NFL QB Situations – Part 2
By Keith Myers
To truly get a feel for what the market looks like, I decided to go through the league, team by team, and examine every team’s QB situation one at a time. Yesterday we went through all the teams that appear to be set at QB and aren’t in the market, as least not right now anyways, for a starting QB.
Today we’re going to look at the rest of the teams. For the sake of categorizing their level of need, and for my own amusement, I’ve split them into 3 categories.
Completely Desperate
Cleveland – ???
Miami – ???
Washington DC – ???
All 3 of these teams currently sit without a starting QB, and must find one as soon as possible. And no, I don’t believe that Grossman or Beck could be starting in Washing next season. I also think that Colt McCoy is done in Cleveland, nor are the dolphins going to go forward with Matt Moore. All 3 of these teams are going to be very aggressive in searching for their next QB.
It should also be noted that these are the 3 teams most strongly associated with any available QB. Any time someone talks about Matt Flynn, or Peyton Manning or David Garrard, at least 1 of these 3 teams come up.
Not Quite Desperate
Seattle – Tarvaris Jackson
Arizona – Kevin Kolb
Kansas City – Matt Cassell
Jacksonville – Blaine Gabbert
This next group all have starters, but none of them are particularly good. It’s also not true that all 4 of these teams could go into 2012 without a different starting QB on their roster. None of these franchise need to panic the way those in the previous category do, but that doesn’t mean that a new QB isn’t on the top of their offseason priority list.
The most interesting inclusion in this list is the Jaguars. Jacksonville spent a first round pick last season on Gabbert, and then turned over the reigns to him in just week 3 of the season. The problem is that Gabbert looked dreadful all season, and never showed any signs of improvement. It seems very likely that, given the opportunity, the Jags would be more than happy to give Gabbert the Jimmy Clausen treatment and replace him after just one year.
Needing an Upgrade
NY Jets – Mark Sanchez
Buffalo – Ryan Fitzpatrick
Denver – Tim Tebow
This last group is those that appear to have a starting QB, but secretly (or not so secretly) would love to have a better one.
For instance, there isn’t a sane and knowledgeable football mind in the world who honestly thinks that Tim Tebow is the long term answer in Denver. Elway and Fox have been forced to name Tebow as the starter entering training camp in order to placate their fan base, but I’d be shocked if the Broncos didn’t spend middle round pick on a Kirk Cousins or Nick Foles type QB project to develop and be ready to lead them a year from now.
The situation in New York is similar. Sanchez is the guy, but he’s proven to be fairly average NFL player and isn’t likely to ever lead a team to Super Bowl. Rex and the rest of the Jets talk up Sanchez, but you know that they’d love to grab an upgrade at the position if the opportunity presented itself.