The league is an interesting place. Last season, 58 quarterbacks started a game. Backup quarterbacks are a necessary evil across the league. It’s not the easiest position in football anymore. More and more backups are thrust into the spotlight. Just last season, Sam Darnold, Justin Fields, and Malik Willis helped win games for playoff teams. Other teams went into the tank with three or more starters throughout the season.
Going into OTAs, many teams feel they are in a good spot at the quarterback position. Spoiler alert: most aren’t. Let’s start at the bottom and rank every quarterback situation from starter to backup to “we’re in trouble because (blank) is starting.”
32. New Orleans Saints
Projected Starter: Spencer Rattler
The abrupt retirement of Derek Carr has put the New Orleans Saints' season in a tailspin, and it’s only the week after Memorial Day. The Saints did learn about this in time to draft Tyler Shough in the second round. Shough is an interesting prospect, but we don’t think he’s ready to start games yet. Even though he’s 25 years old, he needs at least a few weeks to understand how to win in the NFL.
This is why we have Spencer Rattler ahead of Shough. Ironically, Rattler is a year younger than Shough, but the Saints have more faith in the current rookie when it comes to the franchise’s future. Rattler was given a few starts last season, and he had mixed results. He had some moments against the Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They also have Jake Haener, but that’s not worth talking about. Basically, this roster is built to get the first-overall pick next year. They might be the future home of Arch Manning, which will be the ultimate irony. The Manning name gained notoriety in New Orleans when Archie Manning did his best to lift up a team that had a fan base wearing bags over their heads.
New Orleans has by far the worst quarterback situation in the league. There have been some bad QB situations, but this might be the worst in the last five years. Shough was a reach in the second round, and Rattler has thrown way too many interceptions already. It’s a rough situation, but if it leads to another Manning in New Orleans, it would be worth it.
31. Pittsburgh Steelers
Projected Stater: Mason Rudolph
Let’s just address the elephant in the room right off the bat: Aaron Rodgers is likely coming to Pittsburgh. He’s hinted that the Steelers are his next team, and the Steelers don’t have the right person in place to usurp his arrival. The Steelers added Mason Rudolph and drafted National Champion Will Howard after sending both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields packing. Rodgers changes their situation, although they wouldn’t go much higher on this list.
We’re judging the Steelers quarterback room as it’s currently constructed, and right now it’s in bad shape. We like the possibilities that Will Howard brings to the table, coming into the NFL with a championship pedigree, but he’s a sixth-round pick. Mike Tomlin’s job might be on the line this season. He can’t put his faith in Howard.
Rudolph was a good soldier when he was in Pittsburgh. He made starts, and he had some success. He took that success, and he got a decent contract in Tennessee, but that only lasted one year. He returned to Pittsburgh, and he’s acting like he is where he belongs.
Still, this is all about Rodgers. If the Steelers aren’t ready for Rodgers, or if they decide he isn’t for them, it’s going to be a hard sell for anyone. If Tomlin gets nine wins from Rudolph and Howard, he deserves a lifetime contract from the Rooney family.
30. Indianapolis Colts
Projected Starter: Anthony Richardson
This situation isn’t bad from a talent standpoint. Both Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones once had the ability to make them superstar quarterbacks. We’re not even talking general starters here. They had superstar ceilings, which is why the Giants and Colts took them in the top 10 in the NFL Draft (top five for Richardson). However, both have zero chance of hitting it at this point.
What’s crazy about saying that about Anthony Richardson is that he’s just 23 years old. There will be quarterbacks in the draft next season who are older than he is. This is a player who showed glimpses of being an insane player in his rookie season, but he got injured every game before a shoulder ailment ended his campaign. One year later, Richardson was one of the most exciting returning starters in the league.
That went so badly last season. He finished with eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions. That wasn’t even the worst part. The Colts benched him for Joe Flacco, he sat himself down in the middle of an important drive because he was tired, he threw some of the worst interceptions you’ve ever seen, and the Colts saw Richardson flush their season down the toilet.
Daniel Jones was embarrassed by the New York Giants last season. They put him in constant positions to fail, and he did. Then, the Giants let the rumor mill go wild. Right after that, they cut him in the middle of the season. He got a big contract this offseason, so nobody is crying for Mr. $14 million. This situation is talented, but it’s just as messy.
29. Cleveland Browns
Projected Starter: Kenny Pickett
It figures that the team who had five quarterbacks start in each of the past two seasons starts training camp with five quarterbacks on the roster. And they are legit quarterbacks. Well, none of them are starter worthy, but they are names for sure!
Let’s start with Deshaun Watson. The Browns would hope they could do anything to get him off the roster. The biggest stain to come to Cleveland has haunted this team for years. This season, he’s coming off a torn Achilles tendon, and it’s most likely that he won’t play a game.
Behind Watson is former first-round pick Kenny Pickett and veteran Joe Flacco. Both are decent backup options, but one of them is probably starting. The other might get cut. There are just too many people in the quarterback room, although if the Browns look at this as a rebuilding year, it might make sense to keep all possible quarterbacks. Pickett might start the season, but we might see yet another season with five starters in Cleveland.
The Browns drafted two very different quarterbacks in the draft. They aren’t that different in skill set. They can both probably play the same system, but Shedeur Sanders was once considered the consensus number-one overall pick before Cam Ward took that spot. He fell all the way to the fifth round. Dillon Gabriel is insanely talented, but he’s considered too small for the position. They will fight for the third-string position, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them both get snaps this season.
28. Las Vegas Raiders
Projected Starter: Geno Smith
This sounds like a condemnation of Geno Smith, but it isn’t. We actually like Geno Smith as a quarterback of this team, but the situation stinks. The Las Vegas Raiders are looking to make moves this season in the AFC West, but who are they better than? Smith doesn’t move the needle that much when the Chiefs, Chargers, and Broncos are your competition.
Plus, Smith had a questionable season last year. He threw 15 interceptions against just 21 touchdowns as he tried to make something out of nothing. The offensive line was atrocious in Seattle, but it’s not much better in Las Vegas. He will be running for his life, and he’s too old for that nonsense.
Aidan O’Connell is still hanging on this roster. After a few years where it was clear he wasn’t fit to be a starter, he’s hanging around as the backup. If Smith goes down, which might be a formality with his age and this protection, O’Connell will once again get his chance. We don’t expect it to go any different that what we’ve already seen.
Cam Miller out of North Dakota State is the team’s third stringer as of today. He comes from a school with a decent quarterback pedigree which includes Carson Wentz and Easton Stick. We’ll see what he can show in training camp.
27. Tennessee Titans
Projected Starter: Cam Ward
It seems that everyone has talked themselves into Cam Ward this year. The number-one overall pick had some questions while at Miami. He could throw a beautiful deep ball, and his stats speak for themselves, but there are questions.
The Hurricanes were a house of cards for most of last season. They constantly snuck away with wins, beating Virginia Tech by four, Cal by one, and Louisville by seven. Ward needed epic comebacks against both Va. Tech and Cal (he was down by multiple touchdowns in the fourth quarter of each game), but his luck ran out at the end of the season. He lost two of his final three regular season games, knocking his team out of the College Football Playoff.
