, I think the Denver Broncos line up the best. This would require Bo Nix failing, George Paton getting fired and Sean Payton washing out of the league. Denver has been in the midst of its worst run as a professional franchise in the wake of Peyton Manning riding off into the sunset after Super Bowl 50.

Nix is going to get this year, all of next, and probably a good bit of the 2027 NFL season before the Broncos pull the plug on the experiment. Truth be told, I think there is a way it works out for him, but I don't think he is ever going to live up to the draft hype of being a former No. 12 overall selection. More importantly, the Broncos may need to get Payton (and Paton) out of the building first.

Simply put, the timing could be perfect for the Broncos to draft Raiola, should he continue to get better as a college football star, while the current iteration of Denver could completely collapse internally. In time, newish Broncos ownership will settle into its role. That could help smooth some things out after a very strange and long-drawn-out transition of power.

Denver is now one of the worst-run organizations in football, and I don't see that changing right away.

1. Los Angeles Rams

Admittedly, this is the first team I thought of for Dylan Raiola to potentially land on, and I am running with it. For as long as Sean McVay remains interested in coaching at the game's highest level, I do not see the Los Angeles Rams falling off a cliff. The only problem is Matthew Stafford may have about one or two good years left in the tank. After that, the Rams don't have any succession plan in place.

For as much as I wanted it to be Stetson Bennett IV, I no longer see that happening. As far as using Jimmy Garoppolo as a bridge, he is more likely to be working in television than he is to be quarterbacking this team in 2026 and 2027. For a handful of reasons, I can sense multiple scenarios where a team like the Rams are in position to draft the No. 1 player on the board in 2027 or 2028.

Will McVay still be there? Potentially, but even if that is not the case, I trust ownership to get a worthy successor to his borderline hall-of-fame coach. Stan Kroenke may still be calling the shots, or it may be his son Josh pulling the strings. After all, he has overseen the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche win championships just slightly more recently than the Rams. Ownership matters here!

Right this instant, the Rams taking Raiola No. 1 overall in the 2027 or 2028 NFL Draft sounds amazing!