The first quarterback domino didn’t end up falling. If the Rams and Matthew Stafford had gone through with a divorce (), which felt like a real possibility for a few days as the Raiders and Giants were prepared to offer significant money and draft capital to reel him in, it would’ve caused a chain reaction throughout the league. The Rams might have turned their attention to Aaron Rodgers, or Sam Darnold, or someone else. And that would have changed the options available for the other teams seeking a quarterback.
Instead, Stafford is staying in Los Angeles, leaving quarterback-needy teams looking at a mostly uninspiring quarterback market, both in free agency and in the NFL Draft.
Last year, I predicted how all the quarterback openings would be filled and … didn’t do as terribly as I remembered. Some of my hits: Bears (Caleb Williams), Buccaneers (Baker Mayfield), Falcons (Kirk Cousins), Vikings (Sam Darnold), Patriots (Jacoby Brissett), Giants (Daniel Jones) and Seahawks (Geno Smith). The misses: Broncos (Sam Howell), Steelers (Kenny Pickett and Ryan Tannehill), Raiders (Jayden Daniels) and Commanders (Drake Maye). I also sent J.J. McCarthy to the Giants, Bo Nix to the Patriots and Michael Penix Jr. to the Seahawks.
Last season, I listed nine teams as open for business — and a few more that were on the fence. There are fewer obvious openings in this cycle, and fewer exciting options on the open market too.
The legal tampering period for free agency opens next Monday at noon ET, so this felt like a good time to look ahead and predict what teams will do at quarterback.
Let’s handicap this year’s field by first figuring out how many jobs are open, which jobs might be open, and which teams are already set at starting quarterback. That leaves six teams as open for business: Browns, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers, Titans.
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