This might not be the best offseason to need a quarterback.
There’s only one quarterback (Fernando Mendoza) in the NFL Draft with a universal first-round grade. The top free agent is either coming off a torn Achilles (Daniel Jones, transition-tagged by the Colts) or has started six career games (Malik Willis). There are intriguing, young backup quarterbacks (Mac Jones, Tanner McKee) stuck on teams demanding a hefty trade price. There are once-successful veterans on teams desperate to get rid of them (Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa), and there’s a 42-year-old who loves darkness (Aaron Rodgers).
Many of the league’s bad teams are looking toward the 2027 draft class. If that’s true, let’s call this the Year of the Stopgap.
In 2024, I had nine teams listed as “Open for business” and a few more on the fence. Last year, I had six as “Open for business” and four others that might be. The openings in this cycle feel much more obvious than in past years — even if the options to fill them are not particularly exciting.
This is the third year I’m taking a dive into predicting who the league’s starting quarterbacks will be. I had a good year in 2024. Last year, not so much.
This year, there’s a decent chance many of the teams with openings will have them again in 2027.
The legal tampering period for free agency opens Monday at noon ET. Let’s handicap this year’s field by figuring out how many jobs are definitely open, which jobs might be open, which teams are already set at starting quarterback — and what realistic options are out there for teams that need a new one.
A look at how every NFL team stacks up in terms of their starting QB spot.
That leaves eight teams Open for Business:
Let’s run through the starting-caliber — or fringe starting-caliber — quarterbacks who could be available this offseason.
Browns: Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, Dillon Gabriel and Justin Fields
A free-for-all! It feels like the Browns are headed this way, a room filled with three returning options in Sanders, Watson and Gabriel — plus another one (or two) added to the room for good measure and good (is that the right word?) competition.
Watson is healthy, and the Browns have no choice but to keep him around because of his contract. Browns coach Todd Monken said this about Watson, indicating he’ll have a real shot to win the job: “Anytime that you have a player that at one time has exhibited that skill set at an elite level, you’re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
There are fans who believe in Sanders, and he did show some flashes in his rookie season, but he was highly inconsistent and the numbers don’t look great. Sanders threw seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions and ranked 41st of 42 eligible quarterbacks in EPA per attempt (only Jets undrafted rookie Brady Cook was worse).
Gabriel threw seven touchdowns and two interceptions but also ranked 40th in EPA per attempt and his off-target throw percentage (13.5 percent) ranked 35th. He does not look like a starting-caliber quarterback.
That’s not to say Fields is looking that way these days either. After playing perhaps the best he has in his Jets debut against the Steelers, he struggled immensely, passing for fewer than 100 yards four times. By the end of the season, Fields seemed scared to throw the ball and struggled to work through his progressions. But there is talent — and his mobility is undoubtedly a weapon, something that few are better at weaponizing than Monken. Fields won’t cost much at this point and, as an added bonus, he’s a beloved figure in Ohio thanks to his time as a Buckeye.
In terms of the NFL Draft, keep an eye on Miami’s Carson Beck, whom Monken coached at Georgia.
Cardinals: Malik Willis and Jacoby Brissett
The Cardinals and Dolphins feel like the favorites for Willis, and there is a fair argument that Arizona has more to offer than Miami. The Cardinals should have more cap space than Miami — they have $31 million in cap space now, and they can counteract the approximately $2 million they'll lose after releasing Kyler Murray by parting ways with James Conner and others. Willis is likely going to command in the range of $25 million to $30 million a year, and he’s the best young option for the Cardinals heading into a draft class not exactly replete with potential franchise QBs beyond Mendoza.
The supporting cast in Arizona is solid with tight end Trey McBride, wide receivers Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr., plus an OK offensive line — it ranked 21st in pass block win rate and 15th in run block win rate in 2025.
Willis was at his best with Matt LaFleur coaching him in Green Bay, where Cardinals offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was also on staff. And so Cardinals first-year coach Mike LaFleur — Matt's brother, who counts himself as part of both the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan coaching trees — has plenty of resources to figure out how to put Willis in position to succeed. As an added bonus, general manager Monti Ossenfort was in the Titans front office when Tennessee drafted Willis in 2022 and said this about him at the combine:
“Malik did a great job when he went in there for Green Bay this year,” Ossenfort said. “I was with Malik for a short time there in Tennessee, he had a great college career coming out. So he's one of the quarterbacks that's available. We'll evaluate all our options, whether it's free agency, the draft, with that position, with every position. And we'll be prepared to do what's best for the team.”
Brissett might garner trade interest, but there are worse options than keeping him around as the No. 2 quarterback. If they move on, look for Jimmy Garoppolo to get a look — he and LaFleur have a close relationship from their time together with the Rams and 49ers.
Colts: Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor
The Colts are doing everything they can to bring Jones back and have used the transition tag to help retain him. Even coming off a torn Achilles, he’s likely going to get a significant new contract — if he doesn't, he would still earn nearly $38 million on the transition tag's one-year tender. It’s unclear yet if he’ll be ready for Week 1, so expect Indianapolis to find a workable stopgap solution to carry the load — and to step in if Jones gets hurt again.
Maybe that will be Riley Leonard; he showed some flashes at the end of last season, and the coaching staff seems fond of him. But someone like Taylor would make some sense as a veteran backup to bring into the room. On top of being one of the most well-liked locker-room guys in the NFL, Taylor is a capable quarterback when called upon (21st in EPA per attempt, per TruMedia, among QBs with at least 300 pass attempts over the last four years), and he and Shane Steichen crossed paths with the Chargers in 2020.
Taylor does have some durability concerns, but it helps to have Leonard in the fold already, too. Leonard was impressive in the season finale against the Texans: 270 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and one rushing touchdown. As an added bonus: Taylor has been Jones’ backup before, with the Giants in 2022 and 2023.
The Dolphins have been tied to Willis most often, but I’m not as convinced they’re going to splurge at quarterback in the first season of the Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley era. They are in the process of tearing things down to create more cap flexibility.
I’d expect them to invest in the offensive line and try to build a better environment for whoever their long-term answer is at quarterback. It feels more likely right now that they shop for quarterbacks who are cost-effective — and Willis will likely command in the $25 million to $30 million per season range, as mentioned.
It won’t be cheap to acquire him (the buzz is that the 49ers want a second-round pick plus more in any trade), but financially it would be inexpensive. Jones has a base salary of $1.4 million, and only $1 million of that is guaranteed.
He is still only 27 and showed last year in San Francisco that he can thrive in the right environment: 69.6 percent completions, 13 touchdowns, seven interceptions — he ranked ninth among qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per attempt. The 49ers have insisted they have no plans to trade him and that might be true, but the Dolphins have enough assets to make it work without hamstringing themselves. (I also am skeptical they’d really go into the season with Quinn Ewers as their starter.)
As a bonus: offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik comes from the Kyle Shanahan tree, which should make things easier for Jones coming to Miami. I also considered Murray here — he won’t cost much since the Cardinals will still be paying him.
As for a trade involving Jones: Miami owns a second-round pick (No. 43), three third-round picks (Nos. 75, 87 and 90), a fourth-round pick (No. 111) and all of their own picks in 2027.
I’d also expect the Dolphins to draft a quarterback at some point. Sullivan spoke at the combine about wanting to draft one every year, if not every other year. Local fans might not be mad if they added Miami’s Carson Beck into the fold.
Falcons: Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa
Penix is recovering from a partially torn ACL suffered in November, which complicates the Falcons’ offseason plans. The new regime — president Matt Ryan, GM Ian Cunningham and head coach Kevin Stefanski — have to figure out: 1) How healthy Penix will be for the start of the season; 2) Whether they’ve seen enough from him (unlikely) in two seasons to make him the no-doubt starter; and 3) What level of competition they want to bring in.
Of the potentially available options, Tagovailoa is especially intriguing for the Falcons. He’s either going to be outright released by the Dolphins or traded in some sort of deal where they eat some of his salary and likely give another team a draft pick to take Tagovailoa off their hands. More likely, it’s the free agent route — and so Tagovailoa will come cheaply contract-wise.
Tagovailoa has shown enough in his career for Stefanski to believe he can get the most out of him, even if he was bad last season in Miami: 30th in EPA per dropback (minimum 100 pass attempts) with 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, eventually getting benched for Ewers.
Both Tagovailoa and Penix are left-handed, simplifying things for the rest of the offense should they flip-flop. And for anyone who might be worried about Tagovailoa’s ability to play outside of the sunny state of Florida, his home games in Atlanta would be inside a dome. Tagovailoa is at his best when he’s surrounded by playmakers (shocking, I know), which the Falcons have with Drake London, Bijan Robinson and, assuming he returns, Kyle Pitts (Atlanta has franchise-tagged the tight end). Plus, the Falcons ranked 14th in pass block win rate in 2025 and allowed the fourth-fewest sacks in the NFL.
Tagovailoa is a perfectly capable stopgap solution, if not capable of taking over full-time as the starter in 2026 if Penix isn’t the answer.
