With Super Bowl LX in the books and the last of the league’s coaching vacancies filled, the next major period of NFL drama is the quarterback carousel. While surprises could always push this number higher, it appears that nine of the league’s 32 teams have real uncertainty at the game’s most important position heading into 2026. These situations range from reasonably hopeful to continually depressing.
But in a quarterback-light draft class that could yield anywhere between zero and three NFL starters, where these teams will find their Week 1 QBs is a matter of mystery and creativity. These are the Nine Worst NFL QB Situations Right Now and How to Solve Them.
Las Vegas Raiders
Where it Stands: The Raiders’ QB room is—pardon the pun—a black hole. Geno Smith will be 36, coming off the worst season of his career. Kenny Pickett is unplayable. But there’s hope in the form of the No. 1 overall pick, which the Raiders should probably spend on the only QB in the 2026 class who is likelier than not to be a quality NFL starter. If Fernando Mendoza can win a lot of games at Cal and then go 16-0 at Indiana, he can make the Raiders respectable, right?
Best Case for 2026: The Raiders amicably part with Smith (perhaps with a big salary cap charge), draft Mendoza, and charge into their future. New coach Klint Kubiak, fresh off helping Sam Darnold win a Super Bowl with the Seahawks, turns out to be an ideal tutor for the first pick.
Worst Case: The Raiders decide not to pick Mendoza and submit to another year of whatever this is, then focus on the 2027 draft. That might work, but how many No. 1 picks does a team expect to get in a row?
New York Jets
Where it Stands: Well, it isn’t good. Justin Fields will always be a little more intriguing than his bad NFL results would indicate, but if there’s upside there, the Jets aren’t going to uncover it. There isn’t another workable option on the roster.
Best Case for 2026: The Raiders pass on Mendoza, giving the Jets a crack at him. Absent that shocker, the Jets trade back in the first round, accumulate more draft capital, and then take a shot on Alabama’s Ty Simpson or (if he doesn’t secure a sixth year of college eligibility) Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss. who’s small but was very productive in his one year in the SEC and also seems to have top-end leadership traits. Chambliss then becomes a medium-term developmental project.
Worst Case: Fields returns as the starter, plays slightly better than he did in 2025 but still not well, and the Jets find themselves boxed out of the top handful of picks in a 2027 draft that should include Arch Manning, Dante Moore, and at least two or three other first-round-worthy passers.
Arizona Cardinals
Where it Stands: The Cardinals and Kyler Murray are probably ready for a divorce. It will require some mathematical engineering given Murray’s contract, but Murray will probably play somewhere else next year, leaving Arizona to start fresh after seven mostly mediocre years.
Best Case for 2026: The Cardinals seem like a sensible team to back up the Brinks truck for Malik Willis, the Green Bay backup who’s about to command a big contract. They could also pursue the same trade-down strategy that might work for the Jets.
Worst Case: The Cardinals and Murray remain stuck with each other for another year and do a bit better than last year’s 3-14, costing themselves draft real estate in ‘27.
Cleveland Browns
Where it Stands: The Browns have two 2025 draftees, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Both played as rookies, neither well. Deshaun Watson's albatross contract remains on Cleveland's books, but his days as a productive player are long over.
Best Case for 2026: The Browns ride with some combination of Sanders and Gabriel, who reward their faith by being terrible and giving Cleveland the No. 1 pick in 2027. This comes at the cost of wasting yet another year of Myles Garrett’s prime, but the Browns have no chance of winning the AFC North next year and would be wise to position themselves well in the March for Arch. The Browns could also take a crack at the Willis sweepstakes if they’re not willing to sacrifice another Garrett season.
Worst Case: The Browns get a wild idea and trade for Murray or Tua Tagovailoa. Neither is likely to be the future, but both are expensive and could be good enough to obstruct a bottoming-out.
Miami Dolphins
Where it Stands: The Dolphins are surely eager to offload Tagovailoa, who got benched late last season, carries a big contract, and is not a credible starter for a team with contending aspirations. Backup Quinn Ewers could play for a season while the Dolphins set their sights on the 2027 draft. The Dolphins have acknowledged that they have lots of work in front of them to figure out the position.
Best Case for 2026: Miami gets rid of Tagovailoa, minimizes the contractual pain in the process, and gives the keys to Ewers. The second-year man out of Texas isn’t great, but he develops nicely under new offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, establishing himself as either a nice backup or a trade chip before Miami takes a shot at one of the 2027 rookies. (Willis probably does not make sense here because of all of the dead cap money the Dolphins would need to take on in order to dump Tagovailoa.)
Worst Case: The Dolphins do not find a reasonable way to ditch Tagovailoa’s contract, and he leads the team to a 2027 pick that falls somewhere around this year’s No. 11. Dolphins fans have to sit through multiple additional seasons of their quarterback occasionally looking functional on run/pass options but failing to take any serious strides forward.
Minnesota Vikings
Where it Stands: J.J. McCarthy remains the nominal starter, but nobody feels that good about it. The 2024 first-round pick missed his rookie season with a torn meniscus and watched from the sidelines as Sam Darnold revived his career. The Vikings picked McCarthy over Darnold for 2025, then watched McCarthy get hurt and play poorly while Darnold won a Super Bowl in Seattle. McCarthy was hard to watch at points, but the Vikings aren’t moving on—yet. He cost them the No. 10 pick two years ago and has been injured often enough that Minnesota might wonder if he has more to offer. An ongoing general manager changeover (but not a head coach swap) is another variable.
Best Case for 2026: McCarthy has one of the great offseasons of all time, earns the trust of coach Kevin O’Connell, and finally has a breakthrough. The decision to let Darnold walk after 2024 shifts from its current status (unmitigated disaster) to a painful but necessary decision in service of a franchise QB’s long-term development.
Worst Case: McCarthy flounders or gets hurt for the third time in three years but doesn’t quite lose the job, leaving Minnesota in another suspended state where it’s not quite clear how the organization feels about McCarthy or who should be the starter in any given week. O’Connell is too good of a coach to facilitate a tank. The Vikings have to figure this all out from scratch in a year.
Indianapolis Colts
Where it Stands: The Colts have decisions to make. After a bizarre few weeks of Philip Rivers, they’ll have to decide whether to pay up for Daniel Jones, who was a delightful surprise as a 28-year-old before tearing his right Achilles tendon in December. He should return sometime in 2026. The Colts also have 2023 first-round pick Anthony Richardson Sr., who’s an obvious change-of-scenery candidate after Indianapolis soured on him. Also, 2025 sixth-rounder Riley Leonard performed nicely when he got a start in Week 18. It’s unlikely he’s a long-term starter but probably not impossible.
Best case for 2026: The Colts re-sign Jones, who heals well and then demonstrates that a nice 13-game stretch was the sign of a drastically improved quarterback. Leonard plays well early in the season while Jones rehabs. The Colts enter 2027 with not one playable QB, but two.
Worst case: The Colts re-sign Jones, but he doesn’t heal well. Then he plays poorly and cannot get back on track. Now, Indy is stuck with a nine-figure contract for a non-starter. The team has to eat a ton of dead cap money to move on from this mess sometime between 2027 and 2029.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Where it Stands: The conventional wisdom had been that Aaron Rodgers would retire after the season. That became even more likely when Mike Tomlin resigned as head coach. But the Steelers’ decision to replace Tomlin with Rodgers’ old Packers coach, Mike McCarthy, could bring a 22nd NFL season into play for the QB who turns 43 next season. The Steelers also have 2025 sixth-round pick and Ohio State national champion Will Howard, whom McCarthy has praised. Probably just talk, but we’ll see.
Best Case for 2026: Best case? Rodgers retires, and Howard turns out to be a promising developmental project who steps in as the starter, plays passably, and invites real hope that he’s the man going forward.
Worst Case: Rodgers returns, and his body falls apart. Howard plays a few games while the old man rehabs and looks like a deer in the headlights. The Steelers win between seven and 10 games, remaining in purgatory and denying themselves a premium draft pick for 2027.
Atlanta Falcons
Where it Stands: The Falcons will reportedly release Kirk Cousins before the league year begins, leaving Michael Penix Jr. without any real company in the QB room for the moment. Penix added to his long injury history in November after tearing his ACL. He aims to be ready in Week 1, but the Falcons will be in the market for a dependable backup who could step in for a while as a starter. The club doesn’t have a 2026 first-round pick.
Best Case for 2026: Penix is actually healthy by Week 1 and continues to improve, as he’d been doing over the first nine games of 2025. New “President of Football” Matt Ryan and head coach Kevin Stefanski live up to their reputations as a great QB and QB developer and guide Penix wisely. He doesn’t get hurt again, and by this time in 2027, it’s clear Atlanta has its QB for the next decade.
Worst Case: Penix has a hard time coming back from his latest serious injury, never quite gets on the right developmental path, and the Falcons restart this whole process in the 2027 draft.